Trade Fair Exhibits

Visit us at international trade fairs and discover trends as well as future-oriented developments in materials, surface and laser technology. Our experts will be pleased to assist you with individual solutions. On this website you will find an overview of our current trade show exhibits. For a quick navigation please use the links below:

Ablation and Cutting

• Systems in Laser Cutting and Laser Welding
• Laser Cutting of Non-metals
• Laser Cutting Under Water
• Extremely Dynamic Cutting System for Complex Contours (EDcut)

Additive Manufacturing

• Additively Manufactured Rocket Engine with Aerospike Nozzle for Microlauncher
• Process Monitoring for Direct Metal Deposition
• Additive Technologies for Medicine and Healthcare
• Technology and Material Development for Powder Bed Fusion Processes

Biosystems Engineering

• Lab-on-chip Systems: From Prototype to Series Production in No Time

Battery Technology

• Particle Monitoring System (PAmos)

Joining

• New Perspectives in Laser Welding
• Multi-layer Narrow-gap Laser Welding (laser MES) Using the Example of a Crane Jib
• Finite Element Simulation – Design of Laser Welded Gears
• HPCi^® – Direct Thermal Joining for Lightweight Construction
• Continuous Co-consolidation of Fiber-reinforced High-performance Laminates
• Magnetic Pulse Welding for Cryogenic Applications
• New possibilities of Joining Technology in Aircraft Construction – Example Laser Welding
• High-Pressure H2 Tank Structures

Carbon Coatings

• LAwave – Surface Acoustic Wave Tester
• Mass Production for Fuel Cells – Automated and Cost-effective

Laser Precision Processing

• Efficient Microprocessing in Micrometer Scale
• DLIPµcube – World's Most Compact System for Surface Functionalization with New Nano Scanner
• SHAPErotator for High-performance Ultrashort-pulse Processes (USP)
• Micrometer-accurate Structures Create Functional Surfaces
• Laser-structured Surfaces for Better Cell Adhesion
• Laser-based Cleaning and Pre-Treatment

Nano Coatings

• Tailored and Reactive Joining of Plastics within Seconds

Optical Metrology

• Measurement System SURFinpro for AI-supported Detection of Surface Features in Roll-to-roll Processes
• HSI for the Areal Surface and Thin Film Inspection
• Hyperspectral Imaging Makes Tissue Differences Visible
• OCT Imaging Ensures Quality of Tissue Cultures on Microphysiological Systems (MPS)
• Novel Solutions for the Evaluation of Barrier Films
  
• Special Light Sources for Optical Metrology

Thermal Coating

• Systems in Laser Cladding and Additive Manufacturing
• Functionalizing Lightweight Components by Thermal Spraying
• Innovation „Liquid Spraying“
• "COAX" System Family – Line of Modular Processing Heads for Laser Metal Deposition with Powder and Wire

Heat Treatment and Plating

• System Technology for Laser Beam Hardening
• Thermal Field Controller for Laser Surface Processing with Scanner
• Sandwich Structures Realize Lightweight Stair Tread

Sensor-supported Laser Material Processing with Three-dimensional Dynamic Beam Shaping 

In a holistic solution approach, laser source, three-dimensional beam shaping and process sensor technology are coupled for efficient and reliable process control for laser cutting, welding and hardening. The dynamic three-dimensional beam shaping enables a temporal and spatial change of the energy distribution in the range of several kilohertz, whereby this can be adjusted sensor-controlled within a few milliseconds.   

The low latency requires an enormous amount of computing power, which is why multi-sensor monitoring of laser processes and AI-based data processing are the subject of current research in order to develop a new generation of inline process control. The long-term goal is to take into account further necessary part and production information in order to develop concepts for cloud-based data-driven services.

Laser Cutting of Composite Materials 

The laser can cut high performance fiber-reinforced materials with minimized heat influenced areas. A fast mirror system based on galvanometer scanners is used to rapidly project the laser beam onto the material. The high processing speeds guarantee short interaction times between material and beam, prevents tool wear and structure damages.

