Determination of transition phases for transforming different dynamic laser beam shapes for a laser cutting machine

A control unit for providing control instructions for controlling a laser cutting machine by determining transition phases for transforming different dynamic laser beam shapes for the laser cutting machine, comprising at least one optical module that includes a dynamic laser bean shaping module (DBSM) for dynamically varying the shape of the laser beam, the control unit comprising:

• a cutting plan interface for receiving a cutting plan to be processed for cutting out parts of a workpiece, wherein each part is defined by a cutting contour consisting of cutting segments, which are ordered in a queue;
• an allocation tool configured to allocate a specific dynamic laser beam shape from a set of dynamic laser beam shapes to each cutting segment in the queue of cutting segments according to predefined assessment criteria;
• a transition tool configured to determine transition phases between each two consecutive specific dynamic laser beam shapes, wherein a first specific dynamic laser beam shape of the two consecutive specific dynamic laser beam shapes is transformed into a second specific dynamic laser beam shape of the two consecutive specific dynamic laser beam shapes within a transition time, wherein the transition time is in a range in between 0.05 ms and 10.000 ms, wherein no hard switch from one dynamic laser beam shape to a directly following or consecutive dynamic laser beam shape is applied and the transition between different dynamic laser beam shapes is a continuous transition between the two determined consecutive specific dynamic laser beam shapes;
• and
• a processor configured to access the allocation tool iteratively for determining a specific dynamic laser beam shape for each cutting segment of the queue of cutting segments and wherein the processor is further configured to access the transition tool for determining all transition phases between each two determined consecutive specific dynamic laser beam shapes and wherein the processor is configured for providing control instructions for controlling the laser cutting machine for cutting the workpiece, wherein cutting the workpiece includes executing the received cutting plan by applying during cutting:
• the specific dynamic laser beam shape for each of the cutting segments in the queue of cutting segments, which has been determined by the allocation tool, and
• the transition phases between each two determined consecutive specific dynamic laser beam shapes for each of the cutting segments of all parts to be cut according to the received cutting plan, wherein the transition phases have been determined by the transition tool.