Pushing the envelope of liquid-jet guided laser machining
applying modern IR fiber lasers
Jens Gaebelein, Jeroen Hribar
Avonisys AG, Zug, Switzerland

Fig. 1: An Avonisys waterjet guided laser system seen in action while machining a 24mm aluminum cube. Cutting through the
complete 24mm depth can be achieved while applying modern IR fiber laser technology.

Liquid-jet aka waterjet guided laser technology is
meanwhile more than 30 years old, yet still appears to
be an odd duck among other more widely applied
laser technologies. Recently new technological
developments were made in an effort to expand the
scope of the liquid-jet guided laser into industrial
applications that require 24/7 production processes.
A laser head and laser coupling method have been
successfully developed to enable the use of modern
high-performance fiber laser sources and efficiently
unleash multi kilowatts of power into tiny waterjets.
Additionally, the operation and the maintenance
procedures for the technology have been simplified
significantly, providing a user-friendly experience.

History of the waterjet guided laser
It’s not so commonly known, but back in the year
1986, Aesculap-Werke AG, based out of Tuttlingen,
Germany, invented the first system that guides a laser
beam to a work piece by applying the principle of
total internal reflection inside a liquid column [1]. For
this purpose, a small liquid column was flown around
the aperture of an optical fiber. In 1991 LASAG AG
refined this principle by generating the liquid column
using a waterjet nozzle and focusing the laser beam
into the nozzle inlet [2]. Building on the same laser

© Avonisys AG

coupling principle as LASAG, yet another refinement
step was made by B. Richerzhagen in the year 1994
[3], which was then commercialized by Synova SA
from 1997 in the way that most people know of this
technology today.

Technological challenges to overcome
In the summer of 2013, the founding engineers of
Avonisys AG were confronted with the challenge of
machining deep micro-slots with a cumulated length
of several meters into the concave inner surface of
molds. A complex 5-axis full sync CNC-machining job
during which an individual work piece had to be laser
machined for up to 24h uninterrupted. In theory this
task would have lend itself well to the characteristics
of the liquid-jet guided laser as it was already
available on the market for many years.

[ …existing theories had to be questioned
and a completely new waterjet guided
laser system was developed. ]
Thus, before deciding whether to proceed and
commit to such task, a series of machining tests were

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 conducted on available 3rd party liquid-jet guided
laser systems installed at job shop companies. It was
rapidly found out that the task at hand was far from
trivial and that important challenges had to be
overcome in order to manage such complex
machining task successfully. This led to the formation
of Avonisys and was the starting point of an extensive
development period in which many fundamental
experiments were performed, existing theories had to
be questioned and resulted in the development of a
completely new liquid-jet guided laser system.

To overcome this problem, the Air-Jet system [4] was
developed, and it turned out to be a game changer.
Air-Jet essentially is a co-axial stream of compressed
air around the waterjet but without interference of
the Air-Jet with the waterjet until reaching the surface
of the work piece. For this purpose, the waterjet and
the Air-Jet leave the laser head through two separate
openings that are spaced apart. Fig. 3 illustrates the
working principle of Air-Jet when machining a slot into
a cavity.

Avonisys developments
One of the first and most important hurdles to tackle
was finding a solution to keep concave work piece
surfaces and deep pockets inside a workpiece free
from process water accumulation during the actual
machining process. This seems paradox as water
forms the fundament of a waterjet guided laser.
However, for a technology that heavily relies on
guiding substantial amounts of laser energy inside a
liquid-jet by total internal reflection, it is easy to
understand that a proper water-to-air interface is
paramount, especially until the waterjet reaches the
work piece surface. Having said that, machining
inside a pocket is not principally impossible, but as
soon as the level of water accumulation passes a
certain critical height, it will collapse onto the waterjet
and in consequence laser light scatters out of the jet
in an uncontrolled manner, hence the process
“drowns”.
Known methods in which an assist gas stream is
directly enveloped around the waterjet and leaving
through the same exit aperture as the waterjet turned
out not suitable to solve this problem. The pressure
that is required to achieve adequate water removal
from pockets adversely impacts or even vaporizes the
waterjet, thus making proper laser light transmission
impossible. Fig. 2 illustrates how the laser process
“drowns” when a proper water-to-air interface of the
waterjet is missing.

