Functional surface treatments using ultra-short pulse laser system FemtoSurf

Project Information

FemtoSurf

Grant agreement ID: 825512

DOI

10.3030/825512

Project closed

EC signature date 8 November 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 30 June 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 7 048 625,01

EU contribution

€ 7 048 625,00

Coordinated by

UAB FEMTIKA
Lithuania

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - FemtoSurf (Functional surface treatments using ultra-short pulse laser system FemtoSurf)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

FemtoSurf project addresses the following challenges:
- Ship building industry. Fouling is a massive issue in all sea fairing vessels, resulting in increased drag and fuel consumption, raising both operational costs and carbon footprint of ships. The anti-fouling surface structures on ship propellers implemented in FemtoSurf will lead to massive decrease in fuel consumption and maintenance of ships.
- Aviation industry. Wear and contamination of aviation components that are under constant stress is a major issue, as it requires constant cleaning/restoration operations that are complex and costly. The surface treatment developed in FemtoSurf will allow the covering aeroplane or spacecraft components in surface patterns enhancing their self-cleaning properties and reducing the overall friction between components under heavy load.
- Healthcare industry. The surface properties of any medical device play very important role in medicine, at it determines bio-compability, reaction to drugs and, most importantly for implants, repulsion or adhesion to living tissue. FemtoSurf solution would allow to directly tune the properties of titanium implants, including targeted induction of repulsion or adhering in designated areas of the implant.
- Tool manufacturing industry. Lubricants play enormous role in modern tool manufacturing, reducing wear of industrial tools and making the whole process smooth. Using FemtoSurf technology, patterns can be created to guide lubricant to specific places of the machining setup.

The overall concept underpinning the project is the development of a system for the treatment of large surface areas using kW-level femtosecond laser for metallic surface nano- to milli-patterning for enhanced surface repelling and/or adhesion properties, leading to increased durability, self-cleaning, anti-fouling, or enhanced tissue attachment.

The main objective of FemtoSurf project is to develop, test and demonstrate industrial-grade solid-state 2-3 kW-level fs laser with parameters suitable for metal surface patterning applicable in industrial settings.

The FemtoSurf project is important for the society, because it provides global technology discovered by EU countries, providing a better quality of life for society, ecological solutions and faster economic growth. Expected results and benefits:
- CO2 reducing technology in transportation.
- Fuel- / cost-savings for vehicles due to efficiency.
- New businesses, factories and suppliers.
- Creation of new job opportunities in the advanced materials, manufacturing and engineering sectors.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Reproducible surface textures on different materials were fabricated by using prepared methodologies. Surfaces were tested, receiving super-hydrophobic samples with measured contact angle from 150° to 170° (this is suitable for self-cleaning surfaces) and super-hydrophilic samples with measured contact angles below 10° (these are suitable for water filtration purposes). Surface textures for other applications, such as friction reduction and wear resistance, anti-fouling and other were fabricated and sent for testing to project partners. For the final period, best methods and solutions will be developed for producing surface with required functionality.

Design and setup the 2 kW laser system was performed. This includes optical design of the pump source, resonator and beam guiding. An output power of 2 kW target has been achieved.

Design and development of manufacturing cell has been performed. A set of possible machine kinematics have been designed, simulated and evaluated. The most appropriate design has been selected and completely designed and engineered with positioning accuracy of ±3 um and resolution of less than 0.001 mm at maximum speed (25 m/min). A laser path from the laser source to the machine's head has been defined and implemented using active high-power mirrors and safety enclosures. Sealed machine enclosure with a dedicated gas management and filtering system has been designed. Micro-scale and nano-scale metrology systems were designed and hardware (cameras itself and suitable lenses) were selected. Manufacturing cell has been assembled and first operational tests has been started.

Software image pipeline for processing the raw 2D images to depth and 3D data were discussed and designed with algorithms for the challenging pre-processing algorithms to calculate depth image data: coordinated global shutter image acquisition from multiple cameras, high-speed image data transfer, sharp area detection (depth of field) and extraction, distortion correction, dynamic alignment and calibration of the multi camera constellation.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

FemtoSurf system will enable manufacturing of metal components with unlimited shape, sizes from millimeters to meters with precision of micrometers. Because of high tunability of FemtoSurf system, processed components will have surfaces with highly repelling, highly adhering properties, or both that could be made on different sections of the same part fully in accordance with given application.

FemtoSurf technology will deliver improved surfaces in wide range of applications, starting from medical implants, to self-cleaning surfaces in aviation industry, to anti-fouling marine industry parts. With the metals treated by FemtoSurf machine getting new properties new horizons open in development of eco-friendly industrial solutions. Starting from less chemicals to be used in heavy industries, following by the lower costs incurred because of easier maintenance of heavy machinery. As the technology is primarily targeted to heavy industries, ecological impact will be quite visible in the daily life of societies engaged in building maritime/airspace solutions. Travelling will be cheaper and bigger number of citizens will have a possibility to meet other cultures and to expand their view, resulting in higher index of happiness. FemtoSurf applications in medical device area promises to enable development of advanced medical implants resulting in much better customer experience and longer/more active life of senior citizens.

The results achieved during FemtoSurf project from femtosecond laser development point of view is an output power that has not been realized before. More than 2kW will be realized, which is a factor of 2 higher than state of the art for scientific applications and nearly a factor of 10 for industrial applications. Because this laser source, the FemtoSurf machine will be able to process big parts at high speed with nanometers accuracy. No laser processing machine of this size exists on the market with this kind of accuracy. This will create a lot of opportunities for European industries to develop innovative solutions in heavy machinery markets and give a significant boost to competitiveness of EU companies.

Hydrophobic surface

Hydrophilic surface