Lasers for Material Processing

MATERIAL PROCESSING

In modern industrial manufacturing, the laser is used in many different machine processing steps, ranging from cutting to surface treatment.  The micro precision provided by laser technology has enabled many of the cutting edge medical and consumer electronics technology that we now take for granted today.    For example, ultrafast lasers which produce femtosecond and picosecond pulse widths are capable of ablating material so rapidly that the surrounding area doesn’t have time to heat up, creating microscopic features without breakthrough to the surrounding material.  Material processing lasers are also widely used in the microelectronics industry as a thin film remover, particularly in the fabrication of larger format thick-film or thin-film integrated circuits which require initial calibration.  Maybe the most diverse application space for lasers in material processing is surface treatment.  Lasers can be used for processes ranging for surface cladding, peening, and texturing.  For ablative applications such as micromachining, resistor trimming, and surface texturing high pulse repetition q-switched or mode-locked lasers are preferable, including ultrafast lasers for non-thermal ablation and nanosecond lasers for thermal ablation.  For heat treating applications such as cladding and welding, high power laser diode arrays provide a continuous source of extremely high power laser light (up to several kilowatts) in a relatively small form factor with exceptional wall plug efficiency.

To learn more about the various laser Material Processing applications click on any of the applications listed below, or contact one of our laser experts today by calling 1-636-272-7222.