Method and system for providing elements of composite objects

• US 5,140,128 A
• Filed: 07/12/1991
• Issued: 08/18/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Liu, Yung S., Dellert, Robert C., Jones, Marshall G.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALBRITTON, CLARENCE
• Application Number:
  US07/729,860
• Time in Patent Office: 403 Days
• Field of Search: 219/121.67, 219/121.72, 219/121.6, 219/121.82, 219/121.85, 219/121.74, 219/121.75, 219/121.76, 356/400, 356/401
• US Class Current: 219/121.72
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 2103/16 Composite materials , e.g. fibre reinforced
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 2103/172 wherein at least one of the layers is non-metallic
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 26/40 taking account of the properties of the material involved

Abstract

An apparatus and method for processing a composite object, the method comprising the steps of providing a composite object, aligning a laser source with a portion of the composite object to be processed, operating the laser source to generate laser beam pulses, and forming composite object elements by applying the pluses of beams from the source to the composite object portion to be processed.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

providing a flexible composite material the composite material being a layered composite material and each layer of the composite material having respective optical, mechanical, and thermal properties;

aligning a laser source with a portion of the composite material to be processed;

operating the laser source to generate laser beam pulses; and

forming separate composite material elements by applying the pulses of beams from the source to the composite material portion to be processed.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein aligning the laser source comprises the steps of:

operating the laser source so that a low power alignment beam is generated; and

adjusting the orientation of the low power alignment beam relative to the portion of the object to be processed.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein adjusting the orientation of the low power alignment beam comprises the step of:

adjusting the orientation of a focusing lens relative to the composite object, the focusing lens being disposed in the laser source beam optical path.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the laser source includes a laser head, an optical fiber and an output coupler, the optical fiber being disposed to transmit laser beam pulses emitted from the laser head to the output coupler, and aligning the laser beam emitted from the output coupler comprises the step of:

adjusting the orientation of the output coupler relative to the composite object portion to be processed.

5. A composite object element formed in accordance with the method recited in claim 1.

6. An apparatus for creating at least two separate composite objects from at least one homogeneous composite object, said apparatus comprising:

a flexible composite material means being homogeneous layered composite material and each layer of the composite material having respective optical, mechanical, and thermal properties;

means for aligning a low power beam emitted from a laser source with a portion of the homogeneous composite material to be processed, said aligning means comprising means for operating the laser source so that a low power alignment beam is generated and means for adjusting the orientation of the low power alignment beam relative to the portion of the material to be processed;

means for generating laser beam pulses, the laser beam pulses being substantially coaxial with said previously generated low power alignment beam; and

means for forming separate composite material elements including means for applying the pulses of beam to the composite material portion to be processed.

7. An apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein said laser source comprises an excimer laser configured to generate laser beam pulses having a wavelength of substantially 248 nanometers.