New Solution to Process Metals Even Below the Sea Surface

Given the increasing demand for renewable energy sources, the need for modern dismantling technologies for underwater use is also growing. For example, to bring a wind power plant in the sea up to more power, old steel frames must first be dismantled below sea level to rebuild them later in a larger size. Fraunhofer IWS has now found a technological approach to use lasers as particularly efficient, environmentally friendly, and energy-saving cutting tools in water.

In the contour cutting of thin sheets (up to ≈ 1.5 mm material thickness), the dynamics of movement limit the increase in process speed. With the development of the EDcut, a development platform is now available to overcome these limits. In addition to the further development of the system technology, the optimization of the cutting technology is being driven forward. The holistic consideration of motion dynamics and the laser cutting process are the focus here. The extremely dynamic EDcut cutting system coupled with fiber-guided solid-state lasers is available for feasibility studies, technology and system engineering developments. 

Microlaunchers can carry small payloads such as satellites weighing up to 350 kg and are a particularly economical alternative to conventional launch vehicles. Until now, it has not been possible to implement aerospike propulsion systems using conventional manufacturing processes, as they pose particular challenges in terms of cooling heavily stressed component regions. Theoretically, fuel savings of 30 percent are possible for microlauncher applications compared to conventional engines.

Together with aerospace experts from the Technical University of Dresden, the advantages of additive manufacturing were first exploited in a geometry study for innovative cooling channels and flow-optimized fuel feeds. Subsequently, an aerospike rocket engine manufactured additively by laser powder bed fusion was developed for the test stand and its function demonstrated in a hot gas test.

Additive manufacturing is a key technology in the healthcare of the future, as it allows the production of patient-specific system solutions from digital models at the point of need. The international Fraunhofer Performance Center for Additive Technologies for Medicine and Healthcare bundles the know-how of various Fraunhofer Institutes and Polish institutes and is thus the central point of contact in this field of expertise. 

Among other things, the performance center supports parameter and technology development for the generative manufacturing of medical components or devices as well as their characterization.

Material development and processing is a central focus of the performance center. These include:

• Biocompatible and biodegradable materials
• Antibacterial and functionalized surfaces
• Processing of fiber-reinforced materials for lightweight solutions
• Integration of textile semi-finished products for functional enhancement
• Material processing with shape memory effect or pseudoelastic properties

A unique selling point of the performance center is its holistic technology development, which also includes additively manufactured diagnostic solutions. This includes, among other things, microphysiological systems that enable in vitro analyses without animal testing, but also sensor integration to facilitate the acquisition of health data, e.g. for the automated and digitalized monitoring of recovery processes.

Our focus is the development of powder bed-based processes for metallic 3D printing as well as printing processes for the fabrication of complex electronic structures. The range of processes includes laser-based processes such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) and binder jetting (BJ), as well as electron beam melting (PBF-EB), (metal) fused filament fabrication (FFF), dispenser printing and aerosol jet printing. For the selective heat treatment of additively manufactured parts, various furnaces with controlled atmospheres are employed.

Microphysiological systems (MPS) are microsystems - such as lab-on-chip - that cultivate cells, organoids and tissue composites and make them usable for in vitro research in the field of tissue reconstruction, drug and cytotoxicity studies. Fraunhofer IWS offers a wide range of technical expertise in the design, configuration, operation, monitoring and analysis of these systems and has developed its own technology platform for the construction of MPS. The constantly growing modular device platform makes it possible to control parameters such as temperature, medium/blood circulation, gas concentration, electrical stimulation and gas pressure.  For our partners in basic research and preclinical drug testing, we offer customized complete MPS solutions and thus also make an important contribution to reducing animal testing. 

