Project description
Optical and haptic properties of plastics are determined by the surface of the moulding tool which is used to create their surface. In case of a car´s dashboard, these moulds are meter-sized and contain a variety of different surface types. Laser ablation using ultrashort laser pulses shall be used to structure the surface of these moulds. This would lead to a very flexible and fully digital process as opposed to the currently manually crafted mould production.
Development of a fast deformable mirror
The focal position of the laser must be constantly adjusted because the mould has a complex, three-dimensional shape. A deformable mirror in the path of the laser beam could be used for this but its actuation must take place in less than a millisecond. The deformable mirror with an aperture of a few millimeters must have a stroke of several micrometers to achieve the required focal shift. Our group is developing a unimorph piezoelectric mirror that meets these requirements.
Prototype of a fast z-shifter. Left: Structured piezo ceramic disc. Middle: Mounted piezo ceramic disc, bonded to a reflecting glass substrate. Right: Assembled prototype
Publications
- Zukunft & Trends der Lasertechnologie | Laser WORLD of PHOTONICS: Schneller zur Mikrostrukturierung (31.05.2017). Zum Artikel
- S. Verpoort, O. Kazasidis, M. Bittner, and U. Wittrock, "Fast z-shifter based on a unimorph deformable mirror," 11th Workshop on Adaptive Optics for Industry and Medicine, Murcia, Spain, poster (2018). Download Poster (PDF)
- Pressemitteilung FH Münster (19. Juli 2018): Für schicke Armaturen und griffige Lenkräder. Zur Pressemitteilung
- pro-physik.de (25. Juli 2018): Schick und griffig: Verbundprojekt für Laser-Oberflächenbearbeitung entwickelt neue Verfahren für die Automobilindustrie. Zum Artikel
- Laser Technik Journal 04/2018: Improved Laser Technology for Producing Plastic Molds. Download Artikel (PDF)
Pressemitteilung FH Münster (21. Juni 2019): Laser im Nebel. Zur Pressemitteilung
- Steinfurter Nachrichten 24.06.2019: Schneller als das Auge. Download Artikel (PDF)
- Schweizer MaschinenMarkt (SMM) 27.06.2019: Laser strukturiert deutlich produktiver. Zum Artikel
- Kunststoff + Verarbeitung, Jahresheft 2019: Laser-Oberflächenbearbeitung Download Artikel (PDF)
- Journal of Laser Applications, Vol. 32, 012018 (2020): Efficient production of design textures on large-format 3D mold tools, doi: 10.2351/1.5132401
mo Magazin für Oberflächentechnik 09/2018: Schicke Armaturen und griffige Lenkräder. Download Artikel (PDF)
The project eVerest is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under contract no. 02P14A140 ff.
