Abstract: A system is provided for delivering a high-power laser beam through a fiber optic cable to a metal workpiece for drilling, cutting or welding the workpiece. The laser beam is focused onto a first end of the fiber optic cable, with a gas being applied to the first end of the cable as a cooling agent. The gas is transmitted coaxially with the fiber optic cable along the length thereof. The laser beam emerges from a second end of the fiber optic cable and is received and focused onto a workpiece by a beam delivery assembly. The transmitted gas is applied to the second end of the fiber optic cable as a cooling agent and injected onto the workpiece coaxially with the focused laser beam. With such arrangement, a laser beam is delivered to a workpiece for processing the workpiece via a flexible system, allowing the beam to be dexterously maneuvered about the workpiece.

Abstract: Apparatus for automatically measuring aperture size of apertured material includes a means for supporting and transporting the apertured material and a light source providing a light beam directed for passage through the apertured material to a light detector and is characterized by a comparator mask of alternate light transparent and opaque sectors of a given dimension and means for overlaying the apertured material with the comparator mask to provide a given length of light transparent slot and responsive to signals representing light transmitted through the given length of slot for deriving a signal representing the width of the slots of the slotted material. Also, a process for automatically measuring aperture size includes the steps of overlaying the slotted material with the comparator mask and utilizing a signal from the light detector representing light transmission of the slots of a given length to derive a signal representative of the slot width.

Abstract: Three scanners are disclosed; common to all is an argon ion laser.In the first two versions, light passes through a telescope, which is provided to expand and collimate the laser beam, through a servo-driven iris whose function is to adjust the length of the slit image to be formed by the optics. The beam enters a rotating cradle, passes through a cylindrical lens, and strikes a galvanometer-driven mirror. Rotating the galvanometer about its axis deflects the image of the laser beam on the main scanning mirror. A second lens images the galvanometer mirror onto the CRT panel. In the first version, the main scanning mirror is a flat reflector; in the second version, the scanning mirror is either a prism or a mirror set at 45 degrees to the incident laser beam. In both versions, a motor-driven optical rotator is between the galvanometer-driven mirror and the scanning mirror. Several important features include the servo-driven image rotator and the motor-driven iris.

Abstract: A beam splitting system for use with a welding laser and having means for distributively directing an incoming welding beam along a pair of output optical paths is disclosed whereby a single welding laser may weld either sequentially or simultaneously at a pair of spatially-separated weld sites. For sequential welding, a bimodal beam switch is provided for alternatively switching the weld beam between a pair of alternate optical paths. For simultaneously welding, the bimodal beam switch is replaced by a dielectric beam splitter which divides the beam into transmitted and reflected beams simultaneously propagated along the pair of output optical paths.