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| Laser Materials Processing Division |
CO2 laser development for material processing and Nanoparticle synthesis
Development of Automated System for CO2 Laser-assisted cutting and sealing of glass tubes
An automated CO2 laser based system has been developed for cutting and sealing of glass tubes, as per the requirement of BRIT, Mumbai. The system comprises of a 50 W sealed-off CO2 laser tube, rotary stage for rotation of glass tube, linear translation stage for tube movement and vacuum pump for realizing pulling of glass tube after melting of glass by CO2 laser beam. The whole process of movement of glass tube, its rotation, irradiation by CO2 laser beam for defined time and finally pulling with the help of vacuum pump is controlled by an Arduino based controller. The various steps for automated cutting and sealing take place in an interlocked manner. The system was used to demonstrate cutting and sealing of 3 mm diameter glass tubes (length: 5 - 10 mm). The sealed glass tubes displayed helium leak rate better than 1 x 10-10 mbar.l/sec.
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Figure 1: Hardware architecture of the system |
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Figure 2: Software architecture of the system |
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The specification of the system is as:
S. No. |
Parameters |
Feature(s)/ Value(s) |
1. |
Tube length (mm) |
~300mm |
2. |
Cut vial length (mm)/ accuracy |
9 mm (5-20mm, Lasing point shift required)/+- 0.2mm |
3. |
Vial production rate |
110 vials/ hour (performed), 250 vials/ hour (in Auto made), excluding tube loading time delay |
4. |
Laser Power (W) (desired) |
0-50W (30W) |
5. |
Allowable Laser ON time (desired) |
1-20s (9s) |
6. |
Desired Laser spot size |
2mm |
7. |
Tube rotation speed (desired) |
0-900RPM (500RPM) |
8. |
Linear movement resolution |
1.96um (1 micro step) |
9. |
Allowable linear stage speed |
1-20mm/s |
10. |
Power supply |
230VAC/ 50 Hz, UPS |
11. |
Control Panel |
A touch HMI based panel for process monitoring & control |
12. |
Operation modes |
Jog mode, manual mode, and auto mode |
13. |
Safety Features |
Emergency trip button on console, interlock based Laser excitation, viewing ports with camera display |
14. |
Operation statistics |
Process time, no of tube and vial cut and laser ON time details |
15. |
Monitoring features |
LED: Rotary motor, vacuum pump, chiller and laser excitation, Laser power supply & chiller |
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Figure 3: Indigenously designed & developed glass tube cutting and sealing system |
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Figure 4: Cut & Sealed Tritium Vials of 10mm length |
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Figure 5: Cut & Sealed Tritium vials of ~25mm length |
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