RTC
®
5 PC Interface Board
Rev. 1.9 e
8 Advanced Functions for Scan Head and Laser Control
171
innovators for industry
8.6 Controlling a 3-Axis Scan
System (Optional)
If the 3D option of the RTC
®
5 is enabled, then the
RTC
®
5 can also be used for controlling a 3-axis scan
system consisting of an XY scan head and a Z-axis
dynamic focus unit (vario
SCAN
).
8.6.1 Intended Use
In a 3-axis scan system, the mirrors of the XY scan
head deflect the laser beam to the desired
XY position and the Z-axis simultaneously adjusts the
focal length of the scan system and thus the laser
focus along the optical axis to the desired Z position.
3-axis scan systems can be used for positioning the
laser focus within a flat processing field without the
need for a flat field objective. This is often the case in
applications for which standard flat field objectives
are unavailable.
3-axis scan systems can also be used as 3D beam
deflection systems. Here, the laser focus is guided
along the contour of the workpiece being processed,
thus enabling processing in three dimensions.
SCANLAB offers vario
SCAN
, vario
SCAN
de
,
vario
SCAN
FC and vario
SCAN
FLEX
dynamic focusing
units to extend XY scan heads to 3-axis scan systems.
8.6.2 Connection and Initialization
To control a 3-axis scan system via an RTC
®
5:
• the 3D option of the RTC
®
5 must be enabled (for
an installed RTC
®
5, this can be checked via the
command
),
• the XY scan head must be attached to the primary
scan head connector and the Z axis to the
secondary scan head connector
(1)
and
• a 3D correction table (
D3_*.CT5
) must be
or
to the primary scan head
connector
Other than that, no additional drivers or software
files (e.g. further DLL or DSP program files) are
needed for controlling a 3-axis scan system. Except
for the 3D correction table (see above), initialization
and program launching remain unchanged (see
The standard DLL (
RTC5Dll.Dll
) supports all
commands for controlling 3-axis scan systems.
However, the full functionality of the commands
(outputting Z coordinates) is only available if the 3D
option has been enabled.
Multiple 3-axis scan systems can be simultaneously
controlled (via multi-board commands) from a single
PC if a corresponding number of RTC
®
5 boards with
enabled 3D options are installed in that PC.
(1) If, in addition, the “second scan head control” option is
enabled, it’s alternatively possible to assign a 3D correction
table to the
secondary
scan head connector and to attach the
XY scan head to the
secondary
scan head connector and the Z
axis to the
primary
scan head connector (also see
and
).
