PROCESS OF TREATING A WORKPIECE USING A LIQUID JET GUIDED LASER BEAM

Abstract

The invention concerns a process for treating a workpiece, preferably for shaping a workpiece by ablating material, by a liquid jet guided laser beam. The process comprises the following steps: Production of a liquid jet by a nozzle; impinging the liquid jet on a reference surface allocated to the workpiece, whereby an intersection of the liquid jet with the reference surface defines a liquid jet-footprint; effecting a displacement between the liquid jet and the reference surface, whereby the liquid jet-footprint evolves to a trace along a trajectory associated with the trace during the time frame, wherein the trace covers a trace-area; irradiating the workpiece at least during part of the time frame with a laser beam coupled into the liquid jet, preferably for ablating material such that the trace has at least one overlap-area, wherein each of the at least one overlap-areas is defined by an associated common area of an associated second length-section of the trace and an associated first length-section of the trace and wherein the workpiece is irradiated by the laser beam along at least one of the length-sections. It concerns further a computerized numerical control (CNC) program for controlling a liquid jet guided laser machining device and a computer readable medium containing such a CNC program. Further, it contains a computer program for generating the above mentioned CNC program. Finally the invention concerns a liquid jet guided laser machining device to perform the above mentioned process.

Claims

1-15. (canceled)

16. Process for treating a workpiece, preferably for shaping a workpiece by ablating material, by a liquid jet guided laser beam within a time frame, comprising the following steps: a) producing a liquid jet by a nozzle, b) impinging the liquid jet on a reference surface allocated to the workpiece, whereby an intersection of the liquid jet with the reference surface defines a liquid jet-footprint, c) effecting a displacement between the liquid jet and the reference surface, whereby the liquid jet-footprint evolves to a trace along a trajectory associated with the trace during the time frame, wherein the trace covers a trace-area, d) irradiating the workpiece at least during part of the time frame with a laser beam coupled into the liquid jet, wherein e) the trace has at least one overlap-area, wherein each of the at least one overlap-areas is defined by an associated common area of an associated second length-section of the trace and an associated first length-section of the trace and wherein the workpiece is irradiated by the laser beam along at least one of the length-sections.

17. Process according to claim 16, wherein the laser beam irradiates the workpiece along both length-sections.

18. Process according to claim 16, wherein at least one of the associated first and second length-sections of the associated overlap-area is substantially completely covered by the associated overlap-area.

19. Process according to claim 16, wherein the trace has in a sequence a first advance-segment, a return-segment and a second advance-segment, in that a) the first advance-segment and the return-segment are associated with the first and second length-sections of a first overlap-area and a) the return-segment and the second advance-segment are associated with the first and second length-section of a second overlap-area and b) a common area of the first and the second overlap-area is essentially superposable with at least one of these two overlap-areas.

20. Process according to claim 19, wherein there is a third advance-segment which is a length-section added at the end of the sequence

21. Process according to claim 16, wherein the first and second length-section are substantially parallel along at least part of the length in which they form the overlap-area.

22. Process according to claim 16, wherein the trajectory of the trace has at least in part a spiral-like character.

23. Process according to claim 19, wherein it is applied for ablating material in a break-through area where the material thickness is a) either less than of the material thickness at this position before any material was removed from the place b) or the material thickness is less than 200 m.

24. Process according to claim 16, wherein after a break-through, the trace has a length-section with a centre-line which is substantially parallel shifted in direction of a desired high quality edge of a workpiece with respect to the spatial coordinates of the centre-line of the length-sections used in the break-through process and in that the parallel shift is preferably done by an amount of about 20 m.

25. Process according to claim 16 wherein one or more of the following parameters are changed within the time frame: a) the impinging angle, b) space coordinates of the centre-line, c) a speed of displacement, d) laser parameters.

26. Process according to claim 16, wherein the trace-area is divided into at least one larger region and at least one smaller connecting region, wherein the trajectory of the trace has at least in part a spiral-like character in the larger region.

27. Computerized numerical control (CNC) program for controlling a liquid jet guided laser machining device, wherein the program is designed for performing a process according to claim 16.

