Control Design – May 2019

For me, I do not think they have plans to

commercialize it.

Unlike normal laser-cutting machines,

some key points of the laser system, such

as laser power and mode, are not con-

trolled by our system. The laser provider

has the control solution, so we do not

have the knowledge of the laser system.

The result is the ML125 eight-axis

multi-function machining center. The

machine has a dual-laser head that is

capable of switching between a 2 0-W

picosecond laser for very high-speed

cutting and an ultrafast 1 0-W femtosec-

ond laser for improved process quality

(Figure 2 ). The femtosecond laser is

capable of drilling and cutting almost

any type of material, and its very short

1,030-nm wavelength means it’s suitable

for micro/nano-processing applications.

Entirely controlled by NUM’s latest-

generation Flexium+ 68 CNC platform,

the ML125 machining center has eight

servo axes, two independent NC chan-

nels and fast application-specific I/Os

embedded in the NCK hardware (Figure

3). The HMI of the ML125 machining

center is based on NUM’s Flexium touch-

screen technology (Figure 4 ). Movement

of the fully articulated laser head is con-

trolled by five NUMDrive X servo drives,

with high-speed interpolation between

all five axes. And the CNC system pro-

vides a full real-time transport control

protocol (RTCP) function.

By employing a special hollow-shaft

torque motor and a linear motor drive,

the dual laser head has an exceptionally

34 / May 2019 / ControlDesign.com

cover story

Dual-laser head

Figure 2: The ML125 machining center

has a dual-laser head capable of both

high-speed and high-quality cutting.

ML125

Figure 3: The ML125 machining center has eight

servo axes, two independent NC channels and

fast application-specific I/Os embedded in the

NCK hardware.

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