Method of simultaneous laser welding of an automotive light and related automotive light
AssigneeAutomotive Lighting Italia S.p.A. a Socio Unico
InventorsNicola Schiccheri, Cristiano Boero, Domenico Ferigo, Fabio Leone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A welding apparatus for making an automotive light including light guides having an inlet which receives the fibers the laser beam produced by the laser emitting device and an outlet which propagates/transmits the laser beam collimated by said guides. The light guide has respective free ends mechanically separated from each other, wherein the light guides are configured so as to direct collimated light beams on adjacent and locally continuous portions of welding interface so as to obtain a homogeneous and uniform distribution of the light beams along the welding interface.
Claims20
A welding apparatus for making an automotive headlight comprising:
- locking mechanism interconnecting a container body and a lenticular body to be welded to each other, the container body having a first perimeter profile and the lenticular body having a second perimeter profile which, placed in contact with each other, define a welding interface to be welded by said apparatus,
- a laser emitting device that emits a laser beam,
- a plurality of fibres which receive portions of the laser beam from the laser emitting device and direct them towards the welding interface through the lenticular body, wherein the container body acts as an absorbing element towards the light beam and the lenticular body acts as a transmissive element of the light beam,
- light guides for changing the divergence of the portions of laser beams outgoing from the fibres, so as to collimate them overall along relative optical axes,
- wherein the light guides include an inlet which receives from the fibres the laser beam produced by the laser emitting device and an outlet which propagates/transmits said laser beam collimated by the guides themselves,
- wherein the light guides include respective free ends mechanically separated from each other, and
- said light guides are configured so as to direct collimated laser beams on adjacent and locally continuous portions of welding interface so as to obtain a homogeneous and uniform distribution of the laser beams along the welding interface.
A method of simultaneous laser welding of an automotive headlight, said method including the steps of:
- providing a container body delimited by a first perimeter profile,
- providing a lenticular body internally delimited by a second perimeter profile,
- mutually associating at least partially respective first and second perimeter profile of the container body and of the lenticular body, the contact surface between said perimeter profiles defining a welding interface,
- providing at least one laser emitting device which emits a laser beam or radiation having a characteristic emission spectrum,
- providing a plurality of fibres which receive portions of the laser beam from the laser emitting device and direct them towards the welding interface through the lenticular body, wherein the container body acts as an absorbing element towards the laser beam and the lenticular body acts as a transmissive element of the laser beam,
- providing light guides for changing the spatial distribution of the portions of laser beams outgoing from the fibres, so as to collimate them overall along at least a predetermined optical axis, wherein said optical devices include an inlet which receives from the fibres the laser beam produced by the laser emitting device and an outlet which propagates/transmits said collimated laser beam,
- arranging adjacent light guides having respective free ends mechanically separated from each other,
- configuring said light guides so as to direct collimated laser beams on adjacent and locally continuous portions of welding interface so as to obtain a homogeneous and uniform distribution of the laser beams along the welding interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.