Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool Company’s first “Ablaser” laser micromachining system has been delivered to a leading Japanese manufacturer of precision instruments, Mitsubishi announced.

“With this achievement, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool now aims to expand sales of the Ablaser by bringing its high-speed, high-precision machining performance, enabled by innovations such as the adoption of a proprietary optical head, to the broad attention of the North American and European markets, the leading forces in laser machining technology today, and by proposing laser micromachining solutions which employ the Ablaser in the semiconductor manufacturing process to the markets of Asia,” a company statement said.

The precision instrument manufacturer that took delivery of the first Ablaser will use the system primarily for precision machining of very hard or brittle materials. The new system will enable micro-precision machining of difficult-to-cut brittle materials, and by eliminating the conventional need for pre- and post-processing when etching, the Ablaser will also reduce running costs. In these ways, the system is expected to contribute to the development of new products, the statement said.

The Ablaser adopts an ultra-short pulse laser that enables machined surfaces of micro precision and high quality. In combination with a unique optical head featuring a high-precision lens, prism and other components, knowhow for precision machine tools is used to refract and rotate the laser beam at will.

With these features the Ablaser has successfully increased shape precision, which until now had been a key target for winning widespread system adoption. By ablating the machining area with high peak power, thermal impact on the area can be suppressed; and in drilling applications, dimensional accuracy and surface smoothness are achieved above the levels possible with electric discharge machining or conventional laser machining. These features enable difficult machining tasks such as conically tapered holes and holes tapering toward the centre.