Fig. 2: A) Kinetic energy of waterjet alone is insufficient to
maintain water-to-air boundary. B) Direct-enveloping assist
gas stream is insufficient to maintain water-to-gas boundary.

© Avonisys AG

Fig. 3: Working principle of the Avonisys Air-Jet. Effective
removal of water accumulation from 3-dimensional work
piece surfaces.

The Air-Jet pressure and flow volume can be adjusted
to efficiently clear work piece topography from water
accumulation. Fig. 4 illustrates that even inside deep
pockets the working area of the laser is kept dry
without harming the waterjet’s energy transmission
and thus allowing the material evaporation process
to fully unfold.

Fig. 4: Air-Jet technology keeps the laser processing area
dry, even inside blind pockets.

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 A positive side-effect of the Air-Jet, as shown in Fig. 5,
is the mitigation of back-splashes and other waterjet
disturbances that can otherwise disrupt the waterjet
and cause damages to the work piece. Air-Jet forms
a distant cylindrical protection shield for the waterjet.

formula describes how deep the laser focus cone can
be placed into the nozzle orifice cavity without
introducing laser energy that exceeds the damage
threshold of the nozzle material.

Fig. 5: Droplets (red arrow) are blown away before they can
touch the waterjet. Air-Jet creates a protection zone (yellow
arrows) around the waterjet to avoid disturbances.

A second important aspect for robust waterjet laser
machining, is consistent high transmission of laser
energy without damaging the waterjet nozzle orifice.
Typically, materials such as sapphire or synthetic
diamond are applied to manufacture the waterjet
nozzle orifice, which can have a diameter ranging
from only 30 – 80µm for typical waterjet guided laser
applications. Needless to say, special measures are
required to protect the nozzle orifice against the high
amounts of laser energy that need to be transmitted
through it for work piece treatment. Typical waterjet
guided laser systems apply high-NA focus optics and
place the laser focus in the nozzle inlet plane,
regardless of the nozzle diameter and regardless of
the laser properties. From an optics point of view this
did not seem to be the best approach and in a quest
for increasing laser energy throughput and increasing
the nozzle life time, Avonisys started a series of
fundamental experiments. Many dozens of sapphire
and diamond nozzles have been sacrificed in an
empirical process to derive the perfect coupling point
for different nozzle diameters, different focus optic
geometries and different laser beam properties (M2 /
BPP). This ultimately resulted in a coupling method [5]
based on geometrical relation that is applied to
achieve accurate and repeatable coupling of highpower laser beams:

𝐶𝑃 =  

Target is that internal reflection of the laser beam
inside the waterjet only starts below the nozzle orifice
where the waterjet has reached its stable laminar
diameter. Coupling as deep as possible additionally
has the purpose to increase the spot diameter of the
laser beam on the lower side of the laser window that
faces the water chamber inside the laser coupling
module. A bigger laser spot equals a lower energy
density and thus longer lifetime of the laser window.
As Fig. 7 illustrates, a coupling factor of 0,67 allows 98%
of the laser energy to pass through the nozzle orifice.
In consequence only 2% of laser energy is allowed to
incident the top surface of the nozzle. A coupling
factor of 0,5 on the other hand ensures 100% power
transmission through the orifice.

0,5 × 𝐶𝐹 ×   𝐷+
tan(𝜃/2)

Where CP is the coupling point of the laser focus spot
as offset value below the nozzle inlet plane, CF is a
coupling factor representing an energized beam
diameter (1/e2, 98%, 100%, etc.), DN is the nozzle
diameter and θ is the focus cone angle of the laser
beam based on the laser BPP in combination with the
collimation and focusing optics. The effect of highpower focus shifting in some cases needs to be
considered too, but as Fig. 6 illustrates essentially this

© Avonisys AG

Fig. 6: Laser coupling scheme based on reduction of the
energetic impact of laser to the waterjet nozzle orifice.

