Laser Services has announced expanded capabilities in both ceramic materials inventory and its laser-based machining services for those materials. The company is a major value-added storehouse for a range of ceramic substrates (primarily alumina) from leading suppliers, including Coorstek, CeramTec and Kyocera. Its large-volume buying power translates into cost savings for customers at both large-scale and small-scale levels. Laser Services’ close working relationships with top ceramic suppliers, and subsequent stocking of various types and thicknesses, result in fast service, especially when custom drilling, cutting, or scribing is required. In addition, Laser Services’ staff maintains up-to-date details on the critical ceramic material parameters that can impact the mechanical and electrical integrity of a customer’s design. These include consistency of dielectric constant, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and dissipation factor. This knowledge, along with decades of specifying high-quality ceramic materials for a wide range of applications, benefits customers in need of matching materials to their own applications. The company’s flexible minimum-order requirements help customers specify ceramic materials cost effectively while also eliminating waste.
In addition to its diversified ceramics material inventory, Laser Services offers extensive laser machining services for all types of materials. The company’s array of laser-based machine tools includes high-power, mid-power and low-power lasers to cut, mark, weld and perform a wide range of machining operations on a variety of materials. A combination of high-power Nd:YAG lasers and high-power CO2 laser systems can accommodate surfaces as large as 5 x 10 feet, while mid-power CO2 systems provide optically aligned precision cuts. The firm’s specialized dual-beam and quad-beam mid-power CO2 laser systems can handle extremely detailed designs whether in small prototype runs or large production runs.
Laser Services relies on the latest computer-aided-design (CAD) software tools, including SolidWorks, AutoCad, AlphaCam and Corel Draw, and accept customer layout files in a variety of different formats, including .dxf, .dwg and Gerber files. In addition to reviewing a customer’s layout files for accuracy, Laser Services’ experienced applications staff will offer guidance on how to ensure the highest yield and the most reliable end-product for a given ceramic material. For quality assurance, the firm uses mechanical and optical measurement equipment, including microscopes and CMM systems, to evaluate final designs with ±6 microns precision. Laser Services meets ISO:9001:2008 and AS9100 quality requirements.