POLYBRIGHT · Extending the process limits of laser polymer welding with high-brilliance beam sources

PolyBright will develop high power high brilliance lasers with new wavelengths between 1500 and 1900 nm which are adapted to the absorption properties of polymers. With innovative beam manipulation systems for optimum adaption of energy, the project will provide high speed and flexible laser manufacturing technology to expand the limits of current plastic part assembly. Key innovations of the PolyBright project are high brilliance mid-IR-wavelength fibre and diode lasers with powers up to 500 W, high speed scanning and flexible beam manipulation systems, such as dynamic masks and multi kHz scanning heads. New laser polymer joining processes for optimized thermal management in combination with wavelength adapted polymers and additives will provide higher quality, high processing speed up to 1 m/s and robust manufacturing processes at lower costs. Compact lasers with very high beam quality and free form beam shaping will enable reconfigurable assembly machines, offering high productivity with sub second cycle times and unique flexibility for varying joining geometries. The project covers the whole process chain for laser based plastic part assembly and includes laser companies, optics suppliers, material and processing specialists as well as machine suppliers. The developed machine equipment and the new laser process approaches will be validated by end users from medical, consumer good, automotive and watch industry. With this initial step, PolyBright will break new paths in processing of advanced plastic products overcoming the quality and speed limitations of conventional plastic part assembly. PolyBright will thus open new markets for laser systems with a short term potential of over several 100 laser installations per year and a future much larger market share in a multi billion plastic market. PolyBright will hence establish a comprehensive and sustainable development activity on new high brilliance lasers that will strengthen the EU's laser system industry.