METHOD AND DEVICE FOR MACHINING A METAL WORKPIECE

• Main Authors: SEIFERT, Marko, LEYENS, Christoph, FUX, Volker, FIEBIGER, Thomas, BERGER, Andrea
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 07.12.2022
• Subjects: CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

The invention relates to a method and a device for machining a metal workpiece (6) with an excitation laser source emitting an excitation laser beam (4) and a processing laser source emitting a processing laser beam (3). The excitation laser beam (4) and the processing laser beam (3) are superimposed in a spatially varied manner at least partially on an impinging region (5) of the workpiece (6) to be machined, and the excitation laser beam (4) has a higher beam intensity than the processing laser beam (3) in the impinging region, such that a plasma and/or a vapour is formed in the impinging region (5) to improve the absorption of the processing laser radiation. According to the invention, the processing laser beam (3) has a power of more than 1 kW and up to 100 kW and the excitation laser beam (4) has a power of more than 0.2 kW and up to 3 kW. The processing laser beam (3) has an intensity of less than or up up 105 W/cm2 in the impinging region (5) and the excitation laser beam (4) has an intensity of more than 105 W/cm2 in the impinging region (5).