JOB SHOPS
micromachining, according to Foster-Turner. Medical device manufacture is also a growth industry for micromachining. Optek Systems is able to accommodate a
range of volumes, from single parts to runs of millions of components. ‘Running a job shop is different to selling
laser processing equipment,’ commented Jetter. ‘A job shop should be cost-efficient with a quick turnaround time.’ He said that in setting up 4Jet Microtech,
the company had to eliminate all the organisational and personnel hierarchies that are present in the equipment business in order to be able to react quickly to enquiries – the company’s target is to respond to an enquiry within 24 hours. ‘Tere is not a typical job shop customer,’
Jetter added. ‘Some want 10 parts for prototyping, while others are asking for 20,000 identical parts to be processed over a period of 12 months.’ 4Jet Microtech has a well-equipped
Optek Systems, based in the UK, offers subcontractor services for micromachining
with laser processing expertise, but now new job shops are springing up that focus on laser micromachining, a relatively recent form of industrial laser processing based mainly on ultrashort pulse technology. Because laser micromachining is so new – micromachining typically involves using very short laser pulses in the realm of picosecond or femtosecond durations to ablate tiny amounts of material without inputting any heat into the part – equipment suppliers offering ultrafast lasers are also providing access to the technology in the form of micromachining-as-a-service. 4Jet Technologies is one such laser
equipment supplier that has opened a micromachining job shop this year. 4Jet Microtech is based in Alsdorf, Germany and focuses on processing glass, thin films and electronic components. Te company has historically targeted the automotive and tyre industries, but also has a division working on micromachining, especially ultrashort pulsed laser processes, such as glass cutting and drilling. ‘We believe there is a requirement for
micromachined parts from many industries that deal with thin film technologies, fragile coatings, or companies making prototypes for electronics and other areas,’ commented Jörg Jetter, CEO of 4Jet Technologies. ‘Since 4Jet has some fairly new micromachining technology and products, we believe this job shop not only makes sense to generate revenue,
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but it also helps us sell equipment, because the customers who get to know 4Jet and its capabilities through the job shop might be the ones who later buy their own production machines.’ Typically, customers approach 4Jet
Microtech with new processes that require feasibility tests and in some cases process development. Te company then quotes the customer a fixed price per part for the service. Gideon Foster-Turner, head of business
development at UK laser micromachining company Optek Systems, which also offers subcontractor services for micromachining, commented: ‘It’s a natural progression from process development and testing to extending those facilities to offering laser micromachining as a service. ‘Now a significant part of our business is
based around providing services, either for customers that just want to subcontract out work, as an extension of the development process, or as an interim step before investing in equipment,’ he added. Optek Systems, with headquarters in
Abingdon, UK, has facilities in North America and China and is ISO9000 certified. Te company undertakes subcontract work for aerospace, automotive, electronics and semiconductor, along with displays and photovoltaics. Electronics, which involves various versions of drilling small holes, is a big driver of laser
application lab which includes many different laser sources, as well as some semi to fully automated machining centres. ‘We bought the hardware in order to develop processes for our equipment customers and, in development work, a lot of this equipment is sitting idle most of the time,’ Jetter commented. ‘Te fact that we have this hardware allows us to offer the job shop service at economical prices, because we don’t have to factor in the full depreciation of the initial investment.’ Te biggest area for 4Jet at the moment is
processing glass, which includes cutting, drilling, and ablation of thin films. Currently this is for customers making microfluidic devices in the biotech field, for glass suppliers to the automotive sector where there’s an increasing amount of interior parts made of glass, as well as for glass for OLEDs – coated glass used in OLEDs has to be cut in a very precise, non-abrasive way to keep the thin films intact, which is why lasers are ideal for this. Offering a laser micromachining service is a
profitable niche market for equipment suppliers, because they have the expertise to develop a process to manufacture the part. ‘Tere are a huge number of variables relating to the process and the material that would steer you towards an expert service,’ commented Foster-Turner. Ten it’s just a case of deciding whether the required volumes mean the production is best outsourced to a subcontractor or an investment made in a laser micromachining system.
ISSUE 31 • SUMMER 2016 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE 35
Optek Systems
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