Guided by mirrors: General Industry Coverage

Traditionally, the working optical fiber of a robotic fiber laser machine is outside the robot and connected to the cutting head. However, users incur fiber maintenance and replacement costs with this configuration, particularly when a fiber catches on an object and is damaged. Also, rapid robot movements can cause the head to become loose and less accurate after numerous cycles, according to Christon Manzella, vice president of business development and strategies for Jenoptik Laser Technologies. “If you have a fiber that goes into a cutting head and jar that head during too many cycles, you will have fatigue,” he said.

He added that a fiber can’t be bent 90° to connect it to the head, so a 12 ” to 15 ” fiber service loop is needed, which restricts the head’s access in tight locations when cutting, for example, structural steel and 3-D tubular metal parts.

Courtesy of Jenoptik Laser Technologies

The Jenoptik-Votan BIM robot-based fiber laser machine (inset) has a unique laser robot arm in that the feeding fiber is located only in the stationary robot shoulder and the laser beam path is integrated in the robot.