Manufacturers of medical devices (parts and components) often need to manufacture a variety of specific products in small batches (for example, less than 100 pieces). This means that manufacturers need to cut a variety of different thicknesses and sizes of pipes and special-shaped materials, usually using different metals, or even both metals and non-metals, and each material has different surface roughness and tolerances. However, the production quantity of each type of product is limited, so it is usually not economical to use multiple laser systems.
To help users solve this problem, Coherent Coherent has launched the StarCut Tube Hybird dual-light source laser cutting system to meet the above needs. This laser machine integrates two laser light sources on the same compact machine: one is a fiber laser with a pulse width adjustable between 10-50 microseconds, and the other is an advanced ultra-superstructure with a pulse width of less than 350 femtoseconds. Short pulse (USP) laser, namely Monaco laser of Coherent Company.
Two lasers are integrated in one compact machine
Processing speed is critical for cutting thicker materials and tubes, and high-power fiber lasers are ideal. Monaco lasers have short pulse widths and high peak power/average power ratios, which are suitable for cutting extremely thin or fine parts, can achieve excellent surface finish, and have no heat affected zone (HAZ). In fact, the femtosecond output of the Monaco laser can provide excellent surface quality, usually without electro-polishing and other post-processing.
Convenient switching, processing metal/non-metal materials at the same time
Most importantly, the user can program the cutting system to switch between different lasers in the same job (ie a single CNC file). For example, fiber lasers are used for fast cutting and femtosecond lasers are used for fine processing. Both lasers output near-infrared lasers, which are suitable for processing most metal materials (such as stainless steel, magnesium, platinum, nickel) and many non-metallic materials.
The StarCut Tube Hybird dual-light source laser cutting system has all the functions and advantages of other StarCut Tube cutting systems, including up to 4-axis cutting motion and optional automatic feeding function. The cutting system can handle both tubular (up to 30 mm diameter) and flat tubes.
The versatility of this high-performance cutting system is much higher than that of ordinary cutting systems, and can provide extremely high practicability for medical device manufacturers and their subcontractors. The StarCut Tube Hybird dual-light source laser cutting system can cut stents that are thinner than human hair. It is very suitable for dry or wet cutting of nerves, stents for heart and kidney surgery, TAVR stents, pull-wire components, flexible delivery tubes, implants…
The StarCut Tube Hybird dual-light source laser cutting system can cut TAVR valve stents and other complex geometric stents.