Researchers devise low-cost process monitoring technique
More Flexibility for Packaging and Textiles – powerSCAN II
More Flexibility for Packaging and Textiles – powerSCAN II
The fluence of a laser making a hole is measured, left. Measurements of the fluence and hole depth (right) are superimposed and the relationship between them determined, enabling hole depth to be calculated solely on the fluence
Researchers from the University of Tokyo have devised a way to accurately, efficiently and directly observe the fine details of laser-material interaction using low-cost equipment, which they say could vastly improve cutting and etching accuracy. ‘To measure how far into a
surface a laser has cut often requires tens or hundreds of depth readings to take place. This is a substantial barrier for fast, automated laser-based production systems,’ said Professor Junji Yumoto, at the University of Tokyo’s physics department, and an author of a communications materials paper describing the work. ‘We have devised a new way to determine and predict the depth of a hole produced by laser pulses, based on a single observation rather than tens or hundreds. This finding is an important step forward in improving the controllability of laser processing.’ Yumoto and his team based
their technique on laser fluence, the optical energy a pulse delivers over a given area. Until recently, expensive imaging apparatus would have been required to observe this fluence, and this usually lacked sufficient resolution. But thanks to developments in other areas of electronics and optics, a relatively simple Raspberry Pi
Camera Version 2 was ample for the job.
As their test laser apparatus made a hole on sapphire, the camera recorded directly the fluence distribution of a laser pulse. Then a laser microscope measured the hole shape. By superimposing these two results and using modern numerical methods, the team produced a large and reliable dataset that could accurately show the relation between fluence and hole depth. ‘This would be correspondent with the extraction of about 250,000 data points from a single measurement,’ said Yumoto. ‘We show, using sapphire as a benchmark material, that this serves as a robust way to extract well-studied values and dependencies, such as the ablation threshold, and also as a way to probe the spatial independence of the process. ‘Our method could efficiently
provide big data for machine learning and new numerical simulation methods to improve the accuracy and controllability of laser processing for manufacture,’ he continued. ‘We anticipate that our findings will modernise current study techniques to meet the demand for increased, high-quality data, such as that required for artificial intelligence-based analysis.’
WWW.LASERSYSTEMSEUROPE.COM | @LASERSYSTEMSMAG
3D Scan System for Industrial Laser Cutting • Designed for high-power CO2
• Perfect cutting results thanks to smallest laser spots • Variable scan field enabled by FLEX option • Light weight mirrors for highest cutting speeds • Compact, sealed housing
3D Scan System for Industrial Laser Cutting • Designed for high-power CO2
lasers lasers
• Perfect cutting results thanks to smallest laser spots • Variable scan field enabled by FLEX option • Light weight mirrors for highest cutting speeds • Compact, sealed housing
www.scanlab.de www.scanlab.de
Sakurai et al.
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