Laser oscillator including fans which cool resonator unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9570875-B2
Application number	US-201615019059-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2016
Priority date	Feb 10, 2015
Publication date	Feb 14, 2017
Grant date	Feb 14, 2017

Abstract

A laser oscillator according to this invention includes a resonator unit, heat exchangers, fans, a resonator temperature measuring unit, and a fan control unit. The resonator unit resonates a laser beam to be output. The heat exchangers are arranged adjacent to the resonator unit and are to be supplied with a cooling liquid. The fans are arranged at least at one of two opposite positions across both the resonator unit and the heat exchangers and generate airflow in one direction, which passes through both the resonator unit and the heat exchangers. The resonator temperature measuring unit measures the temperature of the resonator unit. The fan control unit controls the fans. The fan control unit switches the direction in which air is blown by the fans, based on the temperature of the resonator unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laser oscillator comprising:
a resonator unit configured to resonate a laser beam to be output;
a heat exchanger which is arranged adjacent to the resonator unit and is to be supplied with a cooling liquid;
a fan which is arranged at least at one of two opposite positions across both the resonator unit and the heat exchanger and generates airflow in one direction, which passes through both the resonator unit and the heat exchanger;
a resonator temperature measuring unit which measures a temperature of the resonator unit; and
a fan control unit which controls the fan,
wherein the fan control unit switches a direction in which air is blown by the fan, based on the temperature of the resonator unit measured by the resonator temperature measuring unit.

2. The laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein
when the measured temperature of the resonator unit is lower than a predetermined temperature, the fan control unit adjusts the direction in which the air is blown by the fan to a direction from the heat exchanger to the resonator unit, and
when the measured temperature of the resonator unit is not lower than the predetermined temperature, the fan control unit adjusts the direction in which the air is blown by the fan to a direction from the resonator unit to the heat exchanger.

3. The laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein
the fan comprises a plurality of fans and the plurality of fans are arranged in a longitudinal direction of the resonator unit, and
the fan control unit further changes an air volume of at least one of the plurality of fans, based on the measured temperature of the resonator unit.

4. The laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein
the fan comprises a plurality of fans and the plurality of fans are arranged in a longitudinal direction of the resonator unit, and
the fan control unit further stops at least one of the plurality of fans, based on the measured temperature of the resonator unit.

5. The laser oscillator according to claim 2 , further comprising a cooling liquid temperature measuring unit which measures a temperature of the cooling liquid,
wherein the predetermined temperature is equal to the temperature of the cooling liquid measured by the cooling liquid temperature measuring unit.

6. The laser oscillator according to claim 1 , further comprising a chiller configured to control the cooling liquid at a constant temperature.

Assignees

• Fanuc Corp

Inventors

• Sato Takanori

Classifications

• H01S3/0404

  Air- or gas cooling, e.g. by dry nitrogen · CPC title

• H01S3/041

  for gas lasers {(H01S3/0401 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H01S3/04

  Arrangements for thermal management · CPC title

• H01S3/0407 Primary

  Liquid cooling, e.g. by water · CPC title

• H01S3/042 Primary

  for solid state lasers {(H01S3/0401 takes precedence)} · CPC title