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posted by mrpg on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the every-day-a-new-discovery dept.

Phys.org:

Scientists from Heriot-Watt University have welded glass and metal together using an ultrafast laser system, in a breakthrough for the manufacturing industry.

Various optical materials such as quartz, borosilicate glass and even sapphire were all successfully welded to metals like aluminium, titanium and stainless steel using the Heriot-Watt laser system, which provides very short, picosecond pulses of infrared light in tracks along the materials to fuse them together.

The new process could transform the manufacturing sector and have direct applications in the aerospace, defence, optical technology and even healthcare fields.

Now that iPhone will be welded shut.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:07AM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:07AM (#810093)

    My warm hands hold a can of freeze spray are asking how strong your "weld" is, when exposed to different temperature expansion coefficients.

    At least it won't rust like the LCS's Al / Steel mess, I hope ?

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by crafoo on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:23AM

    by crafoo (6639) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:23AM (#810101)

    My thought as well. Optic systems I've been involved in will sometimes isolate the borosilicate glass elements from metal retainers and baffles using a flexible potting material.
    But for non-structural elements, such as adding metal reflectors to lens elements directly (and with good precision) this could be a game changer. Weather analysis shows high pressure zone of corporate patent flurries incoming.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:23AM (#810102)

    Uranium glass has been used for this reason.