Catching up with LAMPAS: Keeping home appliances spotless with laser technology
Surfaces with controlled topographic characteristics can provide products with special functions such as antibacterial, self-cleaning properties, friction reduction, optical security and decorative effects. These capabilities are related to multi-scale topographies with sizes in the micrometre and nanometre ranges. There is a need to mass produce such products in a cost-efficient way. The growing demand for products with novel surface performance at an affordable cost must also be met. Developing high-power, ultrashort laser sources in combination with new optical concepts for fast material processing with minimal heat impact on the work piece will address these issues. The EU-funded LAMPAS project has significantly contributed to the development of a new and innovative manufacturing technique that can improve the performance, functionality and sustainability of a broad range of products. In doing so, it managed to go beyond the state of the art in many disciplines. For example, LAMPAS partners combined in a single system many components that had not been produced before. This included a high-power, ultrashort-pulsed laser with a power of 1.5 kW, a unique polygon scanner concept that implements direct laser interference patterning technology, as well as several monitoring systems that had not been implemented to date. “Efficiently using such high laser powers is not easy,” comments Prof. Andrés Lasagni, project coordinator of Technische Universität Dresden in Germany. “That has been a huge achievement.” There are many products where special surface functions are needed. LAMPAS focused on household appliances that require anti-fingerprint, decorative and easy-to-clean finishes. For instance, heat resistances that are used to heat up water in dishwashers showed less accumulation of minerals after the laser treatment. Decorative finishes on large areas could also be successfully implemented. Easy-to-clean properties have been successfully applied to metallic parts that can be used in ovens, fridges and several other household appliances. “Without funding from the EU, it would not be possible to develop such a complex laser processing unit, since the competences of many research institutions and enterprises from different European countries was necessary,” explains Prof. Lasagni. “Other funding schemes are generally limited to partners from one individual country or from very few countries.”
Keywords
LAMPAS, laser, ultrashort-pulsed laser, ultrashort laser, polygon, surface, household appliance