Laser Drilling Utilizes Machine Vision
05 June 2007
LASER DRILLING UTILIZES MACHINE VISION
Avicenna Technology Inc., a provider of laser machining services to the designers and manufacturers of life enhancing medical devices, has augmented its ability to drill precise holes in polymer material by adding automated vision recognition to its process.
Avicenna programs its automation to visually recognize color and pattern differences in material, and then use the coordinates of these detected differences as reference points from which to locate its laser drilling. The result is a highly adaptable process that can produce complex arrays of holes drilled in reference to any distinct structure imbedded in a polymer material.
This new drilling process is ideal for machining catheter bodies reinforced with a metal braid. In this application, Avicenna is able to accommodate a braid’s inherent fluctuations and ensure that holes are drilled only through the tube's polymer apertures, leaving the braid intact.
