The Equipex (equipment of excellence) Manutech USD, located in Saint-Étienne, is the first European femtosecond laser platform for industry. Created in 2012 by players from industry and public research, including Centrale Lyon, it enables surfaces to be worked by a specific interaction between photons and matter.
Femtosecond lasers
The femtosecond (10-15 seconds) is an infinitesimal unit of time: in 100 femtoseconds, light doesn't have time to penetrate the thickness of a hair. The femtosecond laser is an ultra-short pulse laser that generates a specific interaction between photons and matter. This enables surfaces to be cut, engraved and functionalized.
Research challenges:
- Engraving and marking: marking the surface, or even the interior, of materials to micrometer precision
- Cutting: cutting through any material (wood, plastic, cardboard, metals...) to nanometer precision, while limiting thermal effects
- Surface functionalization: transforming the properties of a material to give it new functions, in order to improve its performance (adhesion, friction, wettability, cell growth, conductivity, beautification, self-cleaning...)
Instrumentation:
- 9 laser platforms: 8 femtosecond lasers, 1 additive manufacturing machine, 1 industrial demonstrator...
- 1 functional characterization platform: study of the mechanical properties of surfaces and materials, their wettability, their topography...
- 1 structural characterization platform: chemical analysis, 3Dmicrometric imaging...
