SCANLAB AG announces the release of the intelliWELD^® 30 FC, a smart and compact 3D-scan system for high power disk or fiber lasers.

Designed for robot-assisted welding applications, this 3D-scan system is capable of swiftly positioning the laser beam along 3D contours.

While a robot guides the scan system along a part contour, the intelliWELD^® 30 FC quickly and accurately moves and fine-positions the laser spot. Complex robotic motions and fast robotic repositioning are thereby avoided, thus reducing positioning times between spot welds to a few milliseconds. The result is substantially enhanced utilization of the laser source.

Despite its 30 mm aperture, the intelliWELD^® 30 FC occupies a remarkably small volume, making it easily mountable on welding robots, even in difficult-to-access locations. Its optics are optimized for fiber-coupled lasers with powers up to 8 kW.

Spot welds of approximately 600 µm in diameter can be formed within an elliptical processing volume of 200 x 240 x 80 mm³ (laser bpp approximately 12 mm/mrad).

The dual-pane protective window and the long 0.5 m working distance both serve to protect the scan objective from welding splatter. The scan system is equipped with a sealed housing and a quick-swap protective window system.

Light returning from the work piece is decoupled from the optical path for potential analysis by additional process monitoring equipment.

The intelliWELD^® 30 FC incorporates SCANLAB's fully digital iDRIVE^® technology, offering an integrated approach to laser and process safety. It allows real time monitoring of all important scan head and protective window status parameters. This facilitates detection of process miss-queues and enables advanced remote-diagnostics. A software-independent interlock signal, indicating abnormal operational states, can be used to switch the system to a predefined state or trigger an automatic emergency stop.

SCANLAB Press Release March 14, 2006