28. Computer readable storage medium containing a program according to claim 27.

29. Computer program for generating a computerized numerical control (CNC) program according to claim 27, wherein the computer program provides at least one of the following steps or functions: a) input for defining a trace, b) input for defining a trajectory, c) input for defining a trace-area, d) input for a desired shape of a workpiece, e) input for desired edge properties, f) input for workpiece information, g) finding a suitable trace based on an inputted trace-area or a desired shape of a workpiece, h) selecting a segment of the trace, i) proposing or determining one or more of the processes according to claim 1 based at least partially on the material of the workpiece and/or desired edge properties, j) assigning a process to the selected segment, k) determining a trajectory which will produce a given trace l) generating a computerized numerical control (CNC) program suitable for implementing the process strategy in the selected segment.

30. Liquid jet guided laser machining device comprising a nozzle for generating a liquid jet, a laser beam generating device and a coupling device for coupling the laser beam into the liquid jet, a workpiece-holder for fixing the workpiece and a displacement drive for effecting a displacement between the liquid jet and the workpiece, wherein a controller unit controls the displacement drive to perform a process according to claim 16.

31. Process according to claim 16, wherein the step of irradiating the workpiece at least during part of the time frame with a laser beam coupled into the liquid jet is done for ablating material.

32. Process according to claim 20, wherein the length of the third advance-segment is not longer than the length of the return-segment.

33. Process according to claim 16, wherein a) the first and second length-section are substantially parallel along at least part of the length in which they form the overlap-area and, b) in that the centre-lines associated with these parts of the length-sections are parallel shifted

34. Process according to claim 16, wherein a) the first and second length-section are substantially parallel along at least part of the length in which they form the overlap-area and, b) in that the centre-lines associated with these parts of the length-sections are parallel shifted by substantially a value between 0.1 to 0.9 diameters of the nozzle (3),

35. Process according to claim 16, wherein a) the first and second length-section are substantially parallel along at least part of the length in which they form the overlap-area and, b) in that the centre-lines associated with these parts of the length-sections are parallel shifted by substantially a value between 0.3 to 0.7 diameters of the nozzle.

36. Process according to claim 19, wherein the material thickness is determined by means of a depth measurement device.

37. Process according to claim 19, wherein the material thickness is less than 100 m.

38. Computer program for generating a computerized numerical control (CNC) program according to claim 29, wherein the workpiece information is the workpiece material and/or the initial shape of the workpiece.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0208] The following figures illustrate different exemplary embodiments:

[0209] FIG. 1 The general set up with workpiece, reference surface and liquid jet and its nozzle.

[0210] FIG. 2a, b, c The liquid jet footprint and examples.

[0211] FIG. 3a, b Explanation of the trace, trajectory, centre-line and trace-area

[0212] FIG. 4a, b, c, d, e, f Explanation of first and second length-section and overlap-area

[0213] FIG. 5a Parallel cutting

[0214] FIG. 5b Progressive cutting

[0215] FIG. 5c Spiral-like trajectory or centre-line.

[0216] FIG. 5d Finishing pass

[0217] FIG. 6 Cutting complex shapes

[0218] FIG. 7 Machining front- and back-side

[0219] FIG. 8 Definition of impinging angle

[0220] FIG. 9 Material thickness definition and use of a diaphragm

[0221] FIG. 10 Diaphragm

[0222] FIG. 11 Construction of parallel shifted lines.

[0223] FIG. 12 Image of kerfs produced with different processes.

[0224] FIG. 13a, b, c Illustrating the definition of overlap-area

[0225] In all figures, the same parts are labelled with the same numbers.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0226] FIG. 1 shows the general setup. There is a workpiece 1 and a liquid jet nozzle 3. A liquid jet 4 is produced by the nozzle 3 and impinges on the workpiece 1. There is further a reference surface 2 which is fixed to the workpiece 1 and which keeps its position with respect to the workpiece 1 during the whole process. In FIG. 1 the reference surface 2 is placed in the middle of the workpiece 1. As the workpiece 1 will change its shape during the machining process, the workpiece 1 may change its form such that the reference surface 2 is above the processed workpiece surface.