It was used millions of times a day around the world in 2020–2022: As a portable miniature laboratory, the Corona antigen rapid test clearly demonstrated the potential of lab-on-chip systems. Analysis within the shortest possible time is of immense importance, especially in the event of a pandemic. More and more of these miniature medical systems are being used in diagnostics. However, the development and production of more complicated test systems is associated with high costs. In the SIMPLE-IVD research project, scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS are working with several partners to develop new manufacturing processes and methods for the cost-effective production of rapid test cassettes.

The compact device ”PAmos” determines and monitors fine dust pollution in technical systems, processes and in laboratories. The Fraunhofer IWS monitoring solution can be integrated into the employees' working area with low effort, helping them to safely comply with health and safety regulations.

PAmos is used in particular in dry powder processes, additive manufacturing, coating and ablation processes, welding processes, laser processing, and battery manufacturing and processing. The particle monitoring system detects fine dust particles of the classes PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4 and PM10, measures the usual air values such as temperature, pressure and humidity and additionally has an air quality sensor (AQI) included. The measured values are transmitted wirelessly in real time and the measurement result is conveniently displayed in a browser without additional installation. Meshing of several devices is also possible.

Do you have a need for fine dust measurements? We will gladly accept your inquiries and adapt our system to your specific requirements. Together we will develop an individual solution for you. In addition, we support you with precise particle measurement technology.

Dynamic beam shaping – New solutions for laser materials processing

Modern fiber-bound or mirror-optical manipulation of the laser beam – to adapt intensity distribution in the weld pool – dominate recent developments for process stabilization and thus for quality improvement. Various application examples include battery systems for electromobility. Especially the use of material-adapted beam manipulation for of the welding process appears very promising. Fraunhofer IWS developed new possibilities of highly dynamic beam shaping (DBS) to avoid hot cracks in age-hardenable aluminum alloys allow highly efficient to avoid the previously necessary addition of filler metals. For the first time it is possible to overcome metallurgical limitations in laser beam welding with remote optics by using this intensity-based approach.

Modern fiber laser technology – welding of difficult-to-weld materials

In addition to modern scanner optics, new fiber-bonded laser systems offer excellent possibilities for laser beam welding processes. Increasing electrification of vehicles creates a high demand for flexible and efficient joining technologies for difficult-to-weld materials such as copper and aluminum – especially aluminum die casting.  One possible solution is laser welding with superimposed beam oscillation, which allows adapting the welding conditions to the respective requirements. In addition, high-power lasers or beam sources with short wavelengths (e.g. 515 nm) achieve high-quality welds even on highly reflective material surfaces. This results in new process approaches to overcome existing process limitations in laser welding of copper and aluminum alloys.

Video

Joining with solid-state lasers – Get ready for the steel construction revolution

Development and design of laser-welded transmission components for aerospace applications

Laser beam welding in gear manufacturing opens up completely new product solutions with excellent properties in terms of wear, corrosion resistance and service life. The gear components presented are based on multi-material solutions made of case-hardened or nitrided steel for the gearing area and corrosion-resistant steel for exterior application. Functional integration enables significant advantages over current solutions in terms of installation space and costs. The main challenge is to solve both, the demanding design and welding tasks and to ensure the fatigue strength of the joint zone for complex gear loads.

A holistic, digital design and manufacturing strategy for such multi-material aerospace transmission components is being pursued in the design process. In this, the setup of a holistic chain of component simulation, adaptive laser-based manufacturing technologies and multi-axial fatigue strength testing is realized. The first step is the development of a stress- and production-suitable component design based on structural-mechanical finite element (FE) simulations and welding process-specific requirements. The realization of the adapted laser beam welding technology is supported by accompanying welding simulations in order to minimize residual stresses and distortion. In the final step, the component fatigue strength is validated on the basis of multi-axial fatigue tests on simplified test specimens, which are supplemented by FE-based calculation concepts in accordance with current regulations.

