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From small acorns: precision micro tech at Med-Tech Innovation

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Nadeem Rizvi, managing director at Laser Micromachining explains how product development can be made easier with precision micro-technologies.

The med-tech and bio-tech sectors are evolving rapidly with new advances continually being utilised for novel products. Companies bringing new devices to market can now access a wide range of precision micro-technologies from a single UK manufacturing facility at Laser Micromachining (LML).

LML will be exhibiting at Med-Tech Innovation to showcase the following services which LML offers:

Laser machining

Critical functions of devices in the medical and bio-tech usually rely on the precision patterning, drilling, cutting or milling of materials such as polymers, metals, thin films or glasses (see figure 1).

This material processing also has to be accomplished without melting of the material or damage/distortion to the device and this is possible with the correct choice of laser and the right processing method. LML has more than 12 years of experience in providing such high-quality machining solutions.

In addition to obtaining the correct feature geometry with micron-level accuracy, the laser process also has to be repeatable and reliable. The ability to take an initial demonstration into functioning prototype parts and then ultimately through to full device production is an important consideration when developing a product manufacturing route and LML has a proven capability in this regard.

Laser welding

Materials, mainly thick metals, have been welded together using lasers for many decades for macro applications but micro-products pose particular challenges which cannot be solved by using existing laser macro-welding techniques. This is mainly due to two factors: (a) medical and biotech parts usually use ultra-thin materials and (b) damage, especially undue heating or melting, has to be avoided due to the delicate nature of the products.

Using a new generation of fibre lasers it is now possible to produce in situ welds on sensitive components without thermal distortion or damage to surrounding materials (see figure 2). With this pulsed fibre laser method, dozens of dissimilar thin metals can be laser welded with excellent weld strengths. The laser welding is carried out directly in air with no assist gas or any filler material being required, making this approach highly flexible and very convenient.

Using a combination of laser machining and laser welding, LML can now provide far more extensive solutions for product developments in the med-tech and bio-tech sectors, giving product designers many more innovative options with which to accomplish the functions which are required in complex devices.

3D printing

The overall additive manufacturing sector is growing at astounding rates and many new techniques are being brought out for manufacturing 3D parts from different materials. Although 3D-printing of micro-parts is not as mature, there are significant benefits to the micro-product designer in being able to get small complex parts made and LML now provides this service as part of the product development cycle.

Since all micro-products have to interface to the real (macro) world at some stage, the housing of laser-made micro-parts is an important consideration. LML can now bring these elements together so that the laser-made, laser-welded parts can be designed and made to fit into various types of cassettes, cartridges or housings as shown in figure 3. Although the 3D printed parts may not be the ultimate high-volume solution, there is a strong benefit in assessing the entire product idea at an early stage of prototyping and LML can make this happen efficiently and in a flexible manner.

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