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Monitoring Opportunities in Fiber Laser Flame Cutting

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Abstract

Triggered by smart and zero-defect manufacturing paradigms, in situ quality assurance has become an emerging necessity for industrial laser cutting. Within this work, several real-time monitoring concepts have been tested for 4 kW Ytterbium fiber laser flame cutting of 15 mm mild steel plates. Cut quality deteriorations caused by cutting at varying speeds as well as by the preheating effect are examined. While plate preheating arises as an unavoidable side effect of laser flame cutting of thick plates, cutting speed can be leveraged to increase productivity in an industrial setting. However, distinguishing between the quality deteriorations caused by both phenomena can be challenging on the basis of a single monitoring signal. For this purpose, three different strategies, namely the use of a coaxial multi-sensor system, an emissivity quotient goniometer and off-axis thermal imaging, are explored. The paper takes a close look at these strategies through three different case studies. For each case, the correlation between cut quality aspects and sensor signals is investigated. Additionally, a discussion of the requirements for the implementation of each strategy in an industrial laser cutting machine is provided. It is concluded that a combination of strategies can provide sufficient information for both increasing productivity and edge quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

    Nikita Levichev, Alberto Tomás García & Joost R. Duflou

Authors
  1. Nikita Levichev
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  2. Alberto Tomás García
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  3. Joost R. Duflou
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Contributions

Nikita Levichev: Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft;

Alberto Tomás García: Investigation, Software, Formal analysis, Writing – Review & Editing;

Joost R. Duflou: Data curation, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Nikita Levichev.

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Levichev, N., Tomás García, A. & Duflou, J.R. Monitoring Opportunities in Fiber Laser Flame Cutting. Lasers Manuf. Mater. Process. 8, 491–510 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40516-021-00158-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40516-021-00158-y

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