Due to the holistic development strategy, iterative design changes are generally not required, resulting in short product development times. Multi-axis cyclic testing on simplified test specimens significantly reduces testing costs and increases validation accuracy compared to cost-intensive transmission test rigs. High wear, corrosion and service life requirements for future transmission systems can therefore be met cost-effectively and reliably with the development strategy presented.

Fast Joining of Metal and Plastics

The novel joining technology "HeatPressCool-integrative" (HPCi^®) joins aluminum and composite plastics permanently and firmly within a few seconds. By pressing and local heating, the thermoplastic melts, penetrates the structures and adheres to the surface. A specially developed joining gun generates robust connections within seconds. The HPCi^® process is highly suitable for replacing complex adhesive processes.

The automated joining of already consolidated fiber-reinforced high-performance thermoplastic laminates has been a challenge so far. For this purpose, a continuous joining process for joining already consolidated multidirectional laminates made of fiber-plastic composites (FRP) was developed at the Fraunhofer IWS.

As part of the Joint Technology Initiative “Clean Sky 2“ by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and its institutes as well as other industry and research partners, a “Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator“ is being set up. This will be used to demonstrate the joining of two 8 m long aircraft fuselage half-shells using the laser in-situ process. 

Magnetic pulse welding enables to join dissimilar metals. In spite of their distinct melting temperatures, copper, steel and aluminum can be joined vacuum-tight. The application temperatures are 1 K for the cryogenic cup and 20 K for the connection between the steel bellow and the aluminum tubes. The ductility of the joining zone ensures a high load bearing capability at mechanical and thermal cyclic loads.

Laser beam welding is established in several passenger aircrafts since long time. The subject of the research activities is to demonstrate the potential of high dynamic beam manipulation to avoid hot cracking on engineering aluminum alloys. The results from laboratory experiments show that, depending on the joint geometry and the Al-alloy, typical hot crack formations in the weld metal can be almost completely suppressed.

Solutions for Cost-effective, Laser-based Joining Processes

Hydrogen, as a highly reactive element, represents a key to achieving the Paris climate protection goals. Consequently, it plays an important role as an economical alternative to fossil fuels. Here, the use as a direct fuel for fuel cells or indirectly as e-fuel (H₂+CO₂) lends itself. To open up vehicle use, economically producible storage components have to be developed. 

The physical properties of hydrogen require either cryogenic storage tanks for future aircraft or high-pressure tanks for passenger cars. The necessary safety of H₂ pressure tanks can be achieved by wall thicknesses of up to 15 millimeters. During development, the focus is on materials and corresponding joining processes that combine a long life time with maximum safety. Laser welding offers excellent prerequisites for this and represents an industrially established process.

Therefore, researchers at Fraunhofer IWS are developing solutions for a cost-effective, laser-based joining process. In this process, the laser beam is oscillated in a narrow gap, filler material, and the flanks of the gap are reliably melted down. A layered weld seam is produced if this process is repeated several times. The precisely adjusted properties of high-strength aluminum alloys can thus be largely retained. Advantages for industrial use are short processing times and the use of adapted optics, laser sources, and sensor technology.

Better batteries thanks to DLIP on new roll-to-roll system

“Direct laser interference patterning“ (DLIP) can be used to add new functionality to the surfaces of conductor films in batteries: The interference patterns can increase the reaction area and improve the adhesion of the metal foils. Thereby, more possibilities open up for battery manufacturers to increase the lifetime and capacity of their energy storage devices and, at the same time, the range of electric cars.

Fraunhofer IWS and Technische Universität Dresden have continuously advanced this laser structuring process over the past years. The focus is now increasingly on the demand to improve the processing speed of DLIP systems and to reduce their form factor. This is exactly the aim of the project “Next-Gen-3DBat“, in which Fraunhofer IWS, the companies Daimler and Varta as well as other partners are cooperating under the leadership of the project executing organization Jülich. By means of 3D laser structuring of cell components, researchers want to optimize the performance and capacity of batteries.