[0227] FIG. 2a shows how the liquid jet footprint 5 is defined: It is the intersection between the liquid jet 4 and the reference surface 2. However, the reference surface 2 can be at a position where the liquid jet 4 does not exist anymore, for example because the workpiece 1 is between the nozzle 3 and the reference surface 2. In theses cases, the liquid jet 4 is extrapolated forming thereby an extrapolated liquid jet 4*. The liquid jet footprint 5 is in these cases the intersection between the extrapolated liquid jet 4* and the reference surface 2.

[0228] FIGS. 2b and 2c show two examples of liquid jet footprints 5 on a reference surface 2. The liquid jet footprint 5 can be substantially circular as shown in FIG. 2b when the jet 4 impinges perpendicular onto the reference surface and has initially a circular cross-section. If the liquid jet 4 impinges not perpendicular onto the reference surface, an elliptical shape of the footprint is possible as shown in FIG. 2c. During the process, there will be in most cases a second footprint following in time after the first footprint at a different location. The direction towards this second footprint is the local direction of motion 6 and is indicated with an arrow in FIGS. 2b and 2c. The diameter of the liquid jet footprint 7 measured perpendicular to the direction of motion 6 is the local width of the trace 8.

[0229] FIG. 3a illustrates the concept of the trace 8 and the trajectory 9. Both, trace 8 and trajectory 9, are objects defined in reference surface coordinates and time t. The trace 8 is the combination of liquid jet footprints 5. As the liquid jet footprints 5 follow in time one after the other, the trace increases in time. As the liquid jet footprints 5 moves relative to the reference surface 2, the trace 8 evolves band-like in the reference surface coordinates. The trajectory 8 is a curve in time and reference surface coordinates which is composed of all liquid jet-footprint 5 centre points. The liquid jet-footprint centre point can be for example its centre of mass or the centre of the smallest circle surrounding the liquid jet-footprint or the centre of the largest circle which fits completely into it.

[0230] The trace area 10 and the centre-line 11 are simply the trace 8 resp. the trajectory 9 without the time coordinate. All references surface coordinates which occur more than once in the trace 8 or the trajectory 9, occur only once in trace area 10 resp. the centre-line 11. Centre-line 11 and trace-area 10 of the trace 8 and its trajectory 9 shown in FIG. 3a are shown in FIG. 3b.

[0231] The processing strategy requires a first and a second length-section which have an associated common overlap-area 14. This situation is illustrated in FIGS. 4a) to 4c). FIG. 4a) shows a trace 8 and its trajectory 9 projected onto the reference surface, i.e. the time coordinate is not visible in this figure. There is one overlap-area 14, where the trace 8 has the same references surface coordinates but non-adjacent time coordinates. (Adjacent time coordinates can be defined as complete sets of time coordinates, i.e. the time coordinates are in either increasing or decreasing order and nowhere in the trace outside the studied interval, there is a time coordinate with a value between the minimum and the maximum value of this studied interval).

[0232] In the situation of FIG. 4a, assume that the boundary 12a of the first length-section in earliest in time, followed by the boundary 12b of the first length-section followed by the boundary 13a of the second length-section followed by the boundary 13b of the second length-section.

[0233] The first length-section is the length-section of the trace between the boundaries 12a and 12b and the second length-section is the length-section of the trace between the boundaries 13a and 13b.

[0234] The footprints inside the first or the second length-section overlap each other but do not define an overlap-area as the time coordinates inside the length-sections are adjacent to each other: a footprint of time 1 is overlapped by a footprint of time 2 and a third footprint of time 3 and so on, but in this case, a footprint of time 1 is not overlapped by footprints of times 2, 3 and 5 without the footprint of time 4.

