Corning using ultrafast laser nanoPerforation process for 3D glass cutting

July 4, 2019
Thanks to the high-edge quality of the nanoPerforation process, there is little, or no post processing required.
Corning
Corning is using ultrafast lasers for glass cutting to enable processes not possible with scribe and break machining equipment.
Corning is using ultrafast lasers for glass cutting to enable processes not possible with scribe and break machining equipment.

Corning Incorporated (Corning, NY; NYSE: GLW) has enhanced its nanoPerforation glass cutting technology to better suit 3D cutting applications. New capabilities developed by Corning Laser Technologies (CLT) will help designers better address the worldwide trend toward utilizing curved glass surfaces in various industries, including consumer mobile devices and automobile interiors.

The new nanoPerforation glass-cutting designs meet the challenging aspects of freeform and 3D cutting, which are very difficult to achieve with traditional mechanical scribe and break (MS&B) or grinding processes.

Corning’s enhanced technology uses ultrashort pulsed lasers, which cut glass through localized perforation rather than material ablation. As successfully shown in multiple 2D glass applications, this results in smooth, very high-quality cuts at high processing speeds and accuracy. Corning is proud to announce this development in nanoPerforation that now enables the cutting of 3D shaped glass.

To achieve perpendicular cuts, an especially fast and highly precise CLT 5-axis beam delivery system has been developed. It combines two high-speed rotating axes with a fast X-, Y- and Z-motion system. The new system--the CLT 43D--joins Corning’s extensive glass-cutting platforms and is set up to accurately cut 3D­­ shaped glasses of up to 1200 mm x 700 mm x 300 mm in size.

The CLT solution enables freeform, accurate cutting, which allows for optimized processing steps with reduced complexity. Thanks to the high-edge quality of the nanoPerforation process, there is little, or no post processing required. CLT nanoPerforation is not only more flexible, but it allows new, innovative part design.

"The CLT 43D, with its 3D glass-cutting capability, provides industrial designers an additional degree of freedom in a variety of applications," said Michael Mueller, CLT business director. “Our latest solution leverages more than 20 years of experience in precision laser machining, along with more than 150 years of material science expertise, that we can uniquely offer customers.”

SOURCE: Corning; https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/about-us/news-events/news-releases/2019/06/advances-in-corning-laser-technologies-nanoperforation-improves-3d-glass-processing.html

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.

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