Latex balloons used in percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty are micromachined by mechanical, electrical, and optical methods. However, the cleanliness, straightness, and thermal damage obtained in these methods must be improved in order to minimize the adhesion of a balloon on the catheter tube. In this work, a femtosecond pulsed laser was used to micromachine 1.5 mm diameter latex tubes. The focused beam coupled with argon shield gas substantially improved the quality of cuts and holes acceptable by the Food and Drug Administration. Ultrafast laser by virtue of nonthermal ablation enabled the best quality in machined profiles.
Issue Section:
Technical Briefs
1.
Momma
, C.
, Knoop
, U.
, and Nolte
, S.
, 1999, “Laser Cutting of Slotted Tube Coronary Stents, State of the Art and Future Developments
,” Biomed. Res.
, 2
, pp. 39
–44
.2.
Shirk
, M. D.
, and Molian
, P. A.
, 1998, “Ultrashort Laser Ablation of Diamond
,” J. Laser Appl.
1042-346X, 10
(2
), pp. 64
–70
.3.
Meijer
, J.
, Du
, K.
, Gillner
, A.
, Hoffmann
, D.
, Kovalenko
, V. S.
, Matsunawa
, T.
, Ostendorf
, A.
, Poprawe
, R.
, and Schulz
, W.
, 2002, “Laser Machining by Short and Ultrashort Pulses, State of the Art and New Opportunities in the Age of the Photons
,” CIRP Ann.
0007-8506, 51
(2
), pp. 531
–550
.4.
Nolte
, S.
, Momma
, C.
, Jacobs
, A.
, Tünnermann
, A.
, Chichkov
, B. N.
, Wellegehausen
, B.
, and Welling
, H.
, 1997, “Ablation of Metals by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B
0740-3224, 14
(10
), pp. 2716
–2722
.5.
Chen
, X.
, and Liu
, X.
, 1999, “Short Pulsed Laser Machining: How Short is Short Enough?
” J. Laser Appl.
1042-346X, 11
(6
), pp. 268
–272
.6.
Herrmann
, T.
, and Klimt
, B.
, 2004, “Micromachining With Picosecond Lasers: Precise, Cost Efficient, Industrially Reliable
,” LUMERA LASER: Laser Technik Journal
, Wiley
, New York
.Copyright © 2010
by American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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