Fig. 7: Relation of coupling factor and power transmission
through the nozzle orifice.

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 On top of that, also hydraulic effects were taken into
consideration to derive the best laser focus coupling
point and the best point of first internal reflection of
laser rays inside the waterjet. In particular the
presence, the effect and the relevance of hydraulic
flip was analyzed. Hydraulic flip essentially describes
the phenomenon that the waterjet contracts after
passing the nozzle inlet and remains of a smaller
diameter than the orifice, also when exiting the
nozzle. This effect is only reported for very particular
nozzle designs. R. Cadavid for example provides
detailed insight in the various aspects of cutting with
and conditioning of fluidjets of small diameters [6].
For different reasons Avonisys did not want to rely on
the presence of hydraulic flip for the development of
its coupling method. On one hand this would strongly
limit the variety of nozzle geometries that would be
usable. But far more important, the waterjet was
considered not to be a 100% perfect light guide, even
in case of hydraulic flip and it was expected that
significant amounts of laser energy, especially when
using high-NA optics would be coupled out of the
waterjet into the side walls of the nozzle orifice.
Practical experiments with sharp-edged low-aspect
waterjet nozzles, capable of producing hydraulic flip,
confirmed this point and it was shown that when using
high-NA optics to focus a laser beam into the nozzle
inlet plane, such nozzles were subject to damage of
the rear side of the nozzle orifice within just a few
working hours. On the other hand, when the laser
focus spot was placed below the nozzle inlet plane
with a lower NA focus lens and as calculated with the
coupling formula, no nozzle damage occurred. A
comparison of the traditional laser coupling method
(A) and the Avonisys method (B) is shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8: A) Typical system: high-NA optics cause internal
reflection to start within nozzle orifice. Out-coupled laser
energy damages the orifice. B) Avonisys: internal reflection
starts far below the nozzle orifice. The nozzle orifice remains
intact, also at higher laser power.

© Avonisys AG

Table 1 shows the focus shift corrected coupling point
values for a 1075nm fiber laser with a BPP of 2.1 and a
37° 1/e2 cone angle (in air and corrected for water).

Tab. 1: Laser coupling point for various orifice diameters

A dedicated focus Z-drive (Fig. 9) was developed to
allow setting the precise coupling point of the laser
focal plane in a reliable and repeatable manner.

Fig. 9: Avonisys Focus Z-drive with 6mm Z-travel and 10µm
increment scale.

Setting the best coupling point is now fast and
accurate: In a first step a laser focus spot of low
energy is projected onto the nozzle orifice. The Z-drive
is then adjusted to deliver a sharp image of both the
nozzle inlet plane and the laser focus spot. The nozzle
orifice is then centered mechanically to the laser
spot. Lastly, the focus lens is moved down with the Zdrive to the required coupling point, for example to a
-200µm coupling point, which is achieved by rotating
the focus Z-drive by an amount of 20 scale units in
clockwise direction. The system is now properly setup
to transmit a high-power laser beam through the
waterjet nozzle without damaging it. As can be seen
in Fig. 10, the focus Z-drive and the laser coupling
assembly mounted below it take up approx. half the
space of the whole laser head and underline how
important both these modules actually are for a
stable high-power laser process.

Fig. 10: Avonisys LJFK45 series laser head.