[0235] The situation is differently when footprints of the first length-section overlap with footprints of the second length-section: The footprints of the first length-section have for example time coordinates between 1 and 10. The footprints of the second length-section have higher time coordinates, for example between 20 and 30, as time was needed for the trace section in between the first and the second length-section. There are therefore overlapping footprints with non-adjacent time coordinates like e.g. 10 and 20 or 5 and 21. Therefore the overlap-area 14 is an overlap-area in the sense of the definition. The first and the second length-sections are defined as the length-sections of the trace which are part of the overlap-area 14.

[0236] The boundaries of a length-section 12a, 12b, 13a, 13b are defined as straight lines which are perpendicular to reference surface coordinates of the trajectory 9. Their position is chosen such that the two boundaries defining one length-section (e.g. 12a and 12b or 13a and 13b) have a minimum distance from each other while including the complete overlap-area.

[0237] FIG. 4b shows an example where the separation between the first and the second length-section and therefore also the position of the length-section boundaries 12b and 13a is less obvious. It will be shown in FIGS. 4d to 4f that what is shown in FIG. 4b is just one out of three overlap-areas 14.

[0238] FIG. 4c shows a total of 3 overlap-areas (14.1, 14.2 and 14.3). The overlap-areas overlap each other, too.

[0239] The first overlap-area 14.1 is associated to the length-section from t1 to t3 and the length-section from t6 to t8.

[0240] The second overlap-area 14.2 is associated to the length-section from t5 to t7 and the length-section from t9 to t11.

[0241] The third overlap-area 14.3 is associated to the length-section from t2 to t4 and the length-sections from t10 to t12.

[0242] There is an area associated to the length-section from t2 to t3, the length-section from t6 to t7 and the length-section from t10 to t11. This area is part of all overlap-areas because:

[0243] The length-section from t2 to t3 is part of the length-section from t1 to t3 and the length-section from t6 to t7 is part of the length-section from t6 to t8. Therefore the area belongs to the first overlap-area.

[0244] The length-section from t6 to t7 is part of the length-section from t5 to t7 and the length-section from t10 to t11 is part of the length-section from t9 to t11. Therefore the area belongs to the second overlap-area.

[0245] The length-section from t2 to t3 is part of the length-section from t2 to t4 and the length-section from t10 to t11 is part of the length-sections from t10 to t12. Therefore the area belongs to the third overlap-area.

[0246] FIG. 4d to 4f illustrate the definition of overlap-area in the case of a right-angled curve. A right-angled curve is a curve where the trajectory describes a right angle in the reference surface coordinates or where the centre-line describes a right angle. FIG. 4d shows a detail of one single right-angles curve. For illustrative purposes, the preferably continuous liquid jet was sampled in regular time steps. Therefor a finite number of liquid jet footprints 5 are shown which overlap each other. The times of each footprint are denoted with letters from A to E. For each area covered by any time step, a list of the times associated with the footprints which cover this area can be derived. Following the definition given above, an area is an overlap-area if this list of times contains non-adjacent elements.

[0247] In the shown example, there is an area covered by the footprints with times [A, B, C] and another area covered by the footprints with times [C, D, E]. These are normal parts of the trace as all elements are adjacent. There are however also areas covered by footprints with times [A, B, D] or with times [B, D] or with times [B, D, E]. In all these lists, the footprint with time C is missing and therefore there are non-adjacent elements. These are therefore overlap-areas. As the missing element in these lists is in all cases C, one can construct two time intervals which overlap each other: [A, B] overlaps [D, E]. This means, that one first length-section comprises at least partially the footprints in the time interval [A, B] and the second length-section comprises at least partially the footprints in the time interval [D, E].

[0248] FIG. 4e shows the situation in the case of a right-angled 180 curve. These are two 90 right-angled curves behind each other. In the shown example, the two right-angled curves are separated by a distance smaller than one footprint diameter.

[0249] With the same approach as explained in FIG. 4d, one finds that there are 3 overlap-areas 14 which overlap each other partially.

[0250] There are two overlap-areas corresponding to the one shown in FIG. 4d. These two overlap-areas overlap each other partially.

[0251] The first and second length-sections comprise in the first case at least partially the footprints in the time interval [A, B] and [D, E]. The footprint at time C is missing. This first overlap-area is marked with crossed hatching.

