Project description
Smart Factories: Energy-aware, agile manufacturing and customisation
High Brilliance Diode Lasers for Industrial Applications
The BRIDLE project seeks to harness the power and efficiency of diode lasers to develop an affordable direct diode laser source for industrial applications requiring the cutting and welding of sheet metal. Specifically, BRIDLE's diode laser will have a power >2kW from a 100um diameter (NA <= 0.15) optical fibre and efficiency >40%. (This is ~2.5x more powerful, 10x brighter and 1.7x more efficient than the best spectral beam combined diode laser and ~30x times brighter than conventional diode lasers.) BRIDLE will focus on technologies suitable for manufacturability and cost scaling. Along with the increased power and brilliance, this will enable direct diode lasers to penetrate the metal processing market.
BRIDLE's approach is modular, scalable and forward compatible. It begins with high brilliance mini-bars, whose emitters use intracavity filters to achieve 2-3x higher brilliance (~7W @ 0.8-1.5mm.mrad) than the best broad-area emitters (~7W @ 2.7mm.mrad). Fine and coarse spectral beam combining will further increase the brilliance by 5x and 3x – increasing the total brilliance by 30-40x. Advanced coherent beam combining techniques will also be pursued to develop phase-coupled mini-bars with a nearly diffraction limited output power of 30W, allowing a further >4x improvement in spatial and spectral brilliance.
BRIDLE's approach is chosen to be compatible with manufacturability and cost scaling requirements. The cost and complexity of the optical system are reduced by integrating optics inside the mini-bars (e.g. mode filters, DBR gratings for fine wavelength-spacing). Efficient, extremely low vertical divergence structures will lead to low-cost smile-insensitive assembly and low-loss optical coupling. The chosen packaging and beam combining techniques allow simple fabrication and good thermal management.
BRIDLE's laser system will be validated for sheet metal cutting. The constituent sub-modules will target additional applications and markets.
The objectives of the BRIDLE project are of central importance to the photonics and manufacturing industries in Europe. BRIDLE technologies will enable the European diode laser and laser systems industries to maintain a leading global position. The industrial impact will extend across a wide range of industrial sectors, with European applications of this technology in the automotive, aerospace, manufacturing and materials processing sectors –giving European manufacturers new advantages in an increasingly dynamic and competitive economic climate.
Through the exciting new technologies developed in this project, the European laser diode industry will be able to introduce new direct diode lasers into the materials processing markets at a lower cost and with significantly improved performance. European industry and society will be the first to benefit. The BRIDLE project will play a direct and important role in reinforcing economic growth, competitiveness, employment and sustainability.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences economics and business business and management employment
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-2012-NMP-ICT-FoF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
55129 MAINZ
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.