Microstructuring
We can endow materials with properties they didn't have before, without the need for adding coatings or chemical agents.
Objective. Replacing a coating with a chemical-free process
Our client, a manufacturer of aluminum parts, would like to replace the current coating process to achieve superhydrophobic properties on its part, with a new process without chemicals or consumables.
Its objective is to achieve the same properties in terms of the contact angle with water that it has now. As important additional requirements, in their case the material comes in aluminum coils and their process also has a high cycle time due to the number of pieces they manufacture per day.
Solution. Aluminium microstructuring with roll-to-roll
The first step was to know the client’s production process in order to select the technology that best fit their case. We trained them on the available technologies, focusing on those that did not require chemicals or consumables.
The option we chose is called “Roll-to-roll microstucturation” or microstructuring by stamping with rollers. With this solution we microstructure with laser the rollers, and when the metal passes through the rollers, the microstructures are transferred to the metal coil. These microstructures are what will provide the functionality, in this case, superhydrophobicity to aluminum.
The next step, given the cost of the rollers for roll-to-roll, was making the first test specimens using direct laser. Thus we were able to define and optimize the structure that gave us the best properties in terms of contact angle with the aluminum.
Also during this phase, we carried out several characterizations such as confocal to measure the geometry of the microstructures, abrasion to verify that they were resistant in terms of their final application, resistance to cleaning agents and a test designed adhoc for the client to verify the functionality of the piece in its real application.
With the microstructure now fully defined, we move on to the roll-to-roll stage. In this stage we microstructure the rollers and optimize the roll-to-roll process with parameters such as tension or pressure. During this stage we were already able to have microstructured aluminum in coils so our client could manufacture real pieces in which to test the real application.
We also carried out confocal characterizations again to check the correct transfer of the microstructure and we also characterized the rollers when we had made a few kilometers of aluminum to check that they had not suffered wear.
In this project, we were able to accompany our client from the initial stage of microstructure design to the final stage of optimization of the industrial equipment with the real cycle time for production.
