Femtosecond laser bursts drill crack-free holes in glass
When I attended Ceramics Expo in 2019, it was my first time attending a trade show that did not involve agriculture or horses (the fun of growing up in Iowa!). As my seasoned colleague took me around the show floor, explaining the types of exhibitors who attend such a ceramics-focused event, the device that most caught my attention was an industrial water jet cutter.
Water is not the first material I would think of for machining parts. In typical everyday usage—such as washing dishes or taking a shower—water flows around objects, not through them.
However, as any geologist knows, water can be a powerful force that has shaped and changed the landscape for millennia.
By pressurizing a stream of water (which may or may not contain an abrasive substance), manufacturers can greatly accelerate the natural erosion process. They can then use this high-speed water jet to shape materials, particularly ones that may be too brittle, thin, or heat-sensitive to withstand traditional machining methods.
Similarly, lasers are another machining technology that may surprise some people. Like water, the lasers commonly used at home—such as for cat toys and dance parties—are not going to cut holes in the walls. But if you greatly increase the wattage of a laser, it now has the energy to burn, melt, or vaporize various materials.
Though water and laser machining may sound like recent concepts, both technologies have been around a relatively long time. The earliest form of water jet cutting can be traced to the 1850s for mining purposes (though more advanced applications are attributable to paper companies in the 1930s). Likewise, within a decade of the first working laser being built in 1960, companies had developed laser-based cutting machines and were producing them at a rapid rate by the mid-1970s.