Lasertools Cites Brazilian Research Foundation as Catalyst for Expansion

With support from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), laser welding service provider Lasertools Tecnologia Ltd. has extended the use of solid-state neodymium-doped lasers to raise power levels and processing speeds.

With support from FAPESP’s Innovative Research in Small Business program, a company extends the use of a solid-state neodymium-doped laser to raise power levels and processing speed. Courtesy of Lasertools.

Lasertools was originally founded in 1998 to offer manufacturers expertise in the use of lasers to the Energy and Nuclear Research Institute (IPEN) in Brazil. Through FAPESP’s Innovative Research in Small Business program (PIPE), the company was approved in its first call for proposals. The University of São Paulo (USP), which hosts IPEN, had just opened a Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Technology (CIETEC) in partnership with IPEN, which was the first tech startup incubator in São Paulo. Lasertools’ project "Applications of Lasers in Materials Processing" was accepted in PIPE's third call.

The company's original aim was to act as a job shop providing laser machining services for such materials as steel, titanium, silicon and ceramics, among others, to add value to the activities of the manufacturing industry.

"The product portfolio ranged from dental drills and implants to molecular sieves, with a great deal in between," said Spero Penha Morato, a founding partner of Lasertools.

In 2002 Lasertools won FAPESP's approval for a bolder project to develop laser manufacturing methods and processes for biocompatible metal implants, including coronary and peripheral stents.

"This was incremental rather than radical innovation," Morato said. "We're now working on the development of an aortic valve replacement.

The project received funding from PIPE between 2013 and 2015, during which period Lasertools became equipped to perform precision laser cutting of metal alloy sheets and tubes suitable for production of this bioprosthesis. The main innovation was the replacement of the previously used technology, which involved wire erosion cutting, with faster and more precise laser cutting of flat sheets.

The São Paulo Research Foundation is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships, and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Lasertools is a provider of laser welding, cutting and engraving services.