LASER MACHINING OF GLASS
Method
The machining of glass with laser technology opens up new opportunities in the manufacture of technical glass. With this method, a laser beam is irradiated from above into the glass and focused on the underside. The glass material vaporises and can flow out of the machining zone due to gravity. Unlike conventional glass processing, laser machining thus takes place in reverse, from bottom to top.
At Schröder Spezialglas, we specialise in the drilling, ablation and marking of glass with this method. This enables us to generate geometries such as drilled holes of any cross section and stepped contours. The internal structuring of glass and the precision ablation or structuring of coatings, for example, are common fields of application.
Advantages
The laser machining of glass enables the quick, high-precision and highly reproducible machining of brittle glass substrates. This innovative form of glass machining has the following advantages over conventional machining with diamond tools:
Laser drilling
- Maximum precision and reproducibility
- Blind/through holes of virtually any depth and diameter
- The cross section of drilled holes can change with increasing depth (taper)
- No masks or other aids necessary
- Minimal raised collar
Laser cutting
- Maximum yield with minimal scrap
- Closed inner contour possible
- Super-thin glass (e.g. 100 µm) with high yield
Further services
- Layer-by-layer ablation makes almost any three-dimensional structure possible
- Partial ablation
- Marking of glass
- Removal of coatings
Data
Technical data
- Tolerances ± 0.05 mm auf 600 x 600 mm
- Chipping < 100 µm
- Drilled holes Ø 0.3 mm to 600 mm length
- Radii from 0.1 mm
- Surfaces Ra < 1.6 to < 3.2
- Facets of 0° - 90 °
- Freely programmable inner engraving
Machinable substrates (extract)
- Soda-lime glass
- Borosilicate glass
- Aluminium silicate glass (e.g. Gorilla® glass)
- Quartz glass
- Willow glass
- D263