Optical processing head having a plurality of optical fibers arranged to surround the light guide and 3D shaping apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9863803-B2
Application number	US-201514763153-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2015
Priority date	Mar 10, 2015
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

This invention is directed to reliably condensing weak light by a sensor arranged at a position spaced apart from a processing position. The optical processing head includes a light guide that guides light for irradiating a processing position. The optical processing head further includes a light transmitter that has one end arranged near the distal end of the light guide and the other end connected to a photodetector, condenses reflected light traveling from the processing position, and transmits it to the photodetector. The optical processing head includes at least one light transmitter as its feature.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical processing head comprising:
a light guide that guides light for irradiating a processing position; and
a plurality of optical fibers that have one end arranged near a distal end of said light guide and another end connected to a photodetector, condense reflected light traveling from the processing position, and transmit the reflected light to the photodetector,
wherein said plurality of optical fibers are arranged to surround said light guide.

2. The optical processing head according to claim 1 , said plurality of optical fibers are inclined by a predetermined angle with respect to an optical axis.

3. The optical processing head according to claim 1 , said plurality of optical fibers are provided between an outer surface and inner surface of said light guide.

4. The optical processing head according to claim 1 , wherein said plurality of optical fibers include a cover glass provided at the one end.

5. The optical processing head according to claim 1 , wherein said plurality of optical fibers include a condenser lens provided at the one end.

6. The optical processing head according to claim 1 , wherein the photodetector is a spectrometer.

7. A 3D shaping apparatus comprising an optical processing head as in claim 1 .

Assignees

• Tech Res Association Future Additive Manufacturing

Inventors

• Fujita Yoshihito
• Goya Saneyuki

Classifications

• B23K26/032 Primary

  using optical means · CPC title

• G01J1/0425 Primary

  using optical fibers · CPC title

• G02B6/3624

  Fibre head, e.g. fibre probe termination (optical details of light guide terminations G02B6/241; reshaping of light guides G02B6/2552; optical details of coupling light into or out of fibre end G02B6/262) · CPC title

• B23K26/1462

  Nozzles; Features related to nozzles · CPC title

• G01J1/0266

  Field-of-view determination; Aiming or pointing of a photometer; Adjusting alignment; Encoding angular position; Size of the measurement area; Position tracking; Photodetection involving different fields of view for a single detector · CPC title