Apparatus and method for making laser sources and laser platforms interchangeable and interfaceable
US6424670B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 17, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jul 23, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 17, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S3/025
- WIPO fieldMachine tools
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
The beam path [80] of a laser source [10] is first pre-aligned to a predetermined reference, and then the optical axis [90] of the beam delivery system [40, 50] of a laser material processing platform [20] is pre-aligned to the pre-aligned beam path of the laser source such that the two coincide. If the laser beam [80] is invisible, a laser simulator [72] having a visible pre-aligned beam may be used instead. When every laser source and every laser material processing platform [20] in a predetermined population thereof are pre-aligned in this manner, then any one of the laser sources and any one of the laser material processing platforms in the population may be interchanged for any one of its kind in the population and interfaced with any one of the other kind in the population to form a laser material processing system without any additional alignment requirement during or after the interfacing operation and the laser beam paths [80] and beam delivery system optical axes [90] will be automatically aligned with each other after any laser source in the line is combined with any laser material processing platform in the line.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.