Laser transmission welding (LTW) of thermoplastics is a direct bonding technique already used in different industrial applications sectors such as automobiles, microfluidics, electronics, and biomedicine. LTW evolves localized heating at the interface of two pieces of plastic to be joined. One of the plastic pieces needs to be optically transparent to the laser radiation whereas the other part has to be absorbent, being that the radiation produced by high power diode lasers is a good alternative for this process. As consequence, a tailored laser system has been designed and developed to obtain high quality weld seams with weld widths between 0.7 and 1.4 mm. The developed laser system consists of two diode laser bars (50 W per bar) coupled into an optical fiber using a nonimaging solution: equalization of the beam parameter product (BPP) in the slow and fast axes by a pair of step-mirrors. The power scaling was carried out by means of a multiplexing polarization technique. The analysis of energy balance and beam quality was performed considering ray tracing simulation (ZEMAX®) and experimental validation. The welding experiments were conducted on acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene (ABS), a thermoplastic frequently used in automotive, electronics and aircraft applications, doped with two different concentrations of carbon nanotubes (0.01% and 0.05% CNTs). Quality of the weld seams on ABS was analyzed in terms of the process parameters (welding speed, laser power and clamping pressure) by visual and optical microscope inspections. Mechanical properties of weld seams were analyzed by mechanical shear tests. High quality weld seams were produced in ABS, revealing the potential of the laser developed in this work for a wide range of plastic welding applications.
Laser transmission welding (LTW) of polymers is a direct bonding technique which is already used in different
industrial applications sectors such as automobile, microfluidic, electronic and biomedicine. This technique offers
several advantages over conventional methods, especially when a local deposition of energy and minimum thermal
distortions are required. In LTW one of the polymeric materials needs to be transparent to the laser wavelength and the
second part needs to be designed to be absorbed in IR spectrum. This report presents a study of laser weldability of ABS
(acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene) filled with two different concentrations of carbon nanotubes (0.01% and 0.05% CNTs).
These additives are used as infrared absorbing components in the laser welding process, affecting the thermal and optical
properties of the material and, hence, the final quality of the weld seam.
A tailored laser system has been designed to obtain high quality weld seams with widths between 0.4 and 1.0mm. It
consists of two diode laser bars (50W per bar) coupled into an optical fiber using a non-imaging solution: equalization of
the beam quality factor (M2) in the slow and fast axes by a pair of micro step-mirrors. The beam quality factor has been
analyzed at different laser powers with the aim to guarantee a coupling efficiency to the multimode optical fiber. The
power scaling is carried out by means of multiplexing polarization technique. The analysis of energy balance and beam
quality is performed in two linked steps: first by means ray tracing simulations (ZEMAX®) and second, by validation.
Quality of the weld seams is analyzed in terms of the process parameters (welding speed, laser power and clamping
pressure) by visual and optical microscope inspections. The optimum laser power range for three different welding
speeds is determinate meanwhile the clamping pressure is held constant. Additionally, the corresponding mechanical
shear tests were carried out to analyze the mechanical properties of the weld seams. This work provides a detailed study
concerning the effect of the material microstructure and laser beam quality on the final weld formation and surface
integrity.
The use of optical fibers as sensing element is increasing in clinical, pharmaceutical and industrial applications.
Excellent light delivery, long interaction length, low cost and ability not only to excite the target molecules but also to
capture the emitted light from the targets are the hallmarks of optical fiber as biosensors. In biosensors based on fiber
optics the interaction with the analyte can occur within an element of the optical fiber. One of the techniques for this kind
of biosensors is to remove the fiber optic cladding and substitute it for biological coatings that will interact with the
parameter to sensorize. The deposition of these layers can be made by sol-gel technology.
The sol-gel technology is being increasingly used mainly due to the high versatility to tailor their optical features.
Incorporation of suitable chemical and biochemical sensing agents have allowed determining pH, gases, and biochemical
species, among others. Nonetheless, the relatively high processing temperatures and short lifetime values mean severe
drawbacks for a successful exploitation of sol-gel based coated optical fibres. With regard to the latter, herein we present
the design, preparation and characterization of novel sol-gel coated optical fibres. Low temperature and UV curable
coating formulations were optimized to achieve a good adhesion and optical performance. The UV photopolymerizable
formulation was comprised by glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GLYMO), Tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and an
initiator. While the thermoset coating was prepared by using 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, GLYMO, and TEOS as
main reagents. Both curable sol-gel coated fibres were analysed by FTIR, SEM and optical characterization.
Furthermore, in the present work a new technique for silica cladding removal has been developed by ultra-short pulses
laser processing, getting good dimensional accuracy and surface integrity.
Marine engine oils are used for years without an oil change. During this long period of time the oil gets contaminated,
not only by water and fuel but also by solid contaminants due to oxidation of the base oil, overreacted additives soot and
other products of Heavy Fuel Oil combustion.
This paper shows the design, development and assembly of a visible-near infrared (400-1100 nm) sensor that monitors
several characteristics corresponding to in-use marine engine oil condition. Also, chemometric techniques (PLS) are
applied for determining TBN, %insoluble in pentane, soot and water from visible-near infrared spectra, having in mind
the low resolution capability of the extracted on-line sensor signal. Different prediction models for each oil parameter
were obtained. These prediction models were developed by partial least squares regression from the VIS/NIR spectra.
