Ultrashort-pulsed laser machining of dental ceramic implants

Abstract A novel approach for machining of cylindrical hard materials and arbitrary shapes is presented. Alumina-toughened zirconia dental implants with complex geometry are manufactured with femtosecond quasi-tangential laser ablation. This rapid prototyping approach for small-scale production decreases the development-time cycle tremendously and trumps conventional approaches. Moreover, a comprehensive parameter study for radial and tangential ablation with single- and multi-pulse is presented. A process achieving an ablation rate of 1 mm 3  min −1 with a surface roughness R a of 0.2 μm is introduced. The meta-stable tetragonal phase of the ceramic persists and is assessed via Raman spectroscopy. The small heat-affected zone is subsequently ablated with a radial laser process step. Hence, high-precision dental implants are producible with a mean error of smaller 5 μm over the complete contour.