Development of a one-axis manipulator for laser-assisted machining

Abstract

Laser-assisted machining has been considered as a new alternative machining method of difficult-to-cut materials. A laser module with one-axis manipulator is developed to focus on preheating laser beam effectively. First of all, the thermal characteristic analysis was performed to verify the importance of laser module location. Laser module should be moved within 1 mm. Analysis conditions of three positions in driving range of the one-axis manipulator are selected. And a C coupling is used as a connection device for spindle and laser module. An initial model has one C coupling, and the number of C coupling has been increased from 1 to 2 in an improved model. And the analysis is carried out again for the one-axis manipulator. The results of the static analysis, the maximum displacement and the maximum stress are decreased by 22% and 11%, respectively, for the improved model when the laser module is located at farthest away from the spindle unit. As a result of the modal analysis, the first natural frequency mode is increased by 13%, 18% and 12% at these positions of the improved model, respectively. The harmonic analysis of the improved model was performed by analyzing the results of the modal analysis. The maximum deformation was 0.33 mm in driving unit at 222 Hz. And the maximum compliance of the ISO axis direction was 0.23 mm/N. Finally, the one-axis manipulator has been fabricated successfully using the analysis result.

Keywords

finite element analysis (FEA) / laser-assisted machining / manipulator

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