Phoenix, Arizona USA, April 2004

Seamless interface with AutoCAD curvilinear drawings and the TLC Phoenix-600 software make this advancement promise to be one of the most valuable technology breakthroughs in high accuracy thin, flat glass (single sheet or laminate) cutting in over a quarter of a century. With the microelectronics industry constantly moving towards smaller, thinner and lighter glass substrates for displays, photonics, optics, sensors and a host of other products, it has long presented a problem for the glass cutting industry, which generally had limitations of cutting 0.012"/0.30 mm thick substrates. Thinner substrates produced very poor yields and high production costs. The most recent progress with the Phoenix-600 has been to establish successful parameters to produce a repeatable process for cutting 0.006"/0.15 mm microsheet substrates with high yields while still using a carbide wheel. Pressed even further by weight limitations, the aerospace industry has asked TLC to continue research in cutting 0.003"/0.075 mm microsheet glass using a diamond stylus.

The Phoenix-600's operating system is PC Windows-based. Circles and filet-cornered rectangles are standard pre-programmed shapes. Utilizing customized TLC software, resizing of parts is quickly accomplished. There is no limit to the number of programs that can be stored, with instant recall repeatability. TLC states that no other computer-controlled, mechanical glass scriber is available worldwide at a more affordable price that will cut circular, curvilinear and rectilinear parts out of single sheet and laminated substrates.

TLC's cutting process is clean, requiring no contaminating oil or DI water. The Phoenix-600 utilizes a tungsten carbide wheel housed a rotating cutting head incorporating a single CCD camera, which allows quick setup and target alignment. This onstage measurement/inspection feature is unique to TLC's glass cutting equipment. An operator can easily measure and tolerance-inspect scribes for quality assurance with this configuration. Because there are no cameras mounted on the gantry, the machine surface is unobstructed, providing easy load/unload. The 24" (600 mm) square stage is stationary (does not rotate), and maintains flat over a long period of use.  Another key feature is auto-calibration of wheel placement accuracy after changing perishable tooling.  Cutting speed varies, depending on part shape. X-Y scribe motion is dual-directional.  The Phoenix-600 produces clean after-break edge quality and increased yields in high throughput production environments and provides a quick, affordable solution to rectilinear and SHAPED part production.

The Phoenix-600 also provides highly repeatable processing single sheet specialty thin flat glass products such as dichroic filters, heat transfer mirrors, sensors, electrochromic mirrors, electro-optical mirrors, biomed microslides/cover slips, polarizing filters, entertainment lighting gobos and a variety of others. Utilizing a Toyo's TAP or Deep Cut carbide wheel, TLC's resulting scribes make manual breakout fast and simple for laminated, as well as single sheet products.

The Gen-3 TLC Phoenix-600 sells worldwide for the same price of $90K. Low price is a strong TLC advantage, as comparable equipment available worldwide today is two-three times more expensive. Current lead-time is 60 days ARO.