High power ultrafast lasers for the precision manufacturing industry

We present advances in ultrafast laser technology that are enabling cost-effective precision manufacturing processes in high volume industrial applications. Using picosecond and femtosecond pulse lasers, material breakdown is initiated by photo-ionization, and materials processing is readily achieved with negligible heat affected zone (HAZ). We demonstrate salient performance data for the TRUMPF TruMicro lasers which are based on thin disk and fiber optic laser architectures. The latest advances revealed here include 150 W average power and 500 µJ output at ∼6 ps pulse duration from the TruMicro 5080, 120 W average power and 200 µJ output at ∼400 fs pulse duration from the TruMicro 5080 Femto Edition, and 10 W average power and 10 µJ output at ∼20 ps pulse duration from the TruMicro 2020 (fiber architecture). We moreover highlight compelling industrial applications for these lasers with examples of processing metals, polymers and ceramics.