Design Surfaces by Laser Remelting

Abstract

The surface of a part or product strongly influences its properties and functions. These are, e.g., abrasion and corrosion resistance, insensitivity to scratches, haptics as well as the visual impression to the customer. Therefore, many plastic parts have structured surfaces like leather textures on car dashboards. Usually these structures are integrated in the injection mould for the production of the plastic parts and then transferred to the plastic parts during the injection moulding process. A new approach to structuring metallic surfaces with laser radiation is structuring by remelting. Another approach of enhancing the appearance of design surfaces is creating a two-gloss effect by selective laser polishing. Both laser-based processes are based on reallocation of material instead of ablation.