subject: Laser Processing Applications In The Mold Industry - Laser Processing - Machine Tool Industry [print this page] With the development of science and technology, and social needs of the diverse, more competitive products, replacement cycle is getting shorter. The requirement of not only the requirements of the market as soon as possible to design new products, but also in the shortest possible time to produce prototypes to conduct performance testing and modification of the final forming shape products. In traditional manufacturing systems, requires a lot of mold design, manufacture and commissioning work, high cost, long period, can not meet the rapid changes in the market. In order to improve R & D and production speed, quickly and accurately to produce high-quality, low-cost molds and products, can make quick response to market changes, people made a lot of research and exploration work. With the falling prices of industrial lasers and industrial laser processing technologies become more sophisticated, to mold manufacturing and product production process has brought significant changes. This paper introduces the industrial processing lasers, and laser in mold making, mold surface laser hardening and alternative, laser die repair, mold and other aspects of laser cleaning are introduced and analyzed.
Industrial processing lasers Present, industrial lasers used in laser processing are two major categories: solid-state lasers and gas lasers. Among them, solid-state laser with Nd: YAG laser as the representative; and gas lasers CO 2 Laser as the representative. With laser technology, now people are starting to use some processing power applications high-power fiber lasers and semiconductor lasers.
1) Nd: YAG laser Nd: YAG laser material for the solid-state laser work Nd: YAG rod, the laser wavelength of 1.06 m. As the kind of low conversion efficiency of laser lasers, YAG rod by both volume and thermal conductivity limits, the laser output average power is not high. However, Nd: YAG laser Q switching by compression of laser output pulse width, pulse mode work in order to obtain a high peak power (108W), applies to require high peak power of laser processing applications; its another major advantage is transmitted through optical fiber, optical transmission to avoid the complexity of the design of production, in the three-dimensional processing is very useful. In addition, the third harmonic technique can also be converted to the laser wavelength of 355nm (ultraviolet), laser technology has been applied to three-dimensional form.
2) CO 2 Laser CO 2 Laser material for the CO laser work 2 Mixed gas, the main application of laser wavelength of 10.6 m. As the kind of high laser conversion efficiency of laser, while the heat generated by laser work can be quickly passed by convection or diffusion to the laser gain region, the average power of the laser output can be a very high level (10,000 watts or more) to meet high-power laser processing requirements.
Home and abroad for high-power CO laser processing 2 Lasers, mainly cross-flow, axial flow laser. cross-flow lasers: transverse flow laser beam quality is not good for multi-mode output, mainly for heat treatment and welding. China now can produce all kinds of high-power transverse flow CO 2 Laser series, which can meet the domestic demand for laser heat treatment and welding. laser axial: axial laser beam quality is better, for the fundamental mode or quasi-fundamental mode output, mainly for Laser Cutting And welding, laser cutting equipment market in China mainly occupied by foreign axial flow laser. Although the number of laser manufacturers in foreign axial laser on a lot of work to do, but needs to import the major components, prices drop substantially difficult, with low coverage.
Technology Development Co., Ltd. Wuhan bleomycin developed a swirl CO 2 Laser, shown in Figure 1, to a new way of rotating gas flow to swirl CO 2 Laser also has an axial CO 2 Laser beam quality and transverse flow CO 2 Laser low cost and small size advantages. The promotion of industrial application of laser processing, laser processing industry in China will be the development and play a positive role in promoting universal access.
Figure 1. Wuhan bleomycin Technology Development Co., Ltd.
500W swirl CO 2 Laser Mold Laser Manufacturing 1) indirectly into the model of laser technology
three-dimensional optical form (Stereo LithographyApparatus, referred to as SLA) process is a layer by layer using ultraviolet laser beam scanning method of curing rubber parts of the formation of three-dimensional entity. In 1986 the company launched the commercialization of American 3DSystems prototype SLA-1. SLA technology to achieve the highest precision 0.05mm. thin-layer lamination manufacturing (LaminatedObjectManufacturing, called LOM) process using sheet material, such as paper, plastic film, etc., by the United States Helisys developed in 1986. By repeated CO 2 Laser cutting and pasting material, physical artifacts are layered manufacturing. LOM process is characterized by large parts for manufacturing, the accuracy of 0.1mm. selective laser sintering (SelectiveLaserSintering, referred to as SLS) process is the use of powdered material formed by the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 and developed through the use of high-intensity CO 2 Laser scanning layer by layer selectively formed sintered powder materials, three-dimensional parts, SLS technology's biggest advantage is the wider selection.
Of the three laser rapid prototyping technology as the development of a long time, technology is relatively mature, at home and abroad have been more widely used. However, the formation of three-dimensional parts above methods are not directly used as a mold, the need for follow-up, so I called the indirect laser technology into the mold. The main treatment methods are: treated as forming part quickly die. LOM production of direct instead of paper molding sand by the surface Casting Wood-mode; or paper with a LOM mold made directly by the surface treatment for low melting point alloy mold, injection mold; or lost wax Casting Forming in the wax mold. SLS parts produced by the infiltration of copper, the metal molds used for. using rapid prototyping parts for the mother mold casting silicone rubber, epoxy, polyurethane and other materials soft mold. with rapid hard tooling for manufacturing of formed parts. One is the direct production of paper-based LOM mold by metal arc spraying and polishing the surface after the research into a metal mold; the other is the lining of metal mold surface blindly memorizing. The hard mold can be used for sand Casting , EPC pressure type production, injection molding, and simple non-tensile steel mold.
Indirectly with the laser technology into a production mold tooling, complex machinery not only to avoid cutting, but also to ensure the accuracy of mold, mold can be greatly reduced, saving on tooling costs,
