Page 168 - Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials
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Automated laser cutting of textile materials 155
Fig. 10.3 Laser beam guidance system in a gantry laser cutter.
The gantry laser systems are used to process wide range of different thickness
and size materials. They are good to process wide materials and large-cut compo-
nents and a large number of small-size components that are joined in a matrix to
process them one by one in rows or columns. Gantry laser systems can be supple-
mented with different automation elements, thus ensuring very high cutting pre-
cision, higher than using galvanometer laser systems. However, the design of the
gantry system limits cutting speed. It is much lower than using galvanometer laser
cutting systems.
To raise work productivity, gantry laser systems may be equipped with different
types of material handling equipment, such as rotary tables, shuttle tables, and addi-
tional take-off tables.
10.2.2.2 Galvanometer laser systems
Galvanometer (galvo) laser systems are based on moving mirror technology. The laser
beam is delivered by rotating mirrors instead of a gantry system. Galvanometers are
motors that move the mirrors and with it direct the laser beam in different directions.
There are two of these motors on a typical galvo-driven laser system. One motor con-
trols the movement of one mirror for the X-axis, and the other controls the move-
ment of the other mirror for the Y-axis (see Fig. 10.4). A special flat-field lens allows
the beam to be delivered perpendicular to the surface of the processed material. The
small adjustments in mirror angles take very little time making cutting process very
quick. Galvo-driven laser systems are several times faster than gantry laser systems.
However, constant changes of cutting angles result in different kerf edges.
Because of the specific design of the galvanometer laser cutting systems, their work
area is fixed and limited in size – approximately up to 220 mm in diameter. This is the
reason why the galvo laser systems are used to process relatively small-size material
components. The number of parts fixed on the work surface and the efficiency of on-
and off-loading processes significantly impact the productivity of the work process.
It can be raised using additional material handling equipment, such as rotary tables,