Patent ID: 7489711

Claim:
A laser beam processing apparatus comprising: a fiber laser oscillator, having an optical fiber configuration including a core containing an emission element as an active medium, for oscillating and outputting a raw laser beam having a predetermined wavelength by exciting the core using a predetermined excitation beam; a laser beam branching unit for dividing the raw laser beam created by the fiber laser oscillator into a plurality of branched laser beams simultaneously in a pre-selected power dividing ratio, the laser beam branching unit comprising: at least one beam splitter, each having a desired reflectance coefficient and a desired transmission coefficient for the wavelength of the raw laser beam from the fiber laser oscillator, disposed on the optical axis of the raw laser beam such that a portion of the raw laser beam incident upon the beam splitter is reflected in a predetermined direction as one of the branched laser beams, and the rest of the incident beam is transmitted straight, and a total reflection mirror disposed on the optical axis of the raw laser beam such that the raw laser beam transmitted straight from one of the at least one beam splitter and incident upon the total reflection mirror is reflected in a predetermined direction as one of the branched laser beams; a plurality of optical fibers for transmitting the branched laser beams, respectively, to a common remote laser processing site or different remote laser processing sites, respectively; a plurality of a laser beam injecting units for injecting the branched laser beams obtained from the laser beam branching unit into an end face of the plural optical fibers, respectively; and a laser beam irradiating unit that condenses and applies each branched laser beam exiting from another end face of each of the plural optical fibers onto a processing point set on a common work to be processed or onto different respective processing points on different works to be processed.