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Founded in 1966, Coherent is one of the world’s leading providers of lasers and laser-based technology for industrial, commercial, and scientific customers.
SECTOR: Company Insight
Founded in 1966, Coherent is one of the world’s leading providers of lasers and laser-based technology for industrial, commercial, and scientific customers. With headquarters in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania and offices spanning the globe, Coherent offers a unique and distinct product portfolio and services for scientific research, life sciences, microelectronics, and materials processing.
For the medical device industry Coherent supplies a comprehensive product offer based on an unmatched breadth of laser technologies. Our systems incorporate traditional lasers, as well as the latest fiber and ultrashort pulse (USP) laser technologies. These systems support manual through fully automated operation, for manufacturing single prototypes up to high-volume production. They are used by leading device manufacturers as well as small specialty sub-contractors. The main tasks that these systems enable are cutting/drilling, welding, and marking/surface texturing.
Coherent supports a wide range of laser cutting applications, including cutting of stents & scaffolds, heart valves, surgical instruments, hypotubes & guide wires, as well as thrombectomy devices. Many of these applications use our StarCut Tube systems. These are 3/4-axes CNC fully-automated laser cutting solutions with an ability to cut simple and complex geometries at a wide range of angles. The combination of a fixed beam with superior tube motion control delivers high-accuracy cutting, superior repeatability, high surface quality, plus minimized process time. StarCut Tube is available with either a fiber laser or a femtosecond laser, enabling cold cutting of virtually any material.
Coherent offers a portfolio of laser welding systems optimized for different volumes and levels of automation, with a choice of laser systems to support welding of both polymers and metals, e.g., endoscopes, disposables. These range from desktop laser welders, to compact manual laser welders, to the fully automated ExactWeld series. The end results are superior weld quality, higher production yields, better process consistency and improved operator productivity.
Our systems range from EasyMark table-top marking systems to the latest ExactMark automated series that provide the features and performance of larger and much more costly marking systems in a compact and easy-to-use platform. ExactMark is available with a USP laser to perform corrosion-resistant laser black marking on stainless steel and other metals. Alternatively, these systems are available with infrared, green or ultraviolet lasers for conventional marking of metals and polymers.
Coherent understands that superior support is just as important as superior machine performance. The company operates as a truly global enterprise which we believe is an essential requirement to fully support today’s medical device manufacturers using distributed manufacturing concepts. We operate production, sales and service sites as well as numerous full-equipped applications labs, strategically located all over the world.
Laser black marking applications for medical devices as well as other advanced marking tasks, are all simplified and automated by the new ExactMark 230 USP. This highly integrated system combines the Coherent PowerLine Rapid NX ultrashort pulse laser marker and motion hardware together with user-friendly software to produce high-contrast permanent marks on metals such as stainless steel, titanium, and aluminum as well as various plastics including PEEK/PPSU.
The StarCut Tube SL system is a up to 4-axes CNC laser cutting solution for fully-automated cutting of tubular and flat material, especially high-precision parts and implants for the medical device sector like stents & scaffolds, heart valves, endoscope & surgical instruments, hypotubes & guide wires or thrombectomy devices.
The Select Manual Welder is a freestanding system for producing high-quality, spot and seam laser welds on metal workpieces. It combines a laser source, enclosed, ergonomic work chamber, stereomicroscope viewer and control interface into a single, freestanding system. It’s compact and mounted on casters, which makes it convenient to use in workshops, repair facilities and production lines. Exceptional weld quality makes it well-suited for medical device manufacturing.
The ExactWeld 230 enables cost-effective high-precision laser welding of small to medium sized metal parts. It is ideally suited for medical device manufacturing, including endoscope production, fabrication of precision sensors, jewelry, watches and automotive electronics.
The ExactCut 430 is a compact laser fine cutting system for processing thin and thick metals and alloys, as well as brittle materials like sapphire, PCD, and ceramics. The system is a ready-to-use solution for demanding manufacturing applications for medical devices, electronics, automotive, and horology. It also delivers high flexibility for multipurpose job shops.
The AutoTube Marker is a laser class 1 workstation for precision laser marks, e. g. UDI marks, data matrix codes, bar codes, alphanumerics and fiducials on high-value tubular parts, such as those commonly used in medical device manufacturing.
The EasyMark series, EasyMark 5 and EasyMark XL, is one of the most compact laser marking systems on the market.
ExactWeld 430 brings all the benefits of fiber laser welding to manufacturers of medical devices and other high precision products. It produces high strength, small seam size, cosmetically attractive welds at high speeds, with minimal heat input to the workpiece.
The ExactMark 210 is a versatile laser marking machine that combines economy and performance. It can be equipped with a tray loader for high-performance, high-throughput marking. The powerful Laser FrameWork software makes it easy to use.
