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 competitive 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 with a mean error of smaller 5 µm over the complete contour are shown.
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