Laser Processing For The Medical Device Industry

Medical device manufacturers face exceptionally complex challenges. Competition is fierce, the environment is dynamic, the pressure to innovate is overwhelming, and there are continually changing regulatory and compliance standards to meet. As medical device manufacturers introduce new products and penetrate new markets, it’s critical that they receive the support of manufacturing partners invested in technologies that provide accurate, consistent, repeatable, and timely results.

For medical devices, the pinpoint precision of lasers is the most valuable technology for cutting, welding, drilling, and marking components. Laser processing is a high performance solution for creating intricate and geometrically complex features in advanced materials within excruciatingly tight tolerances. No other manufacturing tool provides the same stable, accurate energy needed for fabricating precision devices, where quality has a profound effect on patient outcome.

The very first production laser was introduced in 1965. Developed by Western Electric, a major American electrical engineering and manufacturing company responsible for many seminal developments in industrial engineering, it was used to drill holes in diamond dies. Two years later, a German scientist engineered the laser cutting nozzle and used an oxygen assist-gas to cut 1 mm thick steel sheet with a focused CO2 laser beam. Fast forward another couple of years, when three researchers at Boeing wrote a paper concluding that, with significant R&D, laser gas-assist could be an effective tool for cutting hard materials such as titanium, Hastelloy, and ceramic.

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