Apparatus for melting a material by a laser beam, especially for forming a coating on a substrate, comprises a material supply line and optical elements for distributing and focusing the laser beam

摘要

Apparatus used especially for deposing a material on a substrate comprises a material supply line (22) having an outlet (31) on an axis (Z) and able to deliver the material along the axis (Z), and optical elements (50, 52) able to uniformly distribute the laser beam on the circumference of axis (Z) and focus the beam onto a point on this axis with respect to the outlet. The optical elements (50, 52) comprise: an element (50) for shaping the laser beam and uniformly distributing the laser beam around a second axis (Y); and an element (52) for focusing the uniformly distributed laser beam on the point of the first axis (Z). The element (50) for shaping the laser beam comprises an element for dividing the laser beam into a number of single laser beams that are uniformly distributed around the second axis (Y), or an element for transforming the laser beam into an annular laser beam around the Y axis. The element (52) for focusing the laser beam can be selected from convergent optics and off-axis parabolic mirrors. Preferably, the focussing element (52) comprises convergent optics for focussing the laser beam and an element for reflecting the focused laser beam. The material supply line (22) comprises a nozzle (26) whose axis is the first axis (Z), and which has a passage whose end forms the outlet (31) of the line (22). Preferably, the material supply line (22) passes through the focussing element (52).