[0252] The first and second length-sections comprise in the next case at least partially the footprints in the time interval [C, D] and [F, G]. The footprint at time E is missing. This second overlap-area is marked in grey.

[0253] These two overlap-areas overlap in an area which does not belong to the footprint of time E or C.

[0254] The third overlap-area is associated to a first and a second length-section which comprise at least partially the footprints in the time interval [A, B] and [F, G]. At least one of the footprints at times C, D and E are missing. This third overlap-area is marked with diagonal hatching, in grey and with crossed hatching. Note however, that it is a coincidence and partially due to the drawing accuracy that the areas of the first and the second overlap-area seem to be completely included in the third overlap-area.

[0255] FIGS. 4d and 4e allowed to construct the lists of the times of every area. However, with a continuous liquid jet, this method is not practical. FIG. 4f illustrates the transition to the case of a continuous liquid jet:

[0256] The trace 8 is divided into sections where one is sure that there is no overlap occurring. These sections are here the three straight sections which are marked one with wide hatching, one in grey and one with fine hatching in FIG. 4f.

[0257] The relationship of every pair of these sections is studied alone.

[0258] The first pair is the wide hatched and the grey section.

[0259] The first criterion for an overlap-area is that the reference surface coordinates are the same. This is the case in the geometric overlap-area which has in this example a drop-like form: It is the light colored circle and the triangle-like area (which turns out to be the overlap-area 14).

[0260] The second criterion for an overlap-area is the non-adjacent time coordinates. The light circle indicates the reference surface coordinates at which the wide hatched section is connected to the grey section. Therefore the time coordinates are adjacent in this region and thereby the area of the light circle is excluded.

[0261] The triangle-like shaped region is therefore the only region which fulfills both criteria and this is therefore an overlap-area 14.

[0262] The boundaries of the first length-section 12a and 12b are simply perpendicular to the trajectory in the reference surface coordinates and placed at the beginning and the end of the overlap-area 14. The same applies to the boundaries of the second length-section 13a and 13b. The boundaries 12b and 13a are, in this example, at a discontinuity. The orientation of perpendicular to the trajectory is in these cases preferentially given by the orientation just before the discontinuity whereby before is on the side of the discontinuity towards the other boundary of the same length-section. In this example here, the orientation of the boundary 12b is thereby perpendicular to the trajectory just left of the discontinuity as the boundary 12a is left of the discontinuity. The orientation of the boundary 13a is perpendicular to the trajectory just below the discontinuity as the boundary 13b is below of the discontinuity.

[0263] The second pair of sections is the grey and the fine hatched section. The situation is analogue to the one of the first pair.

[0264] The third pair of sections is the wide and the fine hatched section. Again the first criterion, same reference surface coordinates, is applied first and an elongated, pointed shape is found as geometric overlap area. Then regions with adjacent time coordinates connecting the two sections are searched. Here, it has to be remembered, that the grey section does exist and can connect time coordinates to fulfill the criterion. The grey section connects the two circles in time coordinates and each circle indicates a connection point to one of the hatched sections. Therefore there is a continuous connection in time at all reference surface coordinates inside the common area of the two circles which is marked with a light grey in this Figure. Excluding this region of adjacent time coordinates from the geometric overlap area gives the overlap-area 14.

[0265] FIGS. 5a to 5d illustrate different embodiments of the processing strategy.

[0266] FIG. 5a shows an example of parallel cutting: The trace 8 forms an overlap-area 14 and its first and second length-section are the trace sections between the first resp. second length-section boundaries (12a and 12b for the first length-section; 13a and 13b for the second length-section). The trajectories 9 of the first and the second length-section are substantially parallel. The distance between the trajectories 9 is smaller than one mean footprint diameter as there would be no such overlap-area as shown here otherwise. The footprint diameter has, assuming a substantially flat reference surface and vertical incidence of the liquid jet onto the surface, a value close to the one of the nozzle diameter. Therefore the distance between the trajectories 9 is in this example smaller than one nozzle diameter. In FIG. 5a the overlap-area has a thickness of about of the mean footprint diameter. Therefore the distance between the trajectories is about of the mean footprint diameter and about of the nozzle diameter.

