Cost-effective production of glass tubes using a CO2 laser directly at the tube drawing line

Wirtschaftliches Trenne von Glasrohren durch CO2-Laser direkt am Rohrzug
In our “Rohrzug” project, we are developing a process that allows glass tubes to be cut precisely and cost-effectively using CO2 lasers directly during the manufacturing process.

Glass tubes are mechanically cut after drawing. This results in significant post-processing effort, as the edge quality of the tubes often fails to meet the necessary requirements after cutting. In addition, the rapid cutting of the drawn glass tube leads to high scrap rates during tube production.

At ifw Jena, we set out to develop a more economical process for manufacturing glass tubes of varying lengths.

The result is a robot that moves up and down inside the glass tube directly during the drawing process. The robot directs a CO₂ laser beam onto the inner wall of the tube. The laser beam precisely and automatically cuts off individual sections. The cut made by the CO₂ laser results in very high edge quality, eliminating the need for post-processing of the tube sections.

This repeatable and precise process enables companies to make their glass tube manufacturing processes more cost-effective without having to make costly changes to their plant technology or production chains.

The project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as part of the INNO-KOM program.

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