ARGES develops compact Anteater 3D scan head

ARGES GmbH, Wackersdorf, Germany, has developed the Anteater small, compact, and water-cooled 3D scan head for microprocessing.

The Anteater has apertures from 8.5 to 21 mm, and has an extremely persistent and dynamical focus translator. A fast change of focal plane and hence high application speed can be realized in 3D due to an especially designed focusing system. The 21 mm aperture design is focusing on applications with minimum spot size; the 8.5 mm aperture design is optimized for high speed applications, e.g. on-the-fly-processing of moving objects of up to 200 m/min with processing speeds of up to 32 m/s.

The Anteater's slim construction allows overlapping scan field operation of several scanning units. In order to save space for such multiple applications, the company also offers the ASC-4, a controller uniting several control units. Depending on the system requirements (e.g. small spot size or large processing field), the scan head can be equipped with different types of f-theta lenses and is adaptable and extendable. As an option, the Anteater can be equipped with a cross-jet in order to reduce contamination of the optical components and hence to increase the life expectancy of the optics and guarantee high process stability. A vision system can be mounted as well.

The Anteater is available for all commercial wavelengths. Typical applications include micro-structuring, micro-drilling, micro-welding, and high-speed marking.