[0267] FIG. 5b illustrates the progressive cutting. For illustrative purposes a case is shown where the footprint diameter and therefore the trace width reduces with time. Further the turning points are also for illustrative purposes shown as straight lines. For most choices of footprint shapes, the turning points are more rounded. The trace 8 and its trajectory 9 have a folded shape. The arrows indicate the direction of time.

[0268] There are two progressive cutting steps shown in FIG. 5b. Only one of these steps is labelled. The first advance segment 15 is shown with wide hatching. The return segment 16 is marked with fine hatching with going up from left to right. The first overlap-area is the overlap-area of the first advance segment 15 and the return segment 16 and has in this example the same size as the return segment 16.

[0269] The return segment 16 is overlapped by the second advance segment 17. The resulting second overlap-area has the shape of the second advance segment 17 in this example.

[0270] It is obvious in FIG. 5b that the first overlap-area with the size, shape and position of return segment 16 and the second overlap-area with the size, shape and position of the second advance segment 17 have a common area. This common area is has the size, shape and position of the second advance segment 17 and is obviously superposable with the second overlap-area.

[0271] An example of where this is not the case was shown is FIG. 4c: There are two overlap-areas, each one with its first and second length-section, but the common area of the overlap-areas is in FIG. 4c not superposable with any of the overlap-areas. FIG. 4f however does show an example of progressive cutting: In the configuration shown there, the overlap-area between the wide hatched segment and the grey segment or the overlap-area between the grey segment and the fine hatched segment lie completely inside the overlap-area of the wide and the fine hatched segment. Therefore the common area of any one of the small overlap-areas and the large overlap-area is superposable with the respective small overlap-area. If however, the distance between the wide and the fine hatched segments is lager, the small overlap-areas lie only partially inside the large overlap-area and therefore it is not a progressive cutting anymore.

[0272] In FIG. 5b the third advance segment 18 is shown, too.

[0273] For the second progressive cutting step, the first advance segment is composed out of part of the previous second advance segment 17 and the previous third advance segment 18. The return segment and the second advance segment are not labelled. The FIG. 5b does not show where the third advance segment of the second progressive cutting step stops.

[0274] FIG. 5c shows a curve with a spiral-like character and its construction. There is a centre point of a spiral 19 and a starting point 20. The reference line 21 starts at the centre point of a spiral 19 and extends through the starting point 20. For every point in the area, a radius 22.1 and an angle 22.2 can be determined. Here the spiral-like curve is a trajectory which reduces the radius of its points with increasing length. This is the part 9.1 of the trajectory. Close to the centre point of a spiral 19, the radius of the points of the trajectory increases with increasing length and the part 9.2 of the trajectory results.

[0275] FIG. 5d finally illustrates the finishing pass process. The workpiece 1 should get a high quality edge 33. Before that, a region in front of the edge was machined with the laser coupled into the liquid jet with processes having a centre-line 11. In a last step, the liquid jet with coupled laser is moved such that the resulting centre-line 34 is parallel shifted with respect to the previous centre-line 11. This shift is done towards the desired high quality edge 33.

[0276] FIG. 6 shows an example for a centre-line 11 when a pattern with larger oversize regions 23.1 and 23.2 and connecting regions 24.1 and 24.2 should be machined into the workpiece 1. The centre-line 11 can be a straight line along the connecting regions 24.1 and 24.2. Also the parallel cutting can be used here, but this is not shown in FIG. 6. The larger oversize regions 23.1 and 23.2 are machined by processes with spiral-like centre-lines 11.

