Drilling

Laser drilling is one of the most developed and industry-applied laser processes. In spite of being well understood and being applied in various technical and medical fields, the necessity for research and development has not diminished. Nowadays product specifications demand more precise geometries and tight tolerances, defect-free production, and productivities up to a few ten thousand holes per second. Laser-based machine tools are used for single pieces, small batches, series, and mass production. The development of high average power lasers in the multi-kilowatt range and pulse durations down to femtoseconds for ultrashort pulse lasers opens new fields for fundamental research despite being state-of-the-art in numerous mass production processes.