Fraunhofer IWS is transferring their patented laser interference patterning process to the roll-to-roll principle. The new system is designed to continuously unwind and structure current conductor foils from rolls. Compared to cycle processes, the goal is to shorten processing times. The project partners expect throughputs of around one square meter per minute. In addition, the coils commonly used in industry can be further processed. A prototype is operational, and an improved system is under construction. Fraunhofer IWS is also pursuing another innovative approach: the laser beam is optimized by a combination of several beam shaping methods to produce a high aspect ratio and a uniform interference pattern on the current conductor foil. This significantly increases the area processed with each ultrashort pulse.

The functionalization of technical surfaces with bio-inspired structures from nature is an innovation driver of the 21st century. The functionalities that can be achieved find a wide range of applications, e.g. for improving biocompatibility in the medical and biotechnological fields, for tribological applications in the automotive industry, or even for optical applications such as product and brand protection.

For this purpose, the world's most compact system for surface functionalization DLIPµcube has now been equipped with the new DLIPscannano system, the most compact scanner-based direct laser interference system for generating periodic surface structures. This enables functional surfaces to be transferred to industry even more flexibly.

Laser material processing with ultrashort pulse lasers is a high-precision and low-damage process that can be used to process even transparent or brittle materials with high quality. However, one limitation of this process is its low productivity, as it is often not possible to use full power to achieve high processing quality. One approach to meet this challenge is to distribute high laser powers over several partial beams operating in parallel. Classically, the spatial orientation of these beams is fixed, resulting in multiple parallel lines when scanning in one direction and only one line when scanning in the orthogonal direction.

The newly developed SHAPErotator optics module overcomes this limitation by dynamically aligning the beam profile during the scanning process. This means that any number of partial beams can be used simultaneously, with each beam containing the power required for optimum quality.

In the field of laser precision machining, the focus is on the micrometer-accurate creation of structures in components and their surfaces to generate defined functions. In terms of materials, there are virtually no limits to the laser process. In addition to high-precision cutting and drilling, surfaces can also be textured to optimize their properties. Friction and wear of components and tools can be advantageously influenced by this. Furthermore, expertly structured surfaces enable stronger connections in the interface of multi-material composites such as those used for lightweight construction.

The variety of the multitool laser

The exhibit uses various material samples to demonstrate the possibilities of the laser for cleaning and pretreating surfaces. The potential is interesting for almost all industries, because laser cleaning does not require any cleaning media, thus reducing disposal costs and can be integrated into automated production lines.

One tool many possibilities – the result can be finely adjusted from an exclusive cleaning to a defined roughening and structuring. Fraunhofer IWS develops customer-specific economical processes and associated system technology solutions.

The Fraunhofer Application Center for Optical Metrology and Surface Technologies AZOM at the Fraunhofer IWS Dresden has developed an intelligent measurement system (SURFinpro) for AI-supported detection of surface features in roll-to-roll processes (R2R). During the manufacturing of various layer systems or film systems based on R2R technologies, defects typically occur during the manufacturing process, which affect the outer appearance of the layers or the general quality and functionality of the systems. The structure of such manufacturing defects can manifest itself in a wide range of different sizes and characteristics. A laser triangulation approach is instrumentalized for the detection of the defects. Depending on the process, the components used can be adapted for optimal detection of the imperfections.

The actual core of the measurement system is the intelligent AI-supported evaluation of the data. Here, deterministic and statistical methods are used to measure the quality and properties such as roughness, scratches, defects or height distribution of surfaces. The processing of the image content for the extraction of the above mentioned features is done using the realized inline scalable data infrastructure, which allows the execution of AI models as well as classical deterministic routines. Structures such as point defects as well as surface defects up to more than 500 mm can be reliably detected with a spatial resolution of about 100 μm at a speed of 5 m/min. The implemented auxiliary tools allow the flexible extension of the detectable feature set as well as the selection and evaluation of appropriate processing tools.