[0277] In some cases, processing strategies can be used on two opposite sides of a workpiece 1. This is shown in FIG. 7. The workpiece has a front side 25.1 and a backside 25.2. The front side 25.1 of the workpiece is a side onto which the liquid jet 4 impinges. The backside 25.2 is the side opposite of the front side 25.1. The trace-area 10.1 on the front area 25.1 and the trace-area 10.2 on the backside are superposable in the average direction of the liquid jet, i.e. if the liquid jet 4 impinges perpendicular onto the front side 25.1 the trace-area 10.1 lies directly above the trace-area 10.2 if the front side 25.1 is on the top. If however, the liquid jet 4 impinges on average in an angle of e.g. 45 and with a constant orientation with respect to the surface normal, the trace-area 10.2 on the backside 25.2 will be shifted by the workpiece thickness times the tangent of this angle (in the given example with an angle of 45 the shift equals the thickness of the workpiece). If the front and the backside 25.1 and 25.2 are not parallel or not even to each other, the trace-area 10.2 on the backside may be deformed compared to the trace-area 10.1 on the front side. The effects can add up so that e.g. non-parallel back- and front-side 25.1 and 25.2 and a non-perpendicular jet 4 result in a deformed and shifted trace-area 10.2 compared to the front side trace-area 10.1.

[0278] The backside 25.2 can be machined by either turning the workpiece 1 around or by moving the nozzle 3 below the workpiece 1. It is also possible that the workpiece 1 and the nozzle 3 are moved. Of course, the workpiece 1 and the nozzle 3 can be arranged side by side, too. In this case, the nozzle 3 or the workpiece 1 can change from one side to the other or turn around.

[0279] FIG. 8 illustrates how the impinging angle 27 is defined: The nozzle 3 produces a liquid jet 4 which is located relative to the reference surface 2. This reference surface has a local normal vector 26. The direction of the normal vector 26 is chosen to be towards the nozzle side. The angle between the normal vector 26 at the centre point of the footprint of the liquid jet 4 and the central line of the liquid jet 4 is the impinging angle 27.

[0280] FIG. 9 shows the machining process in more detail. Here, a sectional view of the workpiece is shown: The hatched and solid white area shows the workpiece before the machining process 1.1 and the hatched area alone shows the workpiece after at least part of the machining process 1.2. Thicknesses 28.1 and 28.2 can be measured at every point of the workpiece 1.1 or 1.2 and are preferentially defined as distances in the direction of the liquid jet 4. The direction of the liquid jet 4 can be for example the direction at the moment when the jet 4 passes the point or an average direction. The average can be calculated weighted with the time or with the area passed by the jet 4 and it can be a local average (e.g. about the last seconds or the last millimeters around the point) or a global average (e.g. over the whole processing time or the total process). Before the start of the process or before passing a point or before determining the direction of the jet 4 is possible, the thickness 28.1 is preferably measured in the planed direction of the liquid jet 4. It is also possible to work always with the planed direction of the liquid jet 4.

[0281] When the liquid jet 4 impinges on the surface of the workpiece 1.1 or 1.2, water and ablated material 32 are scattered around. If this material hits the nozzle 3 it can cause negative effects on the liquid jet 4 and/or on the nozzle 3. Therefore it is desirable to protect the nozzle 3 from this material 32 by a diaphragm 29. This protection keeps most scattered material 32 away from the nozzle 3.

[0282] FIG. 10 shows a diaphragm 26 from above. It is essentially a flat plate out of a suitable material like a metal. There is a hole of the shape and size of the liquid jet cross-section in the flat plate. This hole can be produced before the diaphragm is mounted below the nozzle e.g. by drilling. Preferably however, the plate is mounted as a solid plate. Then the liquid jet guided laser is started and a hole of the desired shape and size is produced by the liquid jet guided laser ablating the plate material. It is also possible that a small hole is e.g. drilled or punched before in the plate and that the liquid jet guided laser is used to increase the hole to the desired shape and size.

[0283] FIG. 11 shows a method to construct curved, parallel lines. This figure was explained in detail in the definition of parallel given above.

[0284] FIG. 12 shows the backside of a workpiece 1 with three different kerfs: The top most kerf 35 was produced with the prior art process of simply moving the liquid jet guided laser beam like a pencil over the workpiece 1. The amount of chipping is clearly visible. The second kerf from the top 36 was produced with the processes according to the embodiment parallel cutting. The amount of chipping is reduced compared to the kerf 35 produced with the prior art process. The second kerf from the top 37 was produced with the process according to the embodiment progressive cutting. The amount of chipping is the lowest of all three kerfs. However, the embodiment progressive cutting is in general slower than the embodiment parallel cutting. Therefore the user or the computer program used by the user will decide on one embodiment weighting the needs for speed and edge quality against each other.

