Fine cutting

The demand for ever finer and more precise structures, especially in medical technology and electronics, can now be met only to a limited degree by conventional processes, if at all. Modern solid-state or gas lasers, on the other hand, can process almost all metals and metal alloys quickly and precisely.

Depending on the requirements, one of 3 different processes can be used: oxidation cutting, melt shear cutting or sublimation cutting. In the case of the first two, pulse-excited solid-state lasers with a high beam quality (StarCut series) are mostly used, in the latter case the lasers in the StarShape series.

The list of the laser's specific advantages is a long one:
The warming zone is extremely small (at most 3 µm) because of the sharp focus of the laser and the short treatment time. As a rule, the cut edge is so clean that elaborate reworking is superfluous. The width and speed of cut are most attractive - for example, a 100 µm thick metal sheet, with a cut width of 18 µm, can be cut at a speed of 10 mm per second. The laser beam cannot become blunt, so process quality is assured to a very high degree. Flexibility is unsurpassed - with the help of a CAD system, any new contour can be redefined within minutes.

These, and a whole series of other advantages, are the reasons why traditional methods such as chemical etching and spark erosion are more and more being thrust into the background.