Remote laser cutting of fabrics on the fly

For the cutting of textiles, polymer films or other composite materials, there is an increasing need for more flexible, cost-effective processing technologies. In today's market trends, it is not difficult to find that mechanical die cutting, namely CNC die cutting, is gradually being replaced by laser cutting.

Because laser cutting does not require molds, it has many advantages over traditional die cutting systems. This avoids the cost of purchasing various molds or delaying production due to mold manufacturing. In addition, mechanical die cutting systems themselves have many limitations, which are caused by the physical contact between the cutting tool and the material. The laser cutting system without molds can also flexibly process thin sheet materials, which is another major advantage. The above situation explains why laser cutting systems can improve production efficiency.

Compared to metal materials for laser cutting, fabrics have a lower melting point and do not require high laser beam intensity, and continuous wave lasers can be used at a power of several hundred watts. However, current research focuses on increasing cutting speeds to reduce cycle times.

In addition to shortening the work cycle, laser cutting also has many advantages in terms of improving production efficiency and processing technology. Since laser cutting is a thermal separation process, accelerating the cutting speed can reduce the heat accumulated near the incision.

Traditional laser cutting machinesare gantry processing systems that combine a laser beam, a material plate (or both) with XY axis coordinates. Therefore, when processing small contours, arcs or geometric figures, the speed of laser focusing and the accuracy of the path have a certain impact.

Some manufacturers have adopted some methods to overcome this limitation, such as combining heavy axis drive with rigid mechanical structure, combining lightweight mechanical structure with fiber-reinforced material components or multi-layer cutting technology (2-30 layers of fabric are cut simultaneously).

Scientists at the Institute for Materials and Beam Technology Flownhov in Germany pointed out the limitations of the above solutions and conducted research to determine whether the galvo technology used for laser marking could also be used for laser cutting of fabrics.

In order to solve the problem of limited dynamics of the mechanical structure, highly dynamic beam deflection must be used, and the beam can be positioned using a movable mirror driven by a motor. Because the lenses are lightweight, they can be operated with optical scanning galvanometers, and the positioning beam can be precisely maintained even at high cutting speeds. Accelerations of up to 10g can be achieved. This dynamic behavior can only be achieved without cutting gas, and residual material must be vaporized during the cutting process.

Long-distance processing, especially with continuous wave irradiation lasers, can reach laser powers of several kilowatts. The maximum working stroke can reach 2 meters, and the processing range can reach 1脳1 meter. The combination of higher laser power and longer focal length provides higher beam quality, so that cutting speeds of several meters per second can be achieved in textile processing.

Highly efficient airbag production

In order to ensure the safety of passengers, more and more cars are now equipped with various airbags. Various airbags need to be used in system engineering with high flexibility and efficiency. The cutting of airbag parts is mostly completed under laser cutting with auxiliary gas. Because it is thermal cutting, processing is achieved through the fiber edges without wear.

In recent years, due to the development of multi-layer cutting technology, the production efficiency of this technology has been greatly improved, and more than 30 layers can be cut at the same time. However, this method is very complicated because an independent layer must be separated, especially if the layer may have been separated by the sandwich. Therefore, the cutting quality of each layer is different, and the number of layers needs to be appropriately reduced according to the quality requirements.

Due to the defects of multi-layer cutting, scientists began to look for new manufacturing methods such as laser cutting.

Ordinary remote control systems include scanning optical elements installed above the material to be processed. The movement of the light spot is controlled through the scanning lens. The correlation between processing distance, processing range and focal length is relatively complex, and the range of materials that can be processed also affects the final result.

Flying cutting technology makes it possible to process materials of various contours and different widths. The technology can be further improved by combining different dynamic and mechanical parameters with the axis system, which makes laser cutting more advantageous than conventional cutting technologies such as punching or mechanical cutting. This system concept allows the high dynamic beam reflection technology to be transferred to wider, flat application areas where space is limited, such as: flexible film cutting, cutting of leather or paper, welding of heat exchanger plates, cutting of covering fabrics and padding.