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI)

Optical sensor technology is used in a variety of different industrial sectors – for example to check if quality criteria are fulfilled. However, a so-called 100-percent inspection is often not possible with conventional technologies, even though there is a need for it in the industries concerned. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has the potential to effectively close this gap.

Compared to classic RGB-based machine vision systems, hyperspectral cameras capture many more spectral bands to detect the target object's properties of interest. Different material- or topology-related surface conditions manifest themselves in a spectral change in the optical behavior of the sample section, whether through absorption, refraction or scattering. Hyperspectral technology thus enables spatially resolved surface properties to be detected and continuously monitored at high speed. For example, HSI can spatially resolve the thickness of a dielectric film, oil residues on metal or plastic webs, or the electrical resistance of an ITO layer on a glass substrate. In addition to the lateral distribution of target properties, global target parameters of a given surface can be derived from the totality of all HSI data of that surface, such as the adhesive strength of a surface or a quality classification according to the parameters “OK“ or “NOK“.

HSI systems from the Fraunhofer IWS can close existing technology gaps in production monitoring in a customised way.

Imanto^® Obsidian
Fully integrated laboratory system for hyperspectral imaging analysis. Impurities, layer thicknesses, material changes, surface topologies and much more can be made visible and objectively evaluated in a spatially resolved manner.

Imanto^® Pro
Software suite that covers the entire workflow of hyperspectral inspection, from data acquisition to data pre-processing to data evaluation (exploration, classification and recourse).

Due to their highly sensitive and selective measuring principle, non-contact optical spectroscopic analysis methods such as hyperspectral imaging (HIS) have a wide range of applications in the field of process and laboratory analysis.  Different spectral characteristics of different tissue types (blood, skin, cell culture, ...) can be visualized in the visual and infrared wavelength range from approx. 400 to 2500 nm using HSI. Fraunhofer IWS develops customized solutions for individual applications and process integration.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a 3D imaging method that enables the depth-resolved, microscopic examination of samples using near-infrared light. Similar to ultrasound, the propagation time of the light wave is analyzed and a sectional image of the internal structures is generated in within milliseconds. Fraunhofer IWS develops integrated solutions for OCT imaging based on application-specific hardware and software, for example for quality management and inline monitoring in industry and research. For tissue cultivation on microphysiological systems (MPS), Fraunhofer IWS offers a platform for real-time OCT diagnostics of samples with simultaneous stimulation and treatment.

The Optical Inspection Technology group presents novel solutions for the evaluation of barrier films. Barrier materials are essential in organic electronics to protect the sensitive active layers from damaging atmospheric gases, especially water vapor and oxygen, and thus significantly increase product lifetime.

Hyperspektral Imaging (HSI)

An entirely new approach to evaluating barrier films is offered by hyperspectral imaging (HSI). Acquiring a comprehensive spectra set of the barrier film and evaluating them using AI allows the determination of the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) within a matter of minutes instead of days as before. This enables a very fast control of barrier films “at-line“ and even “in-line“ during their production or processing. In addition, the permeation rate of barrier films can also be determined with spatial resolution. This concept (HSI+AI) is transferable to a wide range of applications: e.g. continuous large-area layer thickness inspection, material parameter distribution inspection, defect and contamination monitoring, and prediction of key performance indicators, e.g. of films or semi-finished products.

Simultaneous determination of the water vapor permeation rate (WVTR) and the oxygen permeation rate (OTR) of barrier films

Fraunhofer IWS presents a measurement system from the HiBarSens® series that defines a new class of barrier measurement systems. For the first time, the critical barrier performance indicators water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of a barrier film can be measured simultaneously. This means a significant gain in information as well as more accurate results, since both permeation rates are determined from exactly the same sample area under identical measurement conditions due to the concept. However, there is no compromise in detection limits (compared to single instruments) of WVTR (10‑6 g m‑2 d‑1) and OTR (10‑3 cm³ m-2 d-1 bar-1).

