ALUMINIUM 2018

•••4••• Innovationen Speedy surface nishing New laser system will reduce time and costs of processing L aser for surface finishing are very precise, but too slow. In the EU research project ultraSUR- FACE, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT), together with nine international partners, is developing two new optics by the end of 2018. With them, the laser beam shape can be quickly adapted to changing situations. In the near future, lasers will be able to polish, coat or structure surfac- es up to ten times faster. Two new laser optics for the near infrared range will reduce the pro- cessing time of surfaces ideally to one-tenth and cut costs by half. One of the optics is specifically de- signed for the polishing and pro- cessing of thin layers with lasers. To this end, the research team re- lies on a continuously adjustable piezoelectric deformable mirror (PDM). This ensures that the laser beam adapts to the processing sit- uation with switching intervals of less than five milliseconds. “The laser beam is reshaped de- pending on the angle of incidence so that its projection on the work piece surface always has the same shape and the intensity remains constant,” explains Judith Kum- stel, expert in laser polishing at Fraunhofer ILT. This is important because only if the three-dimen- sional beam is continuously adapt- ed at high processing speeds and hits the surface with constant in- tensity the result of the laser pro- cessing will always be the same. A different approach was devel- oped for laser structuring. The second new optics allows four beams to be used in parallel to increase speed and productivity. With a diffractive optical element (DOE), the laser beam is split in- to a square beam of four partial beams. In conventional multi- beam concepts, the focusing op- tics, as well as the shape of the component lead to a distortion of the beam. In the ultraSURFACE project, the system allows to ad- just each individual partial beam in its position within milliseconds. Schwermetalle aus Wasser filtern mit Aluminiumoxid Forscher der University of New South Wales in Sydney und des Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology haben eine günstige Methode entwi- ckelt, Filter herzustellen, die mit Schwermetallen kontaminiertes Wasser in wenigen Minuten in Trinkwasser verwandeln. Professor Kourosh Kalan- tar-zadeh und seine Kol- legen konnten zeigen, dass Nano-Filter aus Alu- miniumoxid günstig und mit äußerst geringem Ener- gieaufwand mithilfe von flüssigem Gallium herge- stellt werden können und dass Aluminiumoxid geeignet ist, sowohl Schwermetall-Ionen als auch Öl- verschmutzungen in noch nie da gewesener Ge- schwindigkeit zu filtern. Weil Aluminiumoxid sehr porös sei, werde das Was- ser sehr schnell durchgefiltert, so Professor Kalan- tar-zadeh. „Wenn das Wasser die Milliarden Schich- ten durchläuft, wird jedes einzelne Blei-Ion von den Aluminiumoxid-Schichten angezogen.“ Die Methode sei sehr sicher, denn das Wasser könne die Schwer- metall-Ionen nicht mehr vom Aluminiumoxid lösen. „Man schüttet das kontaminierte Wasser in eine Fla- sche mit einem Aluminiumoxid-Filter. Dann wartet man zwei Minuten, und das durch den Filter gelau- fene Wasser ist sauber und trinkbar. Und das Gute daran ist, dass der Filter auch noch günstig ist“, so Kalantar-zadeh. Es gebe zwar bereits tragbare Filter, die Schwermetalle aus dem Wasser filtern, aber sie kosteten oft mehr als 100 Dollar. Im Gegensatz dazu könnten die Aluminiumoxid-Filter, die mit flüssigem Gallium hergestellt werden, für nur zehn Cent produ- ziert werden, was sie für mögliche zukünftige Inves- toren interessant macht. Hier kommt jeder Filter zu spät. Foto: Riccardo Franke / pixelio.de Piezoelectric deformable mirror (PDM) developed in the EU project ultraSURFACE Photo: Fraunhofer ILT, Aachen Messe-Rundgang zur Anzeigen-Spezial ALUMINIUM 2018 AS 1200 HS 1200 DCAC 1200 www.munk.de AS 1200: Anodizing pro- cess controller for the deco- rative anodizing process. Current density control to reduce process time and to increase efficiency. Touch panel to simplify program- ming and operation. HS 1200: Anodizing pro- cess controller especially designed to the needs of hardanodizers. Surface mode, pulse anodizing, quality tracking. Touch panel operation to provide more process and program information. DCAC 1200: Electrolytic colouring system to en- hance the appearance of the aluminium part. The DCAC 1200 consists out of a touch panel based control panel and a separate high performance power supply. MUNK: We have the power