A device for generating a laser line on a work plane includes a first laser light source configured to generate a first raw laser beam, a second laser light source configured to generate a second raw laser beam, and an optical arrangement configured to reshape the first raw laser beam to form a first illumination beam with a first caustic and a first beam profile, and reshape the second raw laser beam to form a second illumination beam with a second caustic and a second beam profile. The first illumination beam and the second illumination beam are directed with overlap on the work plane and define a joint illumination direction. The first beam profile and the second beam profile jointly form the laser line on the work plane. The optical arrangement is configured to position the first caustic and the second caustic offset from one another in the illumination direction.

A welding method includes: irradiating a surface of a workpiece with a laser light that moves relatively to the workpiece in a sweep direction; and performing welding by melting a part of the workpiece irradiated with the laser light. The laser light includes a plurality of beams, the plurality of beams include at least one main beam and at least one sub beam smaller in power than the main beam, a main power region including the at least one main beam and a sub power region including the at least one sub beam are formed on the surface, and a minimum distance between centers of adjacent ones of the plurality of beams on the surface is 75 μm or less.

Laser processing device (1) includes: laser-beam switching apparatus (70) that switches between a first optical path and a second optical path as an optical path along which a laser beam is to travel, the first optical path including first fiber (11), the second optical path including second fiber (21) that has a core diameter that is larger than a core diameter of first fiber (11); and processing head (80) that illuminates a same processed point on workpiece (900) with a laser beam that has passed through the first optical path or the second optical path. When illumination with laser beam that has passed through the first optical path is performed for a predetermined period of time, laser-beam switching apparatus (70) switches from the first optical path to the second optical path.

A machine learning device for learning a focal position offset of a laser processing apparatus. A data acquisition section acquires a learning dataset which includes data of a focal position command for a light-focusing optical system given to the laser processing apparatus and detection data of a physical quantity of light detected when a laser beam is emitted from a laser oscillator in accordance with a processing command including the focal position command. A learning section generates a learning model by using the learning dataset, which represents correlativity between the physical quantity of the detected light and the positional relationship of an effective light-focusing position of the light-focusing optical system relative to a workpiece. When performing processing, the physical quantity of light is detected so that a positional relationship between the workpiece and the effective light-focusing position during processing can be estimated from the detected quantity and the learning model.

A laser processing machine includes a condenser and a water pillar forming unit. The condenser condenses a laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator and irradiates it to a workpiece held on a chuck table. The water pillar forming unit is disposed on a lower end of the condenser and is configured to form a thread-shaped water pillar on a front side of the workpiece. The laser oscillator includes a first laser oscillator, which emits a first laser beam having a short pulse width, and a second laser oscillator, which emits a second laser beam having a long pulse width. After the laser beams emitted from the first and second laser oscillators have transmitted through the thread-shaped water pillar formed by the water pillar forming unit and have been irradiated to the workpiece, a plasma occurred in the water pillar forming unit applies processing to the workpiece.

An optical arrangement converts a laser beam into a line-type beam having a line-type beam cross-section that extends along a line direction with a non-vanishing intensity. The arrangement has: reshaping optics having: an input aperture through which the laser beam is radiated in; and an elongate output aperture, the reshaping optics being configured such that the laser beam radiated in is converted into a beam packet with beam segments that emerge through the output aperture; homogenization optics, which contribute to the conversion of the beam packet into the line-type output beam, and by which different beam segments are mixed and superposed along the line direction; and redirection optics configured to redirect the laser beam such that an incidence position/direction of laser beam on the input aperture is changed in dependence on time.

Collimator lens (21) and focusing lens (22) are provided with AR coating (23). AR coating (23) has a first reflectance for reflecting a first laser light higher than a second reflectance for reflecting a second laser light. Detector (25) detects diffusion light (DL) diffused by collimator lens (21) and focusing lens (22). Detector (25) has a first light receiving sensitivity for receiving the first laser light lower than a second light receiving sensitivity for receiving the second laser light.

Beam splitter (23) is provided with AR coating (24). AR coating (24) has a first reflectance for reflecting a first laser light higher than a second reflectance for reflecting a second laser light. Detector (25) detects reflection light (RL) reflected by beam splitter (23). Detector (25) has a first light receiving sensitivity for receiving the first laser light lower than a second light receiving sensitivity for receiving the second laser light.

A laser hole drilling system. The system includes a laser source that generates a laser beam along an optical axis, a cylindrical lens along the optical axis downstream of the laser source, and a spherical lens downstream of the cylindrical lens, the spherical lens offset from the optical axis to provide an anamorphic optical train to generate an asymmetric teardrop shaped energy distribution at a focal plane.

A three-dimensional printing system includes a motorized build platform, a material coating module, and a beam generation module. The beam generation module includes a laser beam formation unit, a scan module, and flat field focusing system. The laser beam formation unit includes a laser configured to output a laser beam. The scan module is configured to receive the laser beam and to scan the laser beam over a build plane that is above the motorized build platform. The flat field focusing system is configured to focus the laser beam across the laser beam and includes an input component and an output component. The input component is configured to receive the laser beam from the beam formation unit and to pass the laser beam to the scan module. The output component is configured to receive the laser beam from the scan module and pass the laser beam to the build plane.