SCA

Laser Automation/Motion Control Software

.stl file is formed of triangles.

.stl file sliced by SCA professor

Sliced object, having 3 shells to thicken the wall.

Workshop of Photonics develops SCA software to control and automate laser machining. This software was created to provide speed, flexibility and vis-ibility to laser operators and make micromachining tasks easy to describe and repeat.

Applications may vary from simple 2D marking to complex 3D laser printing tasks. List of controlled hardware starts with laser, positioning stages, galvanometric scanners and goes to power attenuators and power meters, polarization rotators, machine vision, special I/O and other peripheral devices of your laser machine.

With CAD, graphic file import and direct control of hardware, SCA greatly reduc-es time from idea to a sample processing.

SCA features: Direct control of positioning stages (no G-code)

Control of synchronized 4 axis posi-tioning system, including linear, galva-nometer, and rotary

Additional positioning axis in unsyn-chronized moves

Convenient algorithms and mathemati-cal commands

Synchronization of laser operation, sample positioning stages and galvo-scanners

Integrated micro-monitoring function

2D/3D fabrication trajectory preview window

Integrated process control

Position synchronized output (PSO)

Direct laser parameter control

Motorized attenuator control

Virtual joystick.

Supported file formats :

*.dxf – for 3D and 2D object fabrication,.

*.plt (.hpgl, .hpg) – standard plotter format for fabrication of 2D objects; features fabrication path optimization, hatching function with varying line density and angle,.

*.stl – file format standard used in 3D lithography; features horizontal and angled slicing, shell formation according to the surfaceof an object, shells (or layers) can vary in numbers, distance between shells. User can define number of inside and outside shells to be modeled and distance between shells. This allows increasing wall thick-ness of a fabricated 3D object.

*.bmp – common raster graphics file format, featuring gray scale fabrication based on pulse density, relief fabrication based on bitmap intensity levels, polarization change based on bitmap intensity levels.

SCA professor is a software package comprising complete func-tionality of the SCA product. It allows CAD file import, control of up to 5 or even more beam and sample positioning axis, rich list of peripheral devices and a sample vision with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) window.

SCA student is a basic software version to create and control 2D machining tasks with either positioning stages or galvanometric scanners.

SCA engineer edition is a task optimized OEM software version best suited for laser machine integrators. Custom adaptations and special user interfaces are made to make industrial laser machining as simple as possible. Moreover, same software package with differ-ent interfaces can control full range of your systems, from marking to sophisticated 3D machining.

Free SCA intro gives full functionality of SCA for you to design laser machining tasks (SCA intro does not actually control any hard-ware). Prepared algorithms later should be uploaded to SCA software running on an actual laser machine. SCA intro comes Free of charge and is best for evaluation purposes.

Konstitucijos ave. 23C tel. +370 5 272 57 38 info@wophotonics.com LT-08105 Vilnius, Lithuania fax +370 5 272 37 04 www.wophotonics.com

Applications 3D direct laser writing Laser cutting Laser etching Laser marking Laser dicing

Machine vision and sample recognitionSCA software has integrated camera sample view functionality. It displays im-age of the sample provided by CCD camera in the background of fabrication preview display. Calibrated field view displays actual view of the sample with fabrication trajec-tories on top of it in proper scale. This function allows users to put trajectories on the sample precisely where needed.Additional module to recognize sample or its position may be added on request.

Sample recognition module features: Sample shape recognition Sample position and its rotation angle detection Precise sample positioning under the fabrication objective Sample position offset compensation Adding new shapes for recognition

SCA 2.6 Student SCA 2.6 Professor SCA 2.6 Professor MVControl of XY galvo scanner or stage motionUp to 16 axis support. Aerotech linear and rotary stages. SSaM, RTC4, RTC5 galvo scannersRotary and additional other linear stages supportSinchronous motion of 5axisStepper motor controller from Altechna support for lin-ear and Rotary axes control.Attenuator controlDirect laser control (PHAROS and IPG)(allows to change laser parameters in the Fabrication algorithm)Power meter supportText fabricationText fonts supportDXF file importPLT file importBitmap file importSTL file import for 3D applications. Allows to specify and modify one slice-layer of 3D modelTool for stent cuttingDashed line mode with Aerotech stages without stop-ping between dashes. (Allows fabricating a grid without line crossings)Fabrication time estimationTransformations. Allows to rotate object in XYZ space.Camera commandCamera superposition view on top of fabrication viewSample tilting detectionFree SCA Intro version for writing algorithmsData import from txt filesWrite to fileShape finder. Sample detection using sample edges(ex. sample corner position and angle can be detected using 2 or 4 sample edges). Shape finder includes Circle (radius and position), Corner(position and angle) finder.line template finder. It is used for line based pattern detectionPixel intensity based pattern matching.Manual alignment point selection.Autofocus tool: scan range and adjust modesAutomatic and manual calibrationEasy integration into SCA algorithm via FindFocus, Find Object, MV reference and Transform commands

SCA versions

Konstitucijos ave. 23C tel. +370 5 272 57 38 info@wophotonics.com LT-08105 Vilnius, Lithuania fax +370 5 272 37 04 www.wophotonics.com

Functionality SCA CAM software Scanner softwareDirect control of laser parametersLaser power control using attenuatorAero Basic codeNo need to work on G-codePositioning can be described using simple com-mands (line, circle, arc, text, dxf...)PSO (only with Aerotech stages, not SSaM) CAD, STL, DXF sketchingDrag and dropAerotech stages supportMachine vision (with fabrication lines superposi-tioned on the sample view)Importing bitmap files (RTC4 card and Aerotech stages)Large complex 3D STL structuresSpot and ablation depth compensation and hatching2D visualization3D visualizationAutofocus with ccd cameraLaser power monitoring (using specific power me-ters)Possibility for an industrial interfaceLaser power calibration table using attenuators and power metersDirect control of Aerotech stages (no need to upload code to the controller)Sample tilting compensationLaser position trackingEstimated fabrication durationNew functions can be included to meet client specific requirementsCNC stagesGalvo scanner support (through SSaM)Galvo scanner support (through RTC4)Sample tilting detection using autofocus

SCA Competition comparison