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2020
Journal Article
Titel
Focus shift control of a novel 30 kW laser remote scanner for large-scale industrial sheet and plate metal applications
Abstract
To overcome current limitations in laser remote processing of large-scale sheet and plate metal applications, an automated laser remote scanner (LRS) with a 30 kW laser power has been developed. Due to the high laser power, an unacceptable focus shift occurs at the processing location, mainly generated by the fused silica optics. A computationally efficient real-time focus shift compensation and control of the focus position have been investigated and are presented. In the first section, the 30 kW LRS concept is briefly introduced. Section two explains the focus shift effect and presents its impact on manufacturing scenarios in welding and cutting. The third section highlights significant effects accounted for: thermo-optical, stress-optical, geometric, and ambient. A set of simulated data of temperature, refractive index, and focus shift profiles have been generated in section four and model the performance of the 30 kW LRS. The results are discussed and a summary is given.