Pulsed fibre laser speeds up micro-machining

An ultra short pulsed fibre laser for micro-machining offers exceptionally high processing speeds and improves quality, precision while also significantly reducing cycle times.

The Rofin-Baasel X-Lase is an ultra short (10-30ps) pulsed fibre laser, which has been optimised for micro-machining.

It having a spot size of 10-30 micron.

The high average power of up to 24W is achieved using an adjustable pulse frequency of between 1 to 4MHz, making this laser the perfect tool for micro-material processing applications, said Rofin.

X-Lase delivers the processing benefits of ultra short pulses together with exceptionally high processing speeds.

Rofin told manufacturingtalk.com that it enables component manufacturers to improve quality, precision and also significantly reduce cycle times.

The ultra short laser pulses combined with high beam quality allows heat sensitive materials and densely populated devices to be successfully processed.

The technique significantly reduces the heat affected zone (HAZ) and shock affected zone on the component therefore eliminating the main sources of quality problems.

The offering of the X-Lase follows the recent acquisition of Corelase by Rofin.

Corelase is a Finnish company founded in 2003 and has expertise in diode and fibre laser technology.

It produces lasers for material processing.

The X-Lase product not only compliments the existing range of Rofin lasers, said Rofin, but opens up new opportunities within micro-machining applications where exceptional quality and ultra high processing speeds are required.

* Micro-machining with macro-speed - micro-machining generally deals with features which are less than 100 micron in size.

The process normally employs pulsed lasers of <50W.

Micro-machining processes are one of the fastest growing applications for lasers, said Rofin, due to the dynamic electronics market.

Products such as solar panels, flat panel televisions and monitors, thin film circuits and mobile phone components all use micro-machining processes in areas of their production.

* Compact, powerful and flexible - the fibre technology employed by X-Lase offers a series of options on optical configuration including a range of galvo heads, which enables multiple parts to be processed simultaneously.

This provides users and integrators with a system which is not only compact in size but powerful and highly flexible in the ways in which it can be employed.

The typical applications for X-Lase include the following.

* Micro-grooving.

* Micro-drilling.

* Micro-cutting.

Rofin said that the addition of the X-Lase product to its product range further consolidates Rofin's position as having the most complete range of lasers and systems for cutting, welding, marking and micro-machining applications.

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