RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ON MICROSTRUCTURED SURFACES

HOLOGRAPHIC RAINBOW PROJECTION AT THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & RESEARCH

In cooperation with the IPK of the Fraunhofer Institute Berlin, we were able to realize the lens elements for an art project "Kunst am Bau", for the new building of the BMBF, at Kapelle-Ufer 1 in Berlin, using the process of ultra-precision machining and injection stamping.

In order to be able to decompose the white light of the full-spectrum LED into the color spectrum of a rainbow, the optical elements must have a blaze grating structure, which represents a cyclic sequence of sawtooth structures in the nanometer range.

For this purpose, a replication master had to be produced in the laboratory wing of Fraunhofer IPK on a specially modified LT-Ultra ultra-precision manufacturing system, which reproduces the 40,000 optical structures of the blaze grating without interference and is suitable for the subsequent injection molding process of the macro-optical base bodies.

The artwork "Virtual Sculpture without Title" won the title in the "Kunst Am Bau" competition. and the artist group around Boran Burchhardt, Andreas Lippke and Marcel Stammen commissioned us with the realization of the optical elements.

THE END OF GLOBAL PLASTIC WASTE POLLUTION?

The development of a completely biodegradable plastic can make it possible!

BIO plastic - PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) - a polymer made from plant and animal by-products, as well as other biogenic residues from the food industry.

We are currently working particularly intensively on the development of environmentally compatible films and polymers and the innovative technologies for their production.

The focus and goal of our research and development are fully recyclable and 100% biodegradable materials that can be used in the common systems of cast and blow film extrusion, as well as in injection molding processes without additional conversion measures, by the processing industry in an economically profitable way.

The first successful PHA cast film extrusion is proof of the film extrudability of the modified base PHA.

The result opens the way for further steps into the flexible packaging film market based on a 100% biodegradable and naturally compostable PHA bio-polymer.

The film extrudability of the modified PHA was hereby demonstrated on the basis of a continuous cast film extrusion in a thickness between approx. 40µ - 150µ.

ULTRA-HARD EMBOSSING TOOL FOR INTRODUCING HOLOGRAPHIC STRUCTURES INTO HARD METALS

The aim of this research project is to produce an ultra-hard embossing die which can be used to protect against counterfeiting in industry.

The surface of the stamping die, which is composed of different elements, will finally have a hardness of HV 1900 - 2300, which is sufficient for stamping holographic structures in the lateral range of approx. 400 - 800nm, at a wavelength-dependent spatial frequency of 1280-2630 lines/mm, directly into metals.

This technique can then be transferred to any stamping die, which is to be strengthened in its quality by extreme service lives.

LIGHT CONCENTRATORS FOR PHOTOVOLTAICS

Light concentrators have been shown to increase the efficiency of solar modules.

We have already demonstrated this in a feasibility study entitled "Strip-shaped concentrators for broadband radiation to locally increase the efficiency of illuminance while reducing the required area of mono- or polycrystalline silicon".

However, due to the current production advantages in competition by foreign companies, the implementation was stopped. Ecologically and sustainably considered, the realization of the project would be a great progress!