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On 27 July 2021, the EU-funded PULSATE project announced the winners of PULSATE’s 1st Technology Transfer Experiments open call for consortia able to demonstrate an effective adoption of laser solutions by end-users in relation to Laser-Based Advanced Additive Manufacturing (LBAAM) technologies.
LBAAM technologies play an important role in furthering digital production and offer important advantages to the companies that adopt them. However, barriers such as high investment costs, complex technology and system integration and lack of awareness hinder their adoption by SMEs. PULSATE aims to mitigate these barriers by creating a Europe-wide network to enable and encourage SMEs to participate in LBAAM innovation and become more globally competitive.
PULSATE’s first Technology Transfer Experiments (TTE) Open Call closed on 29 April 2021, with 35 proposals submitted from 16 different European countries. The proposals have since gone through a rigorous, multi-step selection process to identify the best teams and experiments able to demonstrate an effective adoption of LBAAM laser solutions by end-users.
They were first evaluated by external experts from the Laser industry, who selected 25 that passed the required threshold. These were then considered by the PULSATE Selection Committee, who selected the best 18 candidates to attend the “Jury Day”, where each team presented their proposal and answered questions from the jury.
Finally, after passing a formal review, the jury selected the 10 best proposals to receive up to €150,000 in funds and join a the 13-month support programme that includes technical support from PULSATE’s technical partners, business mentoring from FundingBox, media exposure, and access to private and public funding.
PULSATE congratulates the following winners of the project’s 1st Technology Transfer Experiments Open Call:
1. Proposal partners: Lumos Lazer Anonim Şirketi and VSY Biyoteknololoji ve İlaç Sanayi A.Ş (Turkey). Experiment: Intraocular lens cutting with GHz Burst fs Lasers Aims: to develop a polymer cutting process with fs lasers on intraocular lenses (IOLs) to eliminate labour-intensive operational steps with high energy consumption and lower the defect rate.
2. Proposal partners: EURO-MULTITEL SA, LASEA.SA (Belgium) and RESCOLL (France). Experiment: Titanium Implants Surface Structuration by new gigahertz Ultrashort lasers Efficient process. Aims: To demonstrate the potentiality of this technology for the fabrication and texturization of titanium implants and other potential applications and materials.
3. Proposal partners: AMiquam SA (Switzerland) and Mizar Additive Manufacturing S.L.U. (Spain). Experiment: Digital in-process NDT for Laser based powder Additive Manufacturing Aims: To prove a disruptive additive inspection tech strategy that allows the “in process” controlled layer by layer non-destructive testing (NDT) of molten metal during the powder bed fusion by laser.
4. Proposal partners: Innovative Materials Limited and Laser Optical Engineering Limited (UK). Experiment: Laser Additive Manufacturing for novel, large scale thermoelectric device. Aims: to develop a pilot scale selective laser melting (SLM) process to self-encapsulate uniaxially pressed bismuth telluride thermoelectrics to deliver cost-effective fully densified thermoelectric legs with superior microstructure & properties.
5. Proposal partners: BBW Lasertechnik GmbH (Germany) and Civan Advanced Technologies Ltd. (Israel). Experiment: Laser welding of hard to weld aluminium alloys. Aims: To develop machine build-up of new coherent beam combining (CBC) technology and experiments of aluminium welding with new beam shaping possibilities.
6. Proposal partners: BIOMIMETIC (Greece) and Optimal Optik Kft. (Hungary). Experiment: Scale up of biomimetic antireflective surface laser structuring Aims: Biomimetic will provide Optimal with AR glass optical components in order to validate the added image quality value for specific microscopy applications such as bioimaging and surface analysis.
7. Proposal partners: LASER CLADDING VENTURE NV (Belgium) and New Infrared Technologies (Spain). Experiment: Laser Cladding of large twin barrels. Aims: To implement a cost-efficient process with ensured quality and first-time-right automated production flow including a monitor & control system to coat the inside of twin barrels with laser cladding technology.
8. Proposal partners: PRES-X SRL (Italy) and CAILABS SAS (France). Experiment: Additive Manufacturing with Laser Beam Shaping. Aims: Beam shape optimization for increasing productivity and material processability of LASER Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing Process.
9. Proposal partners: Electronic and Opto-Mechanic Engineering EXOM SL and DELASER GLOBAL SOLUTIONS S.A. (Spain). Experiment: Cost Effective Sensor Fusion for AM/LMD Quality Control. Aims: to develop a cost-effective monitoring and control system to be integrated in the LMD (Laser Metal Deposition) process for quality improvement and manufacturing cost reduction.
10. Proposal partners: Imagine Optic and Europe Technologies (France). Experiment: Fibered LASER Shock Peening Aims: Fatigue life improvement of critical components by focusing on Fibered LASER Shock Peening (FLASP) that permits more flexibility and versatility than standard LSP because of the deporting of the laser beam thanks to an optical fiber.
Future calls
Next Technology Transfer Open Call will launch in July 2022. On top of that, PULSATE will launch Adopters Open Calls in Q1 2022 and Q2 2023 for SMEs that are interested in technical and economic feasibility assessment for the implementation of LBAAM technologies into their processes. Interested applicants are invited to sign up to receive a news when the future opportunity will be launched: https://pulsate-adopters.fundingbox.com/
Success Story related to Process development and optimization in the context of Manufacturing