[0285] FIG. 13 should illustrate once more the definition of an overlap area 14. FIG. 13a is a copy of FIG. 3a showing the trace 8 with the trajectory 9 and some liquid jet-footprints 5 in the 2D+t-space. The reference surface 2 defines the reference surface coordinates s1 and s2. There is further the time coordinate t. FIG. 13b shows the projection of the same trace on the s1-t plane. The trace 8 appears as a band. At places where the trace evolves fast (i.e. the relative displacement between liquid jet and reference surface was fast) the trace 8 appears thin in this projection. At places where the relative displacement between the liquid jet and the reference surface stopped for some time, the trace 8 appears column-like. At a given time, which is in a given height in this diagram, there is always exactly one interval of s1-values part of the trace 8. The length of this interval depends on the size of the footprint 5. There is only one interval as there is only one liquid-jet footprint at one time. In this diagram, it is very easy to find intervals of adjacent time coordinates and gaps in the time. To illustrate the procedure follow the dotted line 40. It is a line of one constant s1-value. Starting from the lowest shown t-value and going to the highest, there is at first no trace 8 at the s1-value marked by the dotted line 40. Then the trace 8 is crossed by the dotted line 40. This means, that there is a first time interval, which is a time interval including only adjacent time coordinates 38. After crossing the trace 8, there are again times where there are no footprints and therefore no trace 8 at the s1-coordinate marked by the dotted line 40. But further up, the trace 8 is again crossed by the line 40, marking another interval of adjacent time coordinates 38.

[0286] Looking at FIG. 13c, the projection of still the same trace 8 on the reference plane with its coordinates s1 and s2 is shown. To find common areas, the trace 8 and not the trace-area has to be shown. The difference between the trace 8 and the trace-area is that the trace 8 can overlap itself. In order to show the amount of overlap, the trace was colored with a transparent black: common areas appear therefore darker. There is obviously a common area at the s1-value marked with the dotted line 40.

[0287] To check if this common area is a overlap-area, we look again at FIG. 13b: The total time frame [t0, t5] can be divided into 5 intervals: [t0, t1]: no trace present, [t1, t2]: adjacent times, [t2, t3]: no trace present, [t3, t4]: adjacent times, [t4, t5]: no trace present. From this list, it becomes clear that there are not only adjacent times in the total time frame. There is a gap in time which is the interval [t2, t3] and therefore there is an overlap-area.

[0288] For s1-values little larger than the value marked by the dotted line 40, there are even three overlap-areas: FIG. 13c shows that there is a common area. FIG. 13b shows that the total time frame [t0, t5] can be divided into 7 intervals: starting from t0, there is first no trace present, then a first interval of adjacent times, a first gap in time, a second interval of adjacent times, a second gap in time, a third interval of adjacent times and finally no trace anymore. A first overlap-area is given by the first and the second interval of adjacent times and the first gap is the gap associated with the first overlap-area. A second overlap-area is given by the second and the third interval of adjacent times and the second gap is the gap associated with the second overlap-area. A third overlap-area is given by the first and the third interval of adjacent times and the associated gap is the combination of the first gap, the second gap and the second interval of adjacent times.

[0289] At the beginning and the end of the trace 8, there are no overlap-areas as there are no common areas.

FURTHER POSSIBLE VARIATIONS OF THE SHOWN EMBODIMENTS

[0290] Most examples and descriptions discussed here assumed round liquid jet-footprints 5. This is however not necessary: The liquid jet-footprints 5 can have different shape due to the nozzle 3, the impinging angle 27 or the tilt of the reference surface 2 and e.g. the liquid used.

[0291] If only the centre-line is shown, any embodiment which produces such a centre-line can be used. For example a simple forward motion and the progressive cutting can have the same straight centre-line.