Laser Processing

Cutting parts of all shapes and sizes with a diverse group of equipment.

We offer laser cutting services across a variety of materials for flat, tubular and molded parts. With our diversity of wavelengths, we choose the proper tool for your individual material and geometry requirements.

Metal Cutting Capabilities

• Clean, burr-free cuts
• Most metals used in the medical industry
• Materials as thin as .0005″
• Accuracy of +/-.0003″
• Tubing as small as .010″ diameter
• Off-axis cutting on tubing, allowing for true bolt holes and other features
• Passivation and electropolishing of metals

Metal Applications

• Precision features in tubing, machine components and flat material for catheters
• Orthopedic tools and devices
• Stents
• Flexible catheter shaft cutting

Polymer Laser Cutting Capabilities

• PEEK, Nylon, Pebax, Polyimide, PLLA and Polyurethane are common materials
• Features and tolerance down to 15 microns
• Multi-axis machining
• Cleanroom processing available

Polymer Applications

• Reinforcing surgical components
• Filter membranes
• Catheter tips

Fuse metals with no filler material
Laser welding is a repeatable process and can be validated to tight specifications. Our equipment allows us to cover a wide range of medical applications. This encompasses spot welding wires and tubing (less than .004 spot size) to laser welding surgical and orthopedic tools that require .030” penetration.
Common inspections techniques include helium leak testing on hermetic welds, and tensile testing.

Welding Capabilities

• Hermetic seal and structural welds
• Spot welds to .003″ diameter
• Welding of 300 Series SS and most alloys (including dissimilar metals)
• Helium leak testing, tensile testing and metallurgical analysis
• Cleanroom processing

Applications

• Precision component joining
• Wire welding
• Orthopedic tools
• Sealed catheter tips

Six wavelengths of lasers that specialize in drilling.

Laser drilling is commonly used in many medical devices including embolic protection and drug delivery catheters. The breadth of our technology provides the flexibility to choose the proper wavelength for your application.

Drilling Capabilities

• Imaging capabilities to reduce costs
• Highly repeatable
• Hole diameters down to 12 microns
• Cleanroom processing available

Applications

• Embolic protection devices
• Drug delivery catheters
• Irrigation catheters
• Drug delivery balloons
• Delivery ports

Shaping a wire or tube with material removal

Creating complex micro components by removing the insulation from a very fine wire, without damaging the underlying material, or selectively removing a coating from a device.

Capabilities

• Reel to reel stripping of insulated wire, as small of diameters as .0015”
• Selective coating removal with multi-axis capabilities
• Multiple wavelengths available to cleanly remove most coating and insulations

Applications

• Selective insulation removal on electrophysiology and pacing components
• Coating removal on coils

Selectively remove material from an extrusion

Create relief for marker bands, reduce the OD of a tube in a specific location, or provide the ability for a tube collapse in a known location depending on the requirements of their device.
With multi-lumen extrusions becoming more compact, laser skiving has become a preferred option. We can create tight tolerance features in selective lumens on many of today’s smallest extrusions.

Capabilities

• Multi-axis profiling
• Complex patterns on outside diameters
• Controlled depth drilling into individual lumens
• Laser tipping
• Cleanroom processing

Applications

• Porting on rapid exchange catheters
• Electrophysiology catheters
• Drug delivery devices

Serializing and park marking are critical for traceability

The marks become a permanent part of the material without adding any foreign substances and can be passivated after marking.
We offer marking services for many polymer materials. One of the most common marking applications is laser marking of silicone for leads, but many other polymers can be marked with serial numbers, lot numbers or logos. The marking is permanent without adding any additional material or creating depth in the marked area.

Marking Capabilities

• 2-D and bar coding
• Serialization
• Diverse selection of materials
• Logos and part numbers
• Cleanroom processing

Applications

• Surgical tools
• Orthopedic Implants
• Catheter components
• Labeling and serialization of implantable devices
• Locating marks on catheters and introducers