Founded
on 30-years of experience in supplying industrial CO2 Laser
systems and with more than 20,000 systems installed worldwide FANUC now offers
a complimentary range of advanced CW Fiber Lasers.
FANUC
FF Series Fiber Lasers deliver exceptional performance with the same
reliability that FANUC end-users have come to expect from the industry’s leader
in CNCs and robotic automation. FANUC fiber lasers are ideally suited to
high-speed cutting of thin to medium sheet metal, with a range of 500W to 6kW
continuous-wave, multimode oscillators operating at NIR wavelength of 1070
nm. The ingenuity of the FANUC oscillator design lends itself to easy integration
of FANUC advanced CNCs and servo drive systems. FANUC Fiber Laser is not
limited to FANUC CNCs and can be controlled by General Automation PLC’s and
motion control systems. Conversely, the FANUC 30i-LB LASER CNC and
Alpha-i Series rotary and linear servo-drive systems are available
as advanced motion-control platforms for most leading third-party laser
oscillators.
The
versatility of the FANUC FF Series Fiber Laser opens a wide field of laser
processing possibilities, from regular metal-plate and complex 5-axis tube
cutting, welding and additive manufacturing. When combined with the FANUC
Series 30i/31i-B Milling, Turning and Punch CNCs, true hybrid
mill/turn/punch/laser multi-processing centers become a reality.
To
maintain the quality during high-speed laser fly-cutting it is critical to have an
oscillator control-system that is tightly synchronized to the machine
servo-axes position-loops. Both the FANUC Fiber and CO2 Laser
signals are applied over the FANUC proprietary noise-immune, high-speed optical
FSSB (FANUC Servo Serial Bus) servo
bus at an update speed of 31.25µs.
FANUC
Series 30i/31i-LB CNCs support high-speed processing with a
feature-rich suite of intelligent laser control functions help to optimize cut
quality. These features include corner edge cut quality control, laser gap
control, feed-rate dependent laser power control and minute laser power output
control, typically used for laser etching.
FANUC
Fiber Laser oscillators are classified as Continuous Wave (CW) lasers, they can
also be operated in Pulse Modulation mode at frequencies of up to 32KHz. Pulse
frequency and other laser-process parameters are typically preset through CNC
program command, E-Word, referencing cutting, piercing, and edge control
data-tables specific to material-type and thickness. Not only do these
data-tables set Laser Gas, Power, Frequency, and Duty Cycle, they can also set
the laser Lower-Pulse Power-Level during laser
pulse-modulation. This feature plays an important role in controlling
heat propagation during the lasing process.
In
real-time operation, the FANUC Laser CNC applies many intelligent features to
optimize work throughput, including Contour Control Look-ahead (AICC),
Automatic Retract and Approach of Gap Control Axis, and Auto Cutting Restart
for interrupted processes. The FANUC predictive Laser and integrated
Laser-service diagnostics monitor, Laser Back-Reflection, Assist Gas, Chiller,
and Safety I/O, all help maximize machine up-time and optimize machine
utilization.