Ekspla Industrial Ultrafast

Ekspla FemtoLux 3: Microjoule Class Industrial Grade Femtosecond Fiber Laser

Ekspla's FemtoLux 3 is a modern industrial femtosecond laser aimed for micromachining, engraving and ophthalmologic surgery applications. Laser delivers up to 3 W of average power and up to 2 μJ femtosecond pulse energy. FemtoLux 3 is a flexible platform which allows to optimize output parameters for the desired process. The repetition rate as well as the output power can be easily changed with integrated pulse picker. With burst mode enabled FemtoLux 3 can generate bursts of pulses with energy above 10 µJ with burst shape pre-programed or controlled in real time. Pulse duration can also be programed up to 5 ps. Read more.

Ekspla Atlantic series High Power Industrial Picosecond Lasers

Ekspla's  Atlantic series lasers have been designed as a versatile tool for a variety of industrial material processing applications. They are compact, OEM rugged, with up to 60 W output power at 1064 nm. Featuring short pulse duration Atlantic series lasers offers minimized thermal damage to the material, what is becoming more and more important in wide range of industries: photovoltaics, electronics, biomedicine, automotive.

Innovative design, employing fiber based oscillator ensured excellent output beam parameters: M2 < 1.3 with pulse energy fluctuations < 1 %. All optical components are placed into sealed monolithic block thus ensuring reliable 24/7 operation.

High, up to 1 MHz repetition rate, combined with low maintenance requirements establishes this laser as good choice for industrial, high throughput material processing systems, requiring speed and precision. Optical components are installed in a robust, precisely machined monolithic aluminum block, which could be used as a separate module for customized solutions. Read more. 

Ekspla Atlantic 6 Compact Air-cooled Industrial Picosecond Laser

Ekspla's  Atlantic 6 is designed for industrial micromachining applications as a reliable, compact and cost effective solution. Hybrid fiber and DPSS technologies implemented in this model make it also very energetically efficient, which enables air cooling solution for laser head. No water is used inside laser, which means you should not worry about unexpected leakage, regular water replacement or possible chiller failure. Laser head generates only around 150 W of heat, so it required quite simple heat management solutions for system integrators. Laser do not require a chiller or big heat exchanger, so all control and power supply electronics is fit into standard 3U 19-inch rack.

Hybrid technology enables new pulse control features, which are not present in earlier Atlantic series lasers. Atlantic 6 can provide burst of pulses spaced only 25 ns in time, so called seeder burst mode. It is very useful in material processing applications, because in some cases it allows to increase process efficiency or at least provides additional variable parameter for process optimization. Atlantic 6 has broad range of accessible pulse repetition ranges, from single pulse to 1 MHz. Read more.

Ekspla Atlantic HR Series High Repetition Rate Industrial Picosecond Laser

The EksplaAtlantic HR diode pumped picosecond laser introduces a high repetition rate solution for material processing and other industrial applications.
Diode pumped solid state laser technology combined with EKSPLA‘s 20 years of experience in picosecond lasers has enabled the design and manufacture of a reliable cost effective tool. A rugged design ensures stable and reliable operation in diverse ambient conditions. Short pulse duration (< 8 ps) and good beam quality (M2 < 1.3) make this laser an excellent choice for many industrial as well as R&D applications.
A high repetition rate allows for fast processes with multiple meters per second scanning speed. Read more. 

Ekspla: New and Promising Applications in Laser Materials Processing

Ekspla lasers are being used in developing new and promising applications in Materials Processing. Techniques including Laser-assisted Selective Copper Deposition on Polymers and Laser Photopolymerisation are finding rapid niche growth. Ekspla has recently added ten new short articles outlining new applications for Laser Materials Processing here. It is part of the Ekspla Applications article library. 

Laser-assisted Selective Copper Deposition on Polymers

Fabrication of circuit traces is the most challenging task in Moulded interconnect devices (MID) production, being both technically difficult to achieve and difficult to make cost effectively. Moulded interconnect devices (MID) – an injection-moulded thermoplastic part with integrated electronics – offer material, weight and cost savings by integrating electronic circuits directly into polymeric components. Selective Surface Activation Induced by Laser (SSAIL) is a new technology for writing electronic circuits directly onto the dielectric material. This is done by modifying the surface properties with a picosecond pulse laser and has been developed at the Center for physical sciences and technology. Picosecond lasers can write the circuits directly by modifying the surface of polymers followed by an electroless metal plating. SSAIL is a three-step process. First is surface modification by laser; second is chemical activation of the modified areas; and the last step is metal deposition by electroless plating. The new technology offers laser writing speeds of up to 4m/s, and therefore spatial plating pitch is kept narrow at 25 µm.

Recommended Laser: Ekspla Atlantic Series High Power Industrial Picosecond Lasers

Photopolymerization

Photopolymerization is a powerful and versatile light-activated resin solidification process. It is attractive for the fabrication of complex micrometer-size three-dimensional (3D) structures by employing nanosecond as well as picosecond lasers. Many fabrication techniques of polymeric microstructures are based on photopolymerization via photolithography, digital light processing lithography, rapid prototyping, multi-photon polymerization, 3D printing, interference lithography, etc. Polymeric microstructures with a prescribed shape and thickness are desirable for a wide range of applications: tissue engineering, electronics and optics, coating, adhesives, drug delivery, microfluidics and surface science.

Source: E. Stankevičius, E. Daugnoraitė, etc. Mechanism of pillars formation using four-beam interference lithography. Optics and Lasers in Engineering 116, 41-46 (2019).\

Recommended Laser: Ekspla Atlantic Series High Power Industrial Picosecond Lasers

Ekspla ND230 High Energy Q-switched DPSS Nd:YAG Lasers

Bio-inspired Shark-skin-like Surface Structuring

Bio-inspired surfaces decrease friction with gases and the most recognizable textures are shark-skin-like riblets. Such surfaces can be formed using  direct laser ablation with high flexibility options. The bio-inspired riblet surfaces were formed using picosecond ultraviolet laser ablation on pre-heated Teflon at various sample temperatures. The ablation of hot Teflon was found to be 30% more efficient than the conventional laser structuring at room temperature. The functional properties and surface morphologies of the laser-fabricated textures were found to be close to the simplified geometry of shark-skin. The friction of structured Teflon surfaces with the flowing air was investigated using a drag measurement setup.

Source: A. Žemaitis, J. Mikšys, etc. High-efficiency laser fabrication of drag reducing riblet surfaces on pre-heated Teflon. Materials Research Express 6, 065309 (2019).

Recommended Laser: Ekspla Atlantic Series High Power Industrial Picosecond Lasers

Ekspla Atlantic 6 Compact Air-cooled Industrial Picosecond Laser

Read further articles here.