By EKSPLA
Nitinol stents are cut from tube, and the tolerances are tighter than on most metal parts: the strut geometry is fine, and a medical implant has to hold its dimensions exactly to work inside the body. Femtosecond pulses hold those tolerances because they leave a smooth edge, almost no burr and only a small heat-affected zone. FemtoLux has been evaluated for cutting nitinol stents, and its pulses are short enough for precise, clean cuts that leave the structure of the stent intact. The parts shown here were cut at Vactronix Scientific and at JEM Laser: a diamond-cell stent cut from tube, a zigzag-strut stent, and a demo tube carrying a fine and a coarse strut pattern on the same piece.