At the Fraunhofer IWS, research focuses on various lightweight construction topics. Thermal spraying can be used for application-oriented functionalization of fiber composite plastics. For this purpose, a Fraunhofer IWS patented surface preparation for thermal spraying is used.

A prerequisite for a successful coating is sufficient roughness to ensure mechanical interlocking of the layer-forming spray particles. The Fraunhofer IWS solution adapts the function of the peel ply in the production of FRP. During lamination, the peel ply is soaked by the liquid resin together with the fibers and remains on the component surface. The peel ply is removed directly before coating, so that no time-consuming cleaning of the surface is necessary. The advantages over alternative processes, such as sandblasting or mechanical processing of fiber composites, for setting a suitable surface roughness are:

• Peel ply can be integrated into component manufacturing with minimal effort and cost.
  
• Peel ply protects the surface between manufacturing and coating.
• No further preparation step, no further process is necessary for thermal spraying: Peel ply, masking if necessary, and coating.
• The lightweight part remains undamaged, no fibers are cut, and the strength is retained.

An example shows the functionalization of a winglets for gliders with a ceramic heating layer system consisting of an aluminum bond coat, an aluminum-titanium oxide insulation layer, a full-surface titanium suboxide heating layer and copper contact layers for electrical contacting. All layers were produced by plasma spraying.

Flexibility – in the choice of tool, the process and the component geometry: Fraunhofer IWS system technology offers precisely these features.

The dynamic beam shaping system “LASSY“ allows to react flexibly to different component geometries during hardening. The 1D scanner optics shape the laser beam transverse to the treatment direction. The energy distribution in the laser beam spot adapts to non-constant heat dissipation conditions by controlling the scanning speed and/or tracking the laser power. As a result, a uniform hardening depth can be achieved, for example, despite locally varying component thickness. This technology is used in laser edge refinement processes such as laser beam hardening, remelting or alloying. The system integration “Emaqs“, a camera-based temperature monitoring system providing enormous process control improvements, and the temperature control system “LOMPOCpro“ optimally round off the system technology portfolio.

Due to its process-specific advantages, laser hardening is often particularly efficient for protecting highly stressed component surfaces against high surface pressure and wear. Users appreciate the high process speed and precision, the good reproducibility and the low distortion of the treated components. Decisive for the feasibility are the laser beam shaping and process control.

Scientists at Fraunhofer IWS developed a special new variant of the thermal field control. This combines temperature measurement including pyrometer (“Efaqs“) and thermal imaging camera (“Emaqs“) in a suitable way with a high frequency oscillation of the laser beam (scanning). This allows several problems to be solved at once in the laser hardening of geometrically complicated components: Laser beam scanning makes it possible to flexibly adjust the hardening zone width and, if necessary, to make rapid continuous changes during the ongoing process. This alone considerably expands the range of components to be processed. At the same time, by changing the local scanning speed, the laser intensity can be adapted to the local heat dissipation with pinpoint accuracy. This means that radii, edges or even bores in the machining area no longer pose a general problem. However, it is only by adding a sufficiently fast power control system that the process can be automated to such an extent that the system operator practically no longer needs to make any manual interventions.

The control of scan movement and laser power is based on temperature data acquired in real time. In principle, the measured values from the pyrometer and thermal imaging camera are available, which are important for certain subtasks in the process control. By linking both measurement methods and available control variables, the remaining temperature fluctuations can be minimized to such an extent that the optimum surface hardness level is achieved at every position in the processing area.

In the contour cutting of thin sheets (up to ≈ 1.5 mm material thickness), the dynamics of movement limit the increase in process speed. With the development of the EDcut, a development platform is now available to overcome these limits. In addition to the further development of the system technology, the optimization of the cutting technology is being driven forward. The holistic consideration of motion dynamics and the laser cutting process are the focus here. The extremely dynamic EDcut cutting system coupled with fiber-guided solid-state lasers is available for feasibility studies, technology and system engineering developments.