JPH057110B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an optical welding device that simultaneously welds a plurality of welding locations using a beam of light from one thermal light source.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, a beam of light from a single thermal light source is simultaneously incident on the light entrance portion of a plurality of focusing optical fibers and guided to a desired welding point, thereby irradiating the plurality of welding points to each of the plurality of welding points. As an optical welding device that simultaneously performs welding at the welding locations, the technology described in Utility Model Application Publication No. 58-97857 and the like is known.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above technology, there is one beam of light from the focused optical fiber for each welding location, so depending on the type of workpiece and conditions, etc. The disadvantage is that the output is insufficient, which may cause welding defects. In order to prevent such welding defects from occurring, it may be possible to increase the output of the thermal light source, but in this case, the load on the optical system such as the condenser lens and optical fiber, as well as other components, will increase and the equipment will suffer. It has the disadvantage that problems such as damage must be taken into consideration.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to provide an optical welding device that can irradiate beam light of sufficient output to each of a plurality of welding locations.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present inventor has made extensive studies to solve the above problems, and as a result, has arrived at the present invention.

That is, the optical welding apparatus according to the present invention includes a support hole that removably supports the light exit ends of a plurality of optical fibers, and a condenser section that is provided with a condenser lens corresponding to the support hole. However, a plurality of flat fixtures are prepared according to the different welding locations, and a dedicated fixture is selected from these to ensure that the light is focused at the entrance and immediately before the fixture. The light exit ends of the optical fibers, which are branched into multiple fibers, are removably inserted into the respective support holes of the condensing section, and light from a thermal light source such as an infrared lamp is guided to the multiple condensing sections. The method is characterized in that light guided by a plurality of optical fibers is condensed by a condenser lens, and the light is simultaneously irradiated onto a plurality of welding locations on the same plane to perform welding.

[Function] According to the present invention, the light exit portion of the focusing optical fiber is separated into multiple fibers by a dedicated fixture, and the beam light of the multiple focusing optical fibers is focused on each welding location. With the configuration in which welding is carried out, a plurality of light beams are condensed and irradiated to each welding location, so it is possible to obtain light beams with sufficient output, so that welding can be performed reliably. The number of focusing optical fibers separated for each welding location is adjusted to obtain the required output depending on the conditions of the welding location.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention applied to watch manufacturing, and FIGS. 2 to 5 are schematic explanatory diagrams each showing a structure for supporting an optical fiber to a dedicated fixture.

In the figure, A shows an optical welding device according to the present invention, 1 is one heat light source such as an infrared lamp, and 2 is a heat light source such as an infrared lamp. This is an optical fiber used as a light guide path for guiding the chipped component 4 to the welding location 5. The optical fiber 2 has a light entrance part 2A into which the light from the one thermal light source 1 enters at the same time, and a converging body 2' in which a plurality of optical fibers 2 are converged.
On the other hand, the light exit portion 2B at the other end is configured such that the light exit portion 2B is spread out and dispersed to some extent when the converging body is unraveled.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a dedicated fixture that is a supporting member for positioning the light exit portion 2B of each optical fiber 2 at a desired welding location 5 and making it possible to irradiate the beam light, and the dedicated fixture 6 includes: A support hole 7 to which the light exit portion 2B can be attached and detached is provided. The position and number of supporting holes 7 in the dedicated fixture 6 vary depending on the welding location 5 of the object to be welded, such as chipped parts 4.
is constructed so that a plurality of optical fibers 2 can be supported together so that the welding temperature of the object to be welded can be set at various temperatures from low to high temperatures. That is, when the optical fiber 2 supported in the support hole 7 requires a low welding temperature,
The number of optical fibers 2 may be small, but if high temperature is required, it is necessary to increase the number so that a large amount of energy can be obtained. Therefore, it is desirable to prepare various dedicated fixtures 6 of the present invention having support holes 7 corresponding to the welding points 5 of the workpiece and the welding temperatures at the welding points 5.

The optical fiber 2 used in the present invention may be made of glass, plastic, etc., but when performing relatively high-temperature welding, it is preferable to use glass. - It is preferable that the diameters of the exit portions 2A and 2B are different, that is, the diameter of the light exit portion 2B from which the thermal light source 1 is emitted is gradually smaller than the diameter of the light entrance portion 2A into which the thermal light source 1 enters. The tapered optical fiber 2
When the light beam is used, the light energy of the light beam becomes dense while it passes through the optical fiber 2, so the energy is increased and is emitted from the light exit section 2B, resulting in the same state as when the light beam is condensed. Therefore, it is possible to omit a condenser lens or the like.

