Trumpf, Schott, Bosch Collaborate for Machining Laser Development

Industrial laser developer Trumpf GmbH and Co. KG is leading a joint research project with Schott AG and Bosch for the creation of an ultrashort pulse machining laser.

YAG disk generates multi-kilowatt laser output. Courtesy of Trumpf.

The project, named “Scaling Ultrafast Laser Productive Precision Processing Technology,” (ScULPT), was set up by partners from science and industry with the aim of developing an efficient, powerful, ultrashort pulsed laser system for machining different types of glass and metals with a tenfold increase in throughput.

“Our goal is to drastically reduce the processing cost per part in order to make new applications economically viable,” said Dirk Sutter, head of ultrashort pulse laser development at Trumpf and coordinator of research activities.

To enable this breakthrough, a significant increase in output power from industrial grade ultrashort pulse lasers, such as Trumpf’s TruMicro series, is required.

The project team is also joined by the Universities of Jena and Stuttgart, with all partners covering the entire value chain from basic research, ruggedization of beam sources, to laser machining of glasses and metals on an industrial scale. The joint research project is receiving financial support over a three-year period from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the funding program Photonics Research Germany. Project administration is provided by the VDI Technologiezentrum.