Stainless Steel Filter Now Laser Drilled Using SmartPierce™

Figure: Pattern of 1,920 – 0.4 mm diameter holes at 0.8 mm center-to-center spacing produced using LASERDYNE SmartPierce™.

Laser drilling is ideal for applications requiring high aspect (depth to diameter ratio greater than two) holes. However, one of the limitations of laser drilling has been in producing dense patterns at relatively high speeds because of the debris that is distributed over the entrance surface when using high peak power lasers. Also, distortion of the plate can be a limitation, especially for dense patterns of holes containing more than a few hundred holes.

Prima Power Laserdyne has demonstrated capability to drill such patterns of high aspect holes at high speed (less than 0.5 sec per hole) in 1.5 mm thick stainless steel while avoiding distortion of the part. Shown is a pattern of 1,920 – 0.4 mm diameter holes at 0.8 mm center-to-center spacing. Cleanliness of the pattern, hole-to-hole consistency and negligible taper of the holes are possible through use of the LASERDYNE proprietary SmartPierce feature. SmartPierce also avoids the need to clean or change nozzles that would be required using traditional trepan drilling processes.

SmartPierce is a standard feature of the S94P Laser Process Control software included on LASERDYNE systems with a QCW fiber laser.