Microstructuring
We can endow materials with properties they didn't have before, without the need for adding coatings or chemical agents.
Objective. Improve stainless steel cleanliness
Our customer, a technology center with expertise in food and sustainability, wants to improve the cleaning properties and reduce the adhesion of food stains on stainless steel surfaces for the food industry. Their goal is to improve the cleaning of oils, which generate the most resiistant and difficult to clean stains.
Solution. Laser microstructuring of stainless steel
The first step was to collect different possibilientes of microstructures that could improve cleanliness for stainless steels. We studied which of these microstructures we could replicate with laser technology and selected 3 options to make prototypes for testing.
During the laser stage, we optimized the laser parameters to achieve the best results. We performed different iterations in which we characterized, through the oil contact angle, to check if the microstructure was able to avoid contact with the material. The designed geometry was also measured by confocal microscopy.
We analyzed the interaction of the oil with the microstructure, and observed that the initial adhesion decreased, and in some cases, the final cleanability of the stainless steel improved as well.
Finally, we fabricated larger microstructured steel prototypes so the customer could perform their own tests on the microstructures and evaluate the repellency and reduced adhesion with oils.
