3-D Laser Structuring Gives Materials Strange Properties

A new fabrication technique has a big impact on small structures. 3-D laser structuring of microscopic patterns in surfaces can imbue ordinary materials with extraordinary properties, resulting in extraordinary combinations between natural materials and artificial ones, displaying the best combined properties.

For instance, plastic dashboards for cars and offices can be made to look like leather, the fuselage of aircrafts can be grafted with sharkskin-like patterns to reduce micro-turbulences and biological implants can be constructed with tiny hooks on the surface that help them bond with bone tissue.

Actually, lasers have been used for quite a long time to structure flat surfaces, but the new method can be applied on complex three-dimensional components without the need for large quantities of chemicals.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen produced the most complex 3-D laser structuring technique, in a joint project called "FlexOStruk," that developed a machine for near-net-shape laser ablation.

This machine can burn microscopic shapes and structures onto the surface of many materials and the team is going to prove its efficiency by displaying a finished automobile cockpit in luxurious leather-look.

The laser is so precise, having a focal point only 10 microns wide, that it can be guided at the same distance along the curves to create perfectly identical microscopic shapes on a surface. For this, it must always hit the surface vertically, to prevent the focus from being distorted and the sharp microstructure blurred.

"We have ultimately succeeded in integrating the entire process from the pattern development through to the finished component in our concept," explains Sascha Bausch, group manager for laser material processing at the IPT.

"Its accuracy is completely adequate for injection molding. What's more, the laser is so energy-rich that it can achieve relatively high metal-removal rates and thus shorten production times."

The laser will definitely find practical applications in many industry branches, as it greatly reduces the time it takes to shape up the material, and in the same time being very cost-effective.