Finally, the sensor has been tested at low-speed crosshead engine (two stroke engine). So that, reference values for TBN,
%insoluble in pentane, soot and water were obtained in the laboratory for every sample. During the validation test, the
models showed: a) a correlation higher than or equal to 0.85; b) the slope for the regression model tends to one; c) low
bias; and d) the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and the standard error of performance (SEP) were similar
and close to the laboratory's estimated error.
We present a novel optical system for fiber coupling of a commercial high power diode laser stack and the application of
this laser system to transmission welding of engineering thermoplastics. The diode laser stack is made up of two 20% fill
factor bars, emitting at 808 nm and with a total maximum output power of 120W CW. The stack was collimated using
FSAC micro-optics lenses in the fast and slow axis, with a full angle divergence of <4mrad and <25mrad respectively.
The optical design and simulations were carried out using ZEMAX®. Based on the design we built an optical set up,
which is divided in two subsystems. The first one collimates the laser beam in order to achieve the best focus and couple
it into the 400μm core fiber with NA0.22 and 70% efficiency. The second subsystem is designed for beam conformation
after the fiber output, using collimation and beam shaping to have a Gaussian beam profile on the work piece. The laser
system was applied to study the welding of polycarbonate plastics, based on the effects of selected welding parameters
on the seam geometry and surface integrity. The quality of the spot welding has been analyzed obtaining welded seams
with a mean diameter about 500-600μm, preserving the good technological properties of the thermoplastic considered in
this work. The results show that we have successfully developed a novel laser system which is highly efficient for
thermoplastics processing.
This paper presents the design of an efficient collimating optical system for an extended light source, namely a highbrightness
high divergence light emitting diode (LED), sized 1x1mm, and viewing angle of 130°. The design lies in a
catadioptric rotationally symmetrical system, which modeling and optimization has been done by specific optical design
software, ZEMAX®, and its development was based on geometrical principles. The device consists of two optical
systems, one for the rays emerging from the source with low numerical apertures (NA<0.26) and another one for those
emerging with NA>0.26. The system for rays with low NA consists of an aspherical lens system which parameters are
optimized by means of standard criterion for collimation. The system for high NA rays is a combination of a hyperbolic
and a parabolic mirror, being the first one the only surface shared by both system (refractive near-axis, reflective offaxis).
The result of this work is a system that reaches a collection efficiency of 80% of the LED emitted light. Moreover, the
beam collimation quality has been analyzed obtaining a residual divergence of less than 2°. Thus, the results achieved by
the proposed optical system improve those obtained with several commercially available devices and other previously
proposed systems.
In this paper, a decision support system for ship identification is presented. The system receives as input a silhouette of the vessel to be identified, previously extracted from a side view of the object. This view could have been acquired with imaging sensors operating at different spectral ranges (CCD, FLIR, image intensifier). The input silhouette is preprocessed and compared to those stored in a database, retrieving a small number of potential matches ranked by their similarity to the target silhouette. This set of potential matches is presented to the system operator, who makes the final ship identification. This system makes use of an evolved version of the Curvature Scale Space (CSS) representation. In the proposed approach, it is curvature extrema, instead of zero crossings, that are tracked during silhouette evolution, hence improving robustness and enabling to cope successfully with cases where the standard CCS representation is found to be unstable. Also, the use of local curvature was replaced with the more robust concept of lobe concavity, with significant additional gains in performance. Experimental results on actual operational imagery prove the excellent performance and robustness of the developed method.
KEYWORDS: Modulation transfer functions, Signal to noise ratio, Image intensifiers, Electrons, Visualization, Photons, Image processing, Cameras, Transmittance, Night vision
The most straightforward way to describe the performance of an image intensifier tube, especially under adverse conditions, is to predict the image it yields. In this work we have developed two different methods to provide realistic simulated images in low light level conditions: 1) Approximate Physical Model. A classical approach based on the simulation of the different degradation sources. It provides a good understanding of the image formation process. 2) Synthesis-by-analysis of real images. The observed noise is modelled through texture analysis tools and the image blur through the MTF. The resulting simulated images for both methods were compared with real intensified images (laboratory chart sights and natural images) taken under controlled conditions, close to the performance limits of the image intensifier tube. Both methods generated good results in terms of visual comparison for different object sizes, contrasts or luminances. These methods can be used as a new tool to predict the performance thresholds of the image intensifier. Only well-known or measurable parameters were used as input for the methods.
Despite MTF is widely accepted as the most complete figure of merit describing optical quality of image intensifier tubes(IIs), it is not well-established neither in industrial nor governmental testing laboratories. This work aims to advance in the standardization of MTF testing procedures for modern IIs. A versatile device to measure MTF of IIs, based on different FFT related methods, was successfully developed and tested. Several stimuli (slits, 3 and 15 bar targets, random targets) were integrated in the system. Novel algorithms with adaptive parameter selection were developed for windowing, background thresholding, stimulus tilt correction, focusing, spatio-temporal denoising, normalization and scaling. All the methods used were simulated before measurement implementation. The measurement of the MTF of the system with the different methods provides the same result, validating the methods. Measurements on two reference tubes showed that the MTF is sensitive to image quality differences, even with similar limiting resolution. Gain control, halo and luminance influence need further research. The results reported are useful to advance in finding a definitive standard method for measuring IIs MTF.
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