Aerotech AGV-HPO High Accuracy Laser Scan Heads

The AGV-HPO two-axis laser scan head uses low inertia motors and mirrors with dual digital encoders for near-zero velocity and position tracking error. Its open housing design ensures low mass and a small installation footprint. Thermal drift performance is optimized via optional closed circuit water cooling for motors and the scanner housing. Optional forced-air mirror cooling increases laser power handling, allowing the AGV-HPO to maintain high precision for the most demanding laser processes. When calibrated via standard mark and measure procedures, the AGV-HPO provides valuable insight to path following error before a part is ever cut. High-reflectivity mirror coatings enable adequate power handling for both CW and pulsed laser applications.

Features:

• Attains single-digit, micron-level accuracy throughout the field of view

• Improves thermal stability significantly with optical feedback technology

• Delivers industry-best resolution of >24 bits when used with an Aerotech controller

• Includes wide range of apertures and focal lengths

• Offers many choices of mirror surface treatments for a variety of laser wavelengths

• Calibrate micron-level accuracy, count on ultimate stability

With the extremely low thermal gain drift performance of the position transducers, complex, high-density laser machining applications that take long periods of time to complete will maintain consistent micron-level feature placement accuracy over the lifetime of the process. Likewise, high-throughput applications will maintain consistent part-to-part quality without having to re-calibrate between parts. For the highest level of thermal stability, the AGV-HPO scanners can be equipped with water cooling to stabilize the operating temperature of the device under varying loads, changes in ambient temperature or beam clipping on the input aperture.

Real-Time Process Visibility

The location of the AGV-HP mirrors can be captured and analysed in real time. With direct access to the positions of the scanner the user no longer has to program delay parameters to compensate for lag and tracking errors in the servo system. The process can be optimised prior to marking the part, saving time and reducing material waste. The state of the laser can also be controlled based on in-position and velocity criteria, further reducing programming complexity.

Advanced Programming Features
The AGV-HP utilises all of Aerotech's advanced motion and PSO (Position Synchronised Output) capabilities that have been developed for traditional servo-based laser processing applications. Contouring functions such as Acceleration Limiting can be used to automatically reduce speeds in tight corners or small radii to minimise overshoot. The laser can be triggered based on the position feedback of the mirrors with PSO to ensure consistent spot overlap as the scanner changes speed. Aerotech's Infinite Field of View (IFOVTM) function seamlessly combines servo and scanner motion to extend the marking capability of the scanner across the entire travel of the servo stages, eliminating stitching errors that can occur in a more traditional move-expose-repeat process.

Design Choices
The AGV-HP family is available with 10, 14, 20, and 30mm input apertures and can be equipped with an F-Theta or telecentric lens directly from Aerotech. Users can also acquire the focusing optic directly from a trusted supplier with Aerotech supplying a spacer ring to ensure that back reflections through the optic do not damage the scanner mirrors. Mirror coatings for a wide range of UV, visible, IR and CO2 wavelengths are supported. Coatings optimised for ultra-fast lasers are also available.