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 The Infrared paradigm
Nowadays waterjet guided laser systems more or less
exclusively apply green (532nm) nanosecond YAG
lasers. Partly because of the work piece material
behavior, but mainly because of the consideration of
lower absorption of the water for this wavelength.
Although Near-Infrared light is indeed absorbed by
water to a much larger extent then visible light and in
particular the spectrum around the color green, this
turned out not to be the main driver for effective laser
power transmission to a work piece. During the
development of the coupling method, Avonisys
engineers found out that flat (low-NA) coupling
angles are particularly favorable to transport very
high amounts of laser energy to a work piece. In other
words, keeping the perimeter rays of the laser focus
cone well below the critical out-coupling angle of the
water-to-air interface strongly reduced unwanted
out-coupling and scattering of laser energy.
Due to the excellent laser beam quality as well as low
maintenance characteristics of modern fiber lasers,
Avonisys was keen on “forcing” as many applications
and materials to fit this type of laser. Mainly to keep
the system setup as simple and as robust as possible
for industrial 24/7 usage scenarios. This did not work
immediately, but step by step the bar could be raised
and cutting depths as well as cutting quality were
increased to astonishing levels. Not all fiber lasers are
created equal and different fiber laser types that on
paper should be able to deliver similar results, turned
out to differ quite a bit in praxis. The redPOWER QUBE
fiber laser series [7] by SPI Lasers (Fig. 11) pairs
particularly well with the Avonisys waterjet guided
laser process. When it comes to deep micro-cutting
and deep micro hole drilling with excellent surface
quality, the beam quality and pulse characteristics of
SPI’s redPOWER CW-M lasers are game changing.

Tungsten Carbide reliably (Fig. 12). For this purpose,
the consistent and good beam quality as well as
convenient laser pulse shaping options that come
with SPI fiber lasers have opened up completely new
drilling and cutting strategies.” adds Gaebelein.

Fig. 12: Left: inclined 0.3mm holes up to 6mm deep in Inconel
airfoil. Right: inclined 0.3mm hole 2mm deep in tungsten
carbide threading tool.

“The installation of the laser source with the Avonisys
waterjet guided laser process was surprisingly easy.”
says Mark Southwell, Field Service Manager at SPI
Lasers. “After connecting the optical fiber to the QBH
connector of the Avonisys laser head, the waterjet
nozzle could be easily aligned to the laser focus spot.
Literally minutes after connecting the laser for the first
time we were already cutting material. This was a very
positive surprise to me and not what I expected.”
adds Southwell.
Next to micro hole drilling, Avonisys has tested how far
it could take the SPI laser for straight and shaped cutthroughs. As benchmark material (for vulcanization
molds) aluminum was used. Based on experience
with QCW fiber lasers it was expected that the laser
process with SPI would be able to cut approx. 1012mm deep and then reach its limit. This depth in itself
would already have been fantastic. Surprisingly it was
possible to cut through the complete thickness of a
24mm aluminum “reference” cube, which is a
significant performance increase. Further tests in
silicon as well as black ceramic material were
performed as shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 11: SPI Lasers redPOWER QUBE fiber laser as used by
Avonisys AG in its waterjet guided laser systems (Source: SPI
Lasers UK Ltd).

“SPI has helped to carefully analyze typical laser
parameters for our application portfolio, based on
which we together selected a first laser source to put
to the test.” says Jens Gaebelein, co-founder and
CTO of Avonisys. “Using a CW-M fiber laser compared
to a similar spec QCW fiber laser has brought us
specific advantages for our waterjet guided laser
process. It is now possible to drill significantly deeper
micro holes in hard materials such as Inconel and

© Avonisys AG

Fig. 13: Results of waterjet laser micro-cutting with SPI
redPOWER QUBE 2kW version. Aluminum 24mm depth, Black
ceramic 12mm depth, Silicon 7mm depth.

The Air-Jet system as well as coupling method played
an important role for pushing the boundaries of the IR

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 waterjet guided laser too. Air-Jet for example also
keeps deeper cutting slots free from water to a large
extent, which helps to maintain a better evaporation
process (less energy losses in longitudinal direction of
the cutting kerf). The coupling method on the other
hand ensures that as much power from the laser as
possible is actually delivered to the work piece. Thus,
in sum it is safe to say that Avonisys has successfully
implemented modern IR fiber laser sources from SPI
into its systems to achieve cutting performance that
no one would have considered possible with an
Infrared waterjet guided laser. Meanwhile Avonisys
and its customers have installed various 1.5kW, 2kW as
well as the newer 3kW redPOWER QUBE fiber lasers at
various customers sites in Europe and Asia (with max.
power selected based on customer application).

