Main fields of work

• Laser cutting, material removal and marking of different materials
• Cutting with hand-held devices
• Consulting and development services in the field of laser safety
• Laser transmission welding of thermoplasctis, technical textiles and material combinations (i.e. wood-plastic)
• Laser bending of steel profiles
• Thermography for laser processing of plastics

The Safety Technology Group focuses on laser penetration welding of thermoplastic polymers and technical textiles and on separation techniques. Other research topics are laser-based steel forming for automotive industry (EU project PROFORM), laser processing of shape-memory alloys for medical implants (project title: Development of implants with variable stiffness; Special Research Area of the German Research Foundation - SFB 599) and safety for hand-guided laser systems (BMAS/BAuA-Projekt).

Based upon our basic findings about the generation of laser-pulsed, highly-dynamic pure water jets and their use for material removal, we are now analysing how the laser beam and water jet interact. For this purpose, a compact laser beam head is being developed. With this beam head the laser beam can be precisely focused and fixed to the water jet. An ns-pulsed frequency-converted Nd:YAG illumination laser and a camera equipped with a microscope optic for temporal high-resolution process monitoring are mounted to the laser beam head.

Contact person for the above projects

Dipl.-Phys. Peter Jaeschke
Tel. +49 511 2788 432
Email: p.jaeschke@lzh.de

The project on laser-pulsed water jets was presented at the 2008 Inframation Thermography Conference in Reno (NV, USA).

Another research project is the qualification of laser welding of technical textiles for airbag industry. Here, we focus on developing a prototype for welding of circular driver airbag plates with integrated supply of filler material, dynamic pressing of airbag layers and process control. Among others, this project was presented at the Welding Congress in Dresden (Germany) in 2008.