Laser processing is widely recognized as delivering superior results for many marking, cutting, welding, and other materials processing tasks. This is especially true for the higher value, smaller, and more physically delicate parts, such as are often encountered in medical products manufacturing. Here, the ability of lasers to process materials with higher precision, less part distortion, minimal heat affected zone, and better cosmetics makes them advantageous compared to other methods.
Download White PaperLaser welding is widely used in manufacturing medical devices like implants or endoscopic devices, often to join delicate parts. This becomes challenging if the joining partners are very thin wires made of difficult-to-weld materials. Application experts from Coherent have developed a process to safely weld thin wires made of such difficult-to-weld materials. This process can even be undertaken without destroying any plastic coating.
Download White PaperMinimally invasive surgery offers many advantages and hypotubes are critical devices used in many of these medical procedures. These hypotubes need to be small and flexible in order to fit inside human blood vessels. And they need to be hollow to allow for the control of tools or the delivery of drugs. Laser processing in a fully automated workstation is the method of choice for manufacturing this type of delicate medical product with the requisite precision, yield, and throughput.
Download White PaperThe medical device industry faces an increasing need to create permanent identifying marks on its products. The benefits of laser marking encompass counterfeit prevention, product traceability, long-term quality control, return fraud prevention, and distribution regulation. An optimized picosecond laser system provides a turnkey solution for permanent, unique device identifier (UDI) marking of stainless steel devices. It delivers a contamination-free, sub-surface mark with very high contrast and does not have the corrosion/passivation and fading problems associated with conventional thermal laser marking.
Download White PaperThe laser marking market is characterized by an increased need to mark or texture non-flat surfaces, such as curved, inclined, recessed, and stepped surfaces as well as free-form objects. Unfortunately, traditional laser markers and integrated machines are limited to a flat planar field of view. But now an automated “smart” solution, called SmartMap 3D, has been developed by Coherent that combines novel hardware and software, specifically a proven fast variable focus method and novel 3D machine vision, all under the control of powerful marking software (Visual Laser Marker).
Download White PaperLearn how laser welding enables high precision polymer part assemblies, and how to make the process work in your production.
Full automation, a tray-loading system, and simplified operation deliver increased throughput with reduced labor costs
Our integrated software platform for Coherent laser systems brings together job setup, processing, automation, and connectivity to deliver better results and higher throughput.
Manufacturers of many types of medical devices and disposable products meet the need to mark their products by using a broad range of different laser types and machines.
A trouble-free way to implement high-volume polymer welding in your production line.
Lasers are widely used in medical device manufacturing – stents alone number in the millions every year – enabling minimally invasive procedures that save lives and avoid the complexity, cost, and elevated risk of open surgeries.
New fiber laser-based systems from Coherent deliver higher precision for the most demanding applications, such as medical product and aerospace manufacturing
A ready-to-use and easy-to-operate fiber laser welding machine that’s ideal for prototyping and small-to-medium batch production.
Insulin injection pens are literally lifesaving devices, allowing millions of diabetics to administer medication to themselves whenever needed. For insulin pens to work, they need to be easy to use, and it is absolutely critical that they deliver an accurate dose. To achieve this, the pen’s dosage selection mechanism must be manufactured to high precision. But these are plastic parts, produced in high volume, and cost is a factor. This article reviews how three organizations – laser system supplier Coherent, Scandinavian machine builder (and Coherent sales partner) Masentia, and assembly equipment manufacturer SVM Automatik (a Stevanato Group brand) – partnered to develop a cost-effective production solution for precision marking the scales of insulin injection pens.
Contract manufacturers exist in a highly competitive environment, and often seek to differentiate themselves by offering some unique capability or area of expertise. Micrometric Ltd. (Lincoln, UK) has accomplished this, in part, by employing a Coherent StarCut Tube system, which enables them to cut, drill and mark metal tubing with extremely high precision. The StarCut Tube is a 3 or 4 axes, CNC, laser-based, fully-automated system, primarily intended for production of high-precision tubular and flat components. It can be configured with either a fiber laser or ultrashort pulse laser depending upon the requirements for cutting speed and heat affected zone.
Manufacturers of medical devices can find success through various business models and approaches to market. Cambus Medical (Galway, Ireland) has become a market leader by targeting and achieving excellence in a very specific area – hypo - tubes and related components (e.g., catheter shafts) – supporting a global customer base. In addition to their unique PTFE (Teflon®) coating capabilities, Cambus is expert in using a broad range of manufacturing technologies including laser cutting, laser welding, and laser marking. According to Barry Comerford, Co-founder and CEO, “Lasers play a key role in everything we make.”