Consistent high power transmission
To serve specific applications, it can for example be
required to change from a 70µm waterjet nozzle used
in one job to a smaller 30µm waterjet nozzle used in
another. After such nozzle exchange, the nozzle
orifice in most cases will not be exactly centered to
the laser beam anymore. This is for example related
to manufacturing tolerances of waterjet nozzles. The
orifice position in the XY plane can differ up to some
orifice diameters. In the Avonisys system this does not
matter at all because of the way how the waterjet
nozzle is aligned to the laser beam. The method is very
straightforward but really effective. Unlike typically
applied, Avonisys does not employ any tilting mirrors
to adjust the XY-position of the laser focus spot relative
to the nozzle orifice.

To ensure consistent and high power transmission,
Avonisys prefers to avoid off-axis laser radiation to the
nozzle orifice. As illustrated in Fig. 14, the nozzle orifice
is centered to a perfectly aligned laser beam (right),
rather than dis-aligning the laser beam (left) to
compensate for nozzle tolerances. This method of
nozzle-to-laser alignment for a waterjet guided laser
system is not new and was first applied around the
early 2000’s by Prejet Präzisionstechnik AG, based out
of Steffisburg, Switzerland [8]. Avonisys has refined the
method with a durable and moisture-sealed push-pull
mechanism that allows the entire coupling module to
be adjusted in the XY-plane, relative to the focus lens,
with micrometer precision.
Next to consistent power transmission, the nozzle-tolaser coupling method has further strong benefits.
Avoiding asymmetric energy distribution inside the jet
yields more consistent cutting results and avoids
increased nozzle wear. In addition, it keeps the laser
head robust as it eliminates the need for electromechanics that would tilt one or more mirrors.

Jet coherence versus jet stability
It is obvious that a coherent waterjet is a prerequisite
for the waterjet guided laser to work in the first place.
Increasing the coherent length of waterjets has been
subject of studies for a long time. In depth research
that focuses on increasing the coherent length of
particularly small waterjets (30-80µm) was performed
by R. Cadavid and D. Wüstenberg in the early 2000’s.
They showed that reducing the ambient pressure
around the waterjet or surrounding the waterjet with
a light gas such as Helium increases its coherent
length [9]. As practical solution that could fit on any
waterjet cutting head, Cadavid and Wüstenberg
suggest the so-called co-flowing helium technique in
which a stream of Helium is blown parallel around the
waterjet using a gas collimator [10] (Fig. 15).

Fig. 15: Nozzle diameter 36µm, system pressure 140 MPa,
helium flow A: 0 cm3/s, B 28 cm3/s, C: 69 cm3/s; the zero of
the ruler is set to where the waterjet orifice is located.
(Source: Cadavid [6] Fig. 93 on page 128 and Cadavid and
Wüstenberg [10] Fig. 5 on page 284).
Fig. 14: A) Typical system: laser-to-nozzle alignment by tilting
mirror to move the laser spot. B) Avonisys: nozzle-to-laser
alignment by moving the nozzle underneath the laser spot.

© Avonisys AG

To achieve the best balance between coherent
length and consumption of Helium gas, Cadavid

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 analyses various gas nozzle designs [6]. Very good
results are achieved when the waterjet is guided
through a gas outlet nozzle (gas collimator) which is
arranged at a distance from the waterjet nozzle and
forms a stream of Helium around the waterjet using a
funnel-shaped downwardly converging wall (Fig. 16).

Fig. 16: Various gas outlet nozzles (gas collimators) as
presented by Cadavid (Source: Cadavid [6] Fig. 99 on page
136 and Fig.115 on page 148).

As part of his research, Cadavid also considered the
co-flowing Helium technique to be applicable for
waterjet guided lasers and referenced [6] to Laser
MicroJet® technology [3]. Cadavid’s consideration
appears to be correct as after publication of his body
of work the co-flowing helium technique seems to
have found its adoption to the Laser MicroJet® [11] in
a nearly identical manner as previously described by
Cadavid.

by the static (vapor enriched / aerosol) ambient air
during movement of the laser head. In addition, it
avoids jet disturbances, such as back splashes that
are caused by reflected water and debris while
machining a work piece.

