Laser Raster-Scanning Patterns on Cylindrical Workpieces Using CADFusion and PSO Bitmap Tools

A large number of cylindrical laser processing applications program the laser writing campaign as if the two axes (one linear and one rotary) are both, in fact, linear in nature. In other words, the cylindrical pattern is “unrolled” to make the shape a more typical flat workpiece. While this technique might ease the motion control programming burden, often the resulting pattern cycle time suffers due to the many directional changes the rotary axis (in particular) must undergo during laser processing. Alternatively, “free-running” the rotary axis in a constant direction and raster-scanning the required pattern using high-dynamic galvanometers is a better and far more time-efficient means of writing the same pattern to the cylindrical workpiece.