Manufacturing of Micro-Ridges and Micro-Gears by Laser Ablation

The aim of this development presented in this paper is to enhance the possible field of applications for the manufacturing of micro ridges and micro gears by laser ablation. For the processing of the interlocking two different laser systems were investigated. By means of an Nd:YAG-IR-Laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a third harmonic Nd:YAG-UV-Laser with a wavelength of 355 nm several materials such as hardened steel were grooved. For the adjusting of the work pieces high-precision translation and rotation stages were used. The described setup allows the fabrication of micro-ridges in several materials such as steel and copper with tooth pitches of 60 μm and length up to 300 mm. Furthermore micro-gears with modules of 0,038 and gear reduction up to 182:1 were processed.