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Real-time monitoring of high-power fibre-laser cutting for different types of materials

1Uğur Karanfil, 2Uğur Yalçın

1Department of R&D, Durmazlar, Electrical-Electronic Engineering Department,   Bursa Uludag University, 16059 Bursa, Turkey
2Electrical-Electronic Engineering Department, Bursa Uludag University,  16059 Nilufer, Bursa, Turkey; E-mail: uyalcin@uludag.edu.tr 
 

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Abstract. Changes in gas pressure or cutting-head focus, as well as material warming can usually occur during metals processing, thus imposing insufficient quality of the resulting materials. These problems imply quality deterioration for both laser welding and laser cutting and cause the losses in terms of both time and cost. The primary aim of the present study is to solve these problems with special software. We discuss the effects of laser power, nozzle type, cutting speed and assisting-gas pressure on the quality characteristics of cut materials. Piercing and cutting processes are experimentally performed on the samples of stainless steel, aluminium and mild steel with the thicknesses 8, 12 and 20 mm, respectively. For each of these materials, we determine experimentally ‘decision times’ and analog-voltage thresholds corresponding to the material-surface temperature or the light intensity and then incorporate these parameters into the algorithm. The tests have demonstrated that our monitoring-based system is more successful than the standard metals-processing systems. 

Keywords: materials processing, fibre lasers, laser cutting, laser piercing, cutting parameter

UDC: 621.9.02+535.8
Ukr. J. Phys. Opt. 20 60-72
doi: 10.3116/16091833/20/2/72/2019 
Received: 13.01.2019

Анотація. Зазвичай під час обробки металів мають місце зміна тиску газу або фокусу ріжучої головки, а також нагрівання матеріалу, що призводить до недостатньої якості отриманих матеріалів. Ці проблеми спричиняють погіршення якості лазерного зварювання і лазерного різання, а також викликають втрати часу і коштів. Основна мета цього дослідження – розв’язання цих проблем за допомогою спеціального програмного забезпечення. Нами розглянуто вплив потужності лазера, типу сопла, швидкості різання і тиску допоміжного газу на характеристики якості розрізаних матеріалів. Процеси свердління та різання здійснено експериментально на зразках з нержавіючої сталі, алюмінію і м’якої сталі відповідно з товщинами 8, 12 і 20 мм. Для кожного з цих матеріалів експериментально визначено «часи рішення» і пороги аналогової напруги, які відповідають температурі поверхні матеріалу або інтенсивності світла, а потім включено ці параметри в алгоритм. Тести продемонстрували, що така система моніторингу успішніша за стандартні системи обробки металів
 
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