Laser cutter/welder for thick materials used e.g. in nuclear industry has cooler with at least one vortex tube fed with compressed gas and connected to laser head

摘要

The cutter/welder consists of a head (2) delivering a laser beam (6) to create a fusion bath, has a head cooler (21) comprising at least one vortex tube (50) fed with compressed gas such as a neutral gas or one containing oxygen and/or carbon dioxide. The tube has at least one cold gas outlet (54) for the laser head, as well as at least one hot gas outlet (56). The cooler can have a number of vortex tubes mounted in parallel or in a cascade, and they are designed to produce about 80 per cent cold gas at 20 - 30 degrees C and 20 per cent hot gas at 80 - 100 degrees C, the hot gas being designed to to expel metal particles from the fusion bath created by the laser beam and also to pre-heat the components to be welded.