French light shaping firm Cailabs has announced a partnership with Alphanov, a pulsed laser technology centre, to develop ultrafast laser processes for electronics, microelectronics, aeronautics, aerospace, automotive and biomedical applications.
The goal of the collaboration is to develop joint projects that leverage Alphanov’s expertise in processing and Cailabs’ know-how in optics and shaping. These projects will enable industrial partners to evaluate the contribution of shaping for a given laser process, to carry out preliminary tests of Cailabs technologies for very high power USP lasers, and to develop and improve their laser processes.
A shaping system developed by Cailabs is already in use at Alphanov. It initially aims to address the needs of the micro-ablation industry. Further deployments are already planned for early 2020 to meet the needs of partners for other applications, such as micro-machining, surface texturing/functionalisation, processing of transparent materials, and more.
'We are pleased to establish this partnership with Alphanov,' said Jean-François Morizur, CEO of Cailabs. 'This partnership enables Cailabs to take a further step forward by deploying our new Canunda-Pulse product line in industrial processes using high energy femto lasers delivering mJ per pulse.'
'With the demonstration of highly original processes which can only be performed using ultrashort lasers and the development of very strong medium power sources, beam shaping opens the way to numerous applications where quality control and productivity are decisive factors,' explained Benoit Appert-Collin, director of Alphanov.
For Alphanov, this partnership will enable the integration of a new innovative technique that will further extend the possibilities for demonstrating and developing processes to its industrial partners and customers in industries such as aeronautics, electronics and health engineering.
For Cailabs, this demonstration platform will allow the direct testing of the different types of beam shaping with 500µJ–1mJ lasers on the market. 'Using this platform we are making progress towards simplifying the user experience for our partners by offering them the opportunity to assess, in a short period of time and on an experimental basis, which formatting solution is best adapted to their needs and to identify their potential gains,' concluded Nicolas Laurenchet, Cailabs sales director.
