Product category:
Laser and high energy beam metalworking - machining or forming
News Release from: SPI Lasers UK | Subject: Fiber lasers and near infra red lasers
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 February 2008
Fiber lasers challenge near infra red
lasers
Fiber lasers are challenging near infra red lasers as the best process for plastics welding for medical industries, scribing and cutting polymers for automotive industry and ablating of thin films.
At SPI Lasers' applications laboratory in the USA, manager Dr Tony Hoult is challenging the perception of the capabilities of near infra red lasers versus state-of-art fiber lasers When processed with the latest fiber laser, applications such as plastics welding for the medical and mobile phone industries, scribing and cutting polymers for the automotive industry and ablation of thin films for the photovoltaic industry are showing excellent results, said Dr Hoult
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 15 Jun 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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SPI is expecting more results for the fiber laser in the near future as the company is asking for more organisations to come forward with further challenges for the fiber laser.
* Plastics welding - one of the most recent examples of the more surprising results produced by SPI's applications laboratory is plastics welding.
The welding of plastics was not thought to be suitable for either the high brightness of fiber lasers or the beam characteristics.
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However, when tested by the SPI applications laboratory, a careful manipulation of the laser beam has made it very easy to produce welds in polymers that are efficient, precise and time saving, said Dr Hoult to manufacturingtalk.com.
These types of plastics welds are commonly produced for the medical and mobile phone industries.
* Cutting and ablation - other examples include cutting polymers for the automotive industry, scribing and cutting alumina, and cutting and micro-machining of silicon.
Also of real interest currently is the laser ablation of thin films for the photovoltaic industry.
In this case, using very high laser frequencies up to 500kHz for thin film removal produces very precise material removal.
This means that the base material, be it glass, plastics or silicon, remains untouched when processed by one of our lasers.
Dr Hoult reported: "This is the first time in the laser industry that such high repetition rates have been available from this type of laser - and it brings a totally new level of control and sophistication to a wide range of very precise surface removal and surface structuring processes, at a cost comparable to that of an industrial marking laser." He added: "As a result of this, more costly diode pumped solid state lasers, at up to five times the price, can in many cases be replaced by a fiber laser from SPI Lasers".
These results come on the back of an announcement from the SPI applications laboratory in September, 2007, that when cutting silicon using a 200W CW-M 1070nm fiber laser, cutting speeds of up to 6m/min on 200 micron thick polycrystalline silicon were readily achieved.
This was also a surprising new application for fiber lasers, said SPI.
SPI Lasers are expecting the results produced by its applications laboratory to continue to expand the perceived capabilities of the fiber lasers.
SPI's applications laboratory is open to requests for more proof of concepts.
Device and component manufacturers, academic institutions and system integrators from around the globe are actively encouraged to work with SPI on their own application specific trials.
Each request is assessed on a case by case basis for proof of principle and, if approved, is provided at no cost to the applicant.
Laser applications engineer at SPI's applications laboratory, Jeffrey C Kabahit, said: "When we first opened the facility, we were inundated with requests for proof of principle.
We approached each request with a can-do attitude and have been amazed at some of the results".
Requesting a proof of principle is the fast track way to conduct application trials.
In addition, SPI offer a 'try before you buy programme' and SPI provides a progressive programme to support academic and not for profit research.
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