Laser technology has become a universal tool for different material processing applications but unfortunately the majority of physical mechanisms and their influence on processing quality are still far beyond understanding. Laser cutting of thin-walled tubes of small diameter for medical applications is an emerging technology and requires a detailed investigation.
Ukraine takes the first place in Europe by the number of lethal cases that were caused by cardio-vascular diseases. Therefore, increasing demands for mass production of intravascular medical stents and the necessity to lower its production costs force scientists to look for cheap and efficient technologies that would its enable mass production.
This paper presents an attempt to numerically simulate: a) the cutting process of tubes that medical stents are made from; b) the propagation of an assist gas inside the tube and c) the temperature distribution on the outer and inner tube’ surfaces. Different assist gases were used, as well as various modulation frequencies and stand-off distances.
Some recommendations on the choice of optimal parameters were made as well. The results of the series of experiments are in a good accordance with the results of numerical simulation.