Abstract
Medical instruments such as catheters and stents require microscopic diameters to meet the needs of brain surgery. Despite the requirement for the medical applications, it has been difficult to machine microscopic metal tubes into complex shapes. A machining system that can carry out laser/electrochemical complex machining for small-diameter (less than 300 um) tube and rod processing is proposed. The system performs three-dimensional measurement of the workpiece position and processing with only one laser. On the other hand, it is difficult to remove heat-affected zone (HAZ), such as resolidified material on the surface of microscopic tube after laser processing. The DEEL (Deep Electrochemical Etching with Laser assistance) is proposed as new precise machining technology for microscopic metal tubes. The low HAZ and high aspect ratio complex machining has been experimentally demonstrated with the DEEL
