Is it Cold Enough, Yet?

摘要

Ultrashort-pulse (USP) lasers have, since the late 1990s, been an exciting technology looking for opportunities to gain mass market application in industrial materials processing. In recent years, a wide range of new products offering innovative architectures and higher pulse energy combined with high pulsing frequencies are finding many uses in regular manufacturing, where they make components with unprecedented quality, accuracy and speed without visible signs of thermal interaction during the cutting or drilling process. Owing to the short duration of the pulses, the laser energy can be input to the material in a shorter time than heat can be transferred - leading to cutting and ablation without dross, burr or visible melt damage.