Fig. 17: Protected working zone for the liquid-jet guided laser.

One consequence of applying Air-Jet is that the
coherent length of the waterjet is reduced yet
becomes highly stable within the remaining working
length. Air-Jet creates a defined atomization point of
the waterjet where the diverge flow portions of the
Air-Jet barrier intersect with each other (Fig. 18). To
precisely steer the atomization point different Air-Jet
inserts can be applied.

Also, Avonisys waterjet guided laser technology relies
on the presence of a coherent waterjet. However, for
its applications Avonisys is targeting the most stable
waterjet and not the longest coherent waterjet. The
reason for this becomes apparent when considering
the waterjet guided laser process a dynamic process.
In other words: typically, the laser head is moved in
XYZ direction with a certain feed speed and can
accelerate and decelerate rapidly to create specific
cutting geometries. During such movements the
waterjet is forced through static air and exposed to
increased friction, which can lead to reduction of
coherent length or even bending of the waterjet of
up to 0.1mm. Enveloping the waterjet with a light gas
such as Helium does not mitigate this problem as the
density of such gas is too low to protect the waterjet
from movement-induced friction and drag.
Avonisys therefore has chosen a different approach
with its Air-Jet technology. As previously mentioned,
Air-Jet forms a cylindrical air protection barrier around
the waterjet by guiding a higher pressure stream of
compressed air through a separate opening that is
spaced apart from the waterjet outlet. The pressure of
the Air-Jet can be increased to a pressure level that
can keep the laser machining point on the work
piece free from water accumulation and at the same
time create a protected working zone (Fig. 17) for the
liquid-jet guided laser. The protected working zone
mitigates friction disturbance of the waterjet caused

© Avonisys AG

Fig. 18: Air-Jet creates a protected working zone above the
controlled waterjet atomization point.

The protected working zone for a standard Air-Jet
insert is approx. 25mm. A typical working distance to
a work piece within this zone is set to 16-18mm. Longer
stand-off distances can be achieved by increasing
the length of the Air-Jet insert. The waterjet then exits
the laser cutting head at a further distance and is
protected against ambient influences while traveling
inside the Air-Jet insert.

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 System build & maintenance optimization
The Avonisys waterjet guided laser system consists of
2 main units. A high-pressure water-pump and a laser
cutting head.

assembly, replacing the laser window, reinstalling the
coupling assembly and fine-aligning the nozzle is
performed in under 5 minutes.

[ …we have approached it through the
eyes of an end user and have designed
many features of the system accordingly... ]
The high-pressure water pump (Fig. 19) is connected
to city water that is purified and filtered in several
steps (city water à de-ionization à 2-step filtration à
pressure amplification & damping à fine filtration).
The pump system is designed to deliver a pulsation
free stream of water to the coupling assembly of the
laser head that depending on pump configuration
can have an output pressure of up to 600 bar. With its
very compact size of only 65cm x 42cm x 50cm it can
be flexibly fitted into a CNC machine cabinet. The
only maintenance consists of exchanging /
regenerating a DI-cartridge as well as replacing finefilters periodically. Depending on capacity and
system usage this is typically done twice per year.
The Avonisys laser head (Fig. 10) consists of beam
delivery optics, a high-resolution camera system for
nozzle alignment, a focus Z-drive and a coupling
assembly mounted to a lateral XY-alignment system.
Periodic maintenance is only required for the laser
coupling assembly that contains a laser window and
a waterjet nozzle.

Fig. 20: Left: Coupling assembly easily removed using a
quick-release bayonet. Right: Window holder independently
removable.

The waterjet nozzle itself is considered a tool that is
exchanged to meet a certain machining job
requirement. Having said that, also the waterjet
nozzle orifice is prone to some degree of wear, similar
to that of a regular waterjet cutter. The waterjet
nozzle can be conveniently replaced and aligned
while the coupling assembly remains attached to the
laser head. This also takes just some minutes to do.
About the design of the system Jens Gaebelein
comments: “After identifying all critical items, it was a
challenge to design the right hardware that was able
to do the job while at the same time keeping the
system as simple as possible. Although we have a
background in physics and engineering, we were not
and are not laser scientist. Strange as that sounds it
has helped us to approach certain problems with an
unbiased mind finding innovative ways to overcome
hurdles”. “One can say that we have approached it
through the eyes of an end user and have designed
many features of the system accordingly.” adds
Jeroen Hribar, co-founder and CSO of Avonisys.

