Metal processing

Metal draws heat away fast, so longer pulses melt the edge and leave burrs and a wide heat-affected zone. Femtosecond laser pulses remove material before the heat spreads: stents and thin parts are cut with smooth, burr-free edges, surfaces are textured to change their properties, and metals are marked black or in color without inks.

Material processing
Material processing Glass Metal Polymer Other materials
Metal

Nitinol stent cutting

Nitinol stents are cut from tube, and the tolerances are tighter than on most metal parts: the strut geometry is fine, and a medical implant has to hold its dimensions exactly to work inside the body. Femtosecond pulses hold those tolerances because they leave a smooth edge, almost no burr and only a small heat-affected zone. That is the same behavior that makes them suitable for cutting other metals.

FemtoLux has been evaluated for cutting nitinol stents, and its pulses are short enough for precise, clean cuts that leave the structure of the stent intact. The parts shown here were cut at Vactronix Scientific and at JEM Laser: a diamond-cell stent cut from tube, a zigzag-strut stent, and a demo tube carrying a fine and a coarse strut pattern on the same piece.

Manufacturing examples

Expanded nitinol stent with the Ekspla logo marked on a solid central panel.

Expanded nitinol stent with the Ekspla logo marked on a solid central panel.

Courtesy of Vactronix Scientific.

Diamond-cell nitinol stent cut from tube.

Diamond-cell nitinol stent cut from tube.

Courtesy of JEM Laser.

Nitinol demo part cut with two strut patterns, with lettering marked on the solid band between them.

Nitinol demo part cut with two strut patterns, with lettering marked on the solid band between them.

Courtesy of Vactronix Scientific.

Recommended products

FemtoLux
Industrial Femtosecond Lasers
  • 50 W / >300 µJ at 1030 nm
  • 20 W / >50 µJ at 515 nm
  • 10 W / >25 µJ at 343 nm
  • < 400 fs – 1 ps
  • Single shot to 4 MHz (AOM controlled)
  • MHz, GHz, MHz+GHz burst modes

Similar applications

Optical photograph of laser milled aluminium Fresnel lens mould, diameter 35 mm.
Metal milling in MHz burst mode

Femtosecond milling of metal gives high quality but limited throughput, because the most efficient fluence is hard to reach at high average power. MHz burst mode splits one high-energy pulse into sub-pulses, which restores the optimum fluence and raises removal efficiency by 18% on aluminum, 44.5% on copper and 37% on steel.
Perforated disc cut in stainless steel.
Cutting of various metals

Stainless steel, copper, tantalum and Kovar have all been cut with the same femtosecond laser, in foils from 50 to 125 µm thick. Only the pulse energy and scan parameters change between them, and the cut edges stay smooth and burr-free with a minimal heat-affected zone.
Black-marked QR codes and logos on medical tweezers.
Black/color marking of metals

Femtosecond pulses roughen the metal surface until it absorbs almost all incident light, which leaves a black mark of high contrast and strong resistance to environmental effects. A gentler thermal load does the opposite job: it grows a thin oxide layer, and the layer thickness sets the color, with no inks or chemical additives.
Nitinol textured with a square grid, each cell filled with LIPSS ripples.
Metal surface texturing

Femtosecond pulses near the ablation threshold cover a metal surface in laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS). The texture changes how the surface behaves rather than its shape: light absorption rises, wetting and tribological performance shift, and bacterial adhesion drops. Coarser patterns can be combined with LIPSS into hierarchical textures.
All applications