Laser micromachining of ceramics is now the method of choice for high precision microparts.
Ceramics are generally extremely hard and tough materials. As such, conventional mechanical machining is difficult, slow and expensive. Tools wear out rapidly or break. This is an increasing problem as feature sizes and tolerances get tighter and so require finer tools. In contrast laser micromachining is a non-contact process, there is no tool wear and the effective tool size can be below 5 microns.
Laser micromachining can drill, mill, and cut ceramics with sub-micron precision. All engineering ceramics can be laser processed with features sizes in the range of microns to hundreds of microns. Many different types of ceramics can be laser processed including hard ceramics e.g. Alumina, Silicon Nitride, Aluminum Nitride, Carbides, as well as machinable ceramics e.g. Photoveel, Macor etc.
For ultra-high precision of ceramics, Oxford Lasers use short (nanosecond) and ultrashort (picosecond or femtosecond) pulsed lasers to achieve sub-micron dimensional repeatability where this is required.
A sample of ceramics we can machine include:
Alumina | Aluminium Nitride | Machinable Ceramics | PZT | Silicon Nitride | Plus many more...
The materials detailed above are purely a summary overview, therefore if the material you are interested in working in is not listed, please contact us.