Brittle objects, such as glass, ceramics, semiconductors, porcelain and stone are by their nature difficult to cut. Manufacturers must use expensive diamond tools to cut them, which create cracks in the material and severe wear in the tools. Those cracks have to be painstakingly polished, requiring enormous amounts of time and money to eliminate.
Dr. John Patten and Dr. Deepak Ravindra of Western Michigan University have found an innovative way to cut brittle materials and are currently pursuing ways to get the process to market. The process has the potential to radically change the way manufacturers handle difficult-to-machine components.
Businesses that produce microelectromechanical systems, electronics and optics industries are among the many that could be revolutionized by using the process.
It uses high pressures generated by diamond cutting tools, along with intense and focused laser beam, to cut hard, brittle objects. The process does not "introduce any form of cracks or fracture in the first place, so we do not need to spend any unnecessary post-processing time and money trying to repair any damage caused," Ravindra says.
The intensely focused heat from the laser source, generates temperatures above 1,000 degrees centigrade, and high pressure in excess of 100 GPa at the cutting point, which is about one-tenth the size of a human hair. It brings the material into a metallic state, allowing cuts with no cracking.
"You're turning something very hard and very brittle into something that is very easily deformed," Patten says.
As it cools, the material then returns to its original state, only in better condition than when it started. "It not only does it return to its original form, it does so spectacularly," Patten says. When the material has cooled the laser process will have turned it into a pristine condition.
Ultimately, cutting time, finishing time and tool wear all are reduced.
Together, the two have started Micro-Laser Assisted Machining Technologies LLC -- with Ravindra working as co-founder and chief technical officer and Patten as co-founder and chief scientific officer. WMU has supported the development of the process through its Technology Development Fund program. And the National Science Foundation recently awarded Patten and Ravindra an NSF Innovation Corps Program grant of $50,000 to ready the technology for commercialization. There were 24 teams selected this year from among 350 applicants to receive such grants this year.
"This is cutting technology done by splitting hairs," Patten says. "We are the only ones in the world doing this."
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Sources: Dr. John Patten, Mark Schwerin, Western Michigan University
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