A specific example in which a plurality of optical fibers 2 are collectively supported on a dedicated fixture 6 is shown in FIGS. 2 to 5.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 shows a case where one condensing lens is used to collect light for a plurality of optical fibers 2, and the embodiment shown in FIG. This shows a case in which a condensing lens 8 is provided for each fiber 2 to condense light, and the embodiment shown in FIG. An example is shown in which a condensing head 11 having an optical lens 8 is provided at the light exit portion 2B of each optical fiber 2. In the embodiment shown in FIG. An example is shown in which each optical fiber 2 is supported by a dedicated fixture 6 at an angle as shown in FIG. In this case, the light beam can be focused without the need for the focusing section 10 at all. Note that the optical fiber 2 having the condensing head 11 shown in FIG. 4 above may be used in this method.

The bundle 2' of the optical fibers 2 in the present invention is
It is formed by bundling the number of optical fibers 2 required for welding and covering them with flexible synthetic resin, etc., but it may also be simply tied with a string etc. and bundled.
It is sufficient that the optical fibers 2 are focused to such an extent that they do not easily separate. The cross-sectional shape of the bundle 2' is usually circular, but may be flat if necessary. That is, the cross-sectional shape may be formed into a flat shape such as a flat ellipse or a flat square.

Further, when a plurality of optical fibers 2 are supported by the dedicated fixture 6, the cross-sectional shape of the bundled state of the optical fibers 2 may be configured to have any condensed shape, and by forming the support hole 7, any shape can be formed. A focused state is possible.

In the figure, reference numeral 12 denotes a condensing lens for allowing the light from one thermal light source 1 to enter the light entrance portion 2A of the optical fiber 2 at the same time.

Next, an embodiment of a welding method using the above-described optical welding apparatus of the present invention will be described.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 shows the process of welding chipped parts 4 in a timepiece 3, and the timepiece 3 as a product is conveyed by a conveyor or the like while stopping at each step. In the welding process, the optical welding device A is set at a position for welding and is on standby. For the optical welding device A, a dedicated fixture 6 having support holes 7 corresponding to the locations 5 to be welded on each of the chipped parts 4 is selected in advance, and one welding temperature is selected in consideration of the welding temperature at each welding location 5. Thermal light source 1
A plurality of optical fibers 2 are supported in each support hole 7 for guiding light beams from the support hole 7. Then, in the previous step, the chipped part 4 is placed (temporarily fixed) and moved, and when it stops at a predetermined position, the switch of the thermal light source 1 (not shown) is turned on automatically or manually. Then, the beam light from the thermal light source 1 is simultaneously transmitted through the optical fiber 2, and the beam light from a plurality of optical fibers 2 is condensed from each support hole 7 of the dedicated fixture 6 to each welding point 5, and is irradiated for a certain period of time. All of the welding points 5 are welded at the same time. At this time, the dedicated fixture 6 may be placed close to the watch 3 like a watch back cover to prevent the thermal energy of the beam light irradiated onto the chipped component 4 from escaping to the outside. In addition, when welding another watch 3 with a different position of the welding point 5, another appropriate dedicated fixture 6 may be selected. That is, since the optical fiber 2 can be attached to and removed from the dedicated fixture 6, the dedicated fixture 6 can be replaced, set, and welded.

Although the case where the optical welding device A is fixed is described above, since the optical fiber 2 is freely movable, the optical welding device A may be moved to the object to be welded each time weld.

[Effects of the Invention] Since the present invention has the above configuration and operation, the technical problems of the present invention described above can be solved,
In particular, since welding is performed by condensing and irradiating beam light from a plurality of optical fibers for each welding location, it is possible to irradiate beam light with sufficient power and to perform reliable welding. Furthermore, according to the optical welding device of the present invention, the fixture is replaceable and the light exit end of the optical fiber can be detachably supported, so even if different types of parts are flowed on the line, the welding work can be easily handled. This has the advantage of creating diversity in line design.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention applied to watch manufacturing, and FIGS. 2 to 5 are schematic explanatory diagrams each showing a structure for supporting an optical fiber to a dedicated fixture. In the figure, A is a light welding device, 1 is a thermal light source, and 2
5 indicates an optical fiber, 5 indicates a welding location, 6 indicates a dedicated fixture, 7 indicates a support hole, and 10 indicates a light condensing portion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of support holes that removably support the light exit ends of a plurality of optical fibers, and a plurality of condensing parts each having a condensing lens corresponding to the support holes are provided in correspondence with the welding locations. A plurality of flat plate-shaped fixtures are prepared according to the different welding points, and a dedicated fixture is selected from among them to generate light that is focused at the light entrance and split into multiple pieces just before the fixture. The light exit end of the fiber is removably inserted into each support hole of the condensing section, and light from a thermal light source such as an infrared lamp is guided to multiple condensing sections, and the condensing lens collects multiple beams of light. An optical welding device that performs welding by condensing light guided by a fiber and simultaneously irradiating the light onto a plurality of welding locations on the same plane.