Patent FR-2924039-A1 (FR)
Title: System for marking of aeronautical components e.g. cables by laser beam, comprises pulsed lasers, control unit to trigger laser impulse, unit for controlling trigger of impulses, mask comprising set of perforations, and optical unit
Inventor: LEMETTRE CHRISTIAN
IPC: B23K26/00
Filed: 2007-11-28
Abstract: The system for marking of aeronautical component (30) such as cables by laser beam, comprises pulsed lasers, a control unit to trigger the impulse of the lasers, a unit for controlling the trigger of impulses of different lasers alternatively and to form a sequence of characters on a component, a mask (24) comprising a set of perforations corresponding to characters that is marked on the component, when the mask is illuminated by a laser beam, and an optical unit for guiding the light beams emitted by the lasers during triggering of the impulses. The system for marking of aeronautical component (30) such as cables by laser beam, comprises pulsed lasers, a control unit to trigger the impulse of the lasers, a unit for controlling the trigger of impulses of different lasers alternatively and to form a sequence of characters on a component, a mask (24) comprising a set of perforations corresponding to characters that is marked on the component, when the mask is illuminated by a laser beam, and an optical unit for guiding the light beams emitted by the lasers during triggering of the impulses. The light beams illuminate several areas of the mask to pass through the perforations of the mask corresponding to the characters to be marked. The lasers are neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd-YAG) type lasers, and produce polarized light beams. Each of the light beams obtained from the laser traverse through a unit of frequency tripling. A first unit (12) is arranged for changing the polarization, and receives two light beams obtained from the lasers. In the output of the first unit, the two light beams have polarization perpendicular to each other. A polarizer (10) is arranged for receiving two beams of polarization perpendicular to one another. The first beam is received according to a first direction and the second beam is received according to a second direction, so that in the output of the polarizer the two beams have parallel paths. A second unit (16) is arranged for changing polarization, and receives two parallel beams leaving the polarizer, so that in the output of second unit, the two light beams have same polarizations. A mirror is placed near the first path for receiving the second beam emitted by the second laser according to a second direction, and is positioned to reflect the second beam according to the first direction. The first beam and the second beam reflected by the mirror have parallel paths. An optical deviation unit is arranged to receive two parallel light beams, to deviate light beams and to converge on a single area of the mask. The second unit for changing the polarization is constituted of two static units associated respectively with each of the two beams, and is a movable unit that is controlled synchronously with the triggering of laser impulse. The optical unit comprises a movable mirror for receiving light beams obtained from different lasers. The movable mirror is moved synchronously with the triggering of impulses of different lasers so that the light beam is reflected by the mirror along the same path regardless of the laser emitting light beam. The control unit is configured for alternately moving either all lasers or a subset of different lasers. An independent claim is included for a process for marking of components by laser beam.