Summary and outlook

Fig. 19: Compact Avonisys HD-water pump.

Inherent to the applied technology principle, the laser
window is exposed to substantial amounts of laser
energy and thus prone to some degree of wear. To
facilitate quick and uncomplicate maintenance of
the coupling assembly, it has been constructed
accordingly [12]. The coupling assembly is mounted
to the laser head with a quick-release bayonet
(similar to the principle of a digital system camera).
After releasing the coupling assembly, the window
holder can be independently removed as shown in
Fig. 20. The entire process of removing the coupling

© Avonisys AG

A new waterjet guided laser system has been
developed and commercialized by Avonisys that suits
24/7 complex 5-axis full sync CNC laser-machining
jobs. For this purpose, a coupling method that allows
efficient and high laser power transmission through
small waterjets has been developed. Additionally, an
Air-Jet system that avoids water accumulation on
work piece surfaces and inside pockets has been
implemented. The Avonisys technology pairs
particularly well with modern high-performance CWM IR fiber lasers. This makes the overall process very
robust and reduces maintenance. Small waterjet
nozzles of down to 30µm can be applied in an
industrially robust manner.
Recently also very tiny waterjet nozzles of only 25µm
have been applied in the Avonisys system. During first
coupling and cutting tests with a 3kW CW-M laser

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 more than 2kW of peak power using shorter pulse
lengths could be applied to cut tiny details in
precision metal sheets. Further development in the
robust use of tiny waterjet nozzles is under way.
Furthermore, the adaptation of additional SPI fiber
lasers, such as ns-IR lasers is planned.

machines together with established machine building
partners. Around its core waterjet guided laser
technology, Avonisys holds over 22 patents and
patents pending.

References

Jeroen Hribar, Co-founder & CSO
Avonisys AG
General-Guisan-Strasse 6
6300 Zug, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 41 229 48 73
E-Mail: jhribar@avonisys.com
Web: www.avonisys.com

[1]

W. Wrobel, Aesculap-Werke AG, Patent
DE3643284C2, Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum
Schneiden eines Materials mittels eines
Laserstrahles (December 1986)
[2] G. Delacretaz, E. Leiglon, B. Richerzhagen, E.
Tasev, LASAG AG, Patent FR9106488, Dispositif
d’ablation de matiere, notamment pour la
dentisterie (May 1991)
[3] B. Richerzhagen, Patent DE4418845C5,
Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur
Materialbearbeitung mit Hilfe eines Laserstrahls
(May 1994)
[4] J. Gaebelein, J. Hribar, Patent US10307864B2,
Methods and systems to keep a work piece
surface free from liquid accumulation while
performing liquid-jet guided laser based
material processing (December 2013)
[5] J. Gaebelein, J. Hribar, Patent US8859988B1,
Method for coupling a laser beam into a liquidjet (May 2014)
[6] R. Cadavid, University of Kaiserslautern,
Germany, Cutting with fluidjets of small
diameter, ISBN 3936890463 (March 2004)
[7] SPI Lasers UK Ltd, www.spilasers.com
[8] F. Hatebur, Prejet Präzisionstechnik AG,
Technische Rundschau 22, 2003,
Wasserstrahlgeführte Laserbearbeitung (2003)
[9] R. Cadavid, D. Wüstenberg, Universität 67663
Kaiserslautern, Patent application
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About Avonisys
Avonisys is an engineering and technology company
based out of Zug, Switzerland. It is specialized in laser
micro-machining processes applying waterjet guided
laser. It develops, builds and sells waterjet guided
laser packages also branded as “Laser Micro Milling”
technology and offers fully integrated Laser CNC

© Avonisys AG

13.05.2019

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