A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS and industry are founding "Fusion Bionic", a high-tech company. The aim is to use world-leading solutions for laser interference technology to apply lotus effects and other functional microstructures from nature to technical surfaces such as wings and implants.
The Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP) technology researched at the Fraunhofer IWS and TU Dresden over the past decade is now ready for the market. In the DLIP process, an optical system splits laser beams into several parts. The DLIP processing system developed at the Fraunhofer IWS then focuses the partial beams onto the surface. There, the beams overlap to form interference patterns. The system is based on pulsed beams that successively structure surfaces with rapid movement. Under laboratory conditions, up to 0.9 square meters per minute can be processed. Fusion Bionic is the world's first commercial provider of this process and the associated hardware solutions. In order to exploit this lead, the founding team now wants to quickly set up a production site in Dresden.
Complete laser structuring machines are to be manufactured there, as well as standardized DLIP processing modules, e.g. for SMEs. Contract structuring and specially developed functional product surfaces will also be offered. Several investors have already expressed a keen interest in supporting the scalable technology from Dresden.
