NewSkin partner AIMEN have upgraded their laser texturing and Roll to Roll capabilities within the frame of the NEWSKIN OITB offering

NewSkin partner AIMEN have upgraded their laser texturing and Roll to Roll capabilities within the frame of the NEWSKIN OITB offering
Published on 09 May 17:10 (over 2 years ago) by AquaTT


The EU-funded NewSkin Open Innovation Test Bed project is offering unique pilot scale prototyping, upscaling, and testing facilities as well as route to market services, and access to investors, to SMEs, Research labs and industry to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative nano-surface and membrane materials and technology across Europe.

As part of the NewSkin upscaling facilities, the AIMEN team are using a laser fibre designed to guide ultrashort laser pulses, combined with a high precision 5 axes positioning system – which allows the fabrication of different textures on 3D samples, such as the cylindrical rolls used in roll-to-roll thermal imprinting. The upgrade of the roll-to-roll facility, particularly the increased width of the web that can be coated and/or textured, promotes the fabrication of functional polymeric surfaces with tailored properties.

You can apply for free access to this and other NewSkin Open Innovation Test Bed facilities through NewSkin OITB Open Call 2, with deadline on 29th July 2022, more details on the services available on platform.NewSkin-OITB.eu 

The NewSkin services offered are expected to speed-up the launch of novel nanomaterials and membranes, and commercial or personal products using these advanced materials, to boost efficiency and to support industry, especially SMEs, in better and faster development of their products.

To apply, please contact the team on info@NewSkin-OITB.eu to make an initial enquiry, and/or to discuss the services for your potential application. You can sign up here to the NewSkin platform and once the call is open, complete the short online application form. Applicants can request an NDA before filling the open call application - please email info@NewSkin-OITB.eu to arrange this. 
Figure 1. AIMEN researchers working on a 5-axes microprocessing workstation equipped with an ultrashort pulse laser guided by an optical fibre. This facility allows the fabrication of a wide range of superficial textures on complex 3D pieces, including the fabrication of textured moulds for replication processes.
Figure 2. The Roll to Roll machine, based at AIMEN which can upscale nano/micro-structuring on the surface of polymeric coils, or even apply a nanostructured polymeric nano/micro-structured coating on top of metallic coils. Different textures can be applied on the coils surface, targeting a variety of functional properties like hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity or optical properties like light diffusion, diffractive effects. This service is part of the NewSkin OITB facilities and can be accessed by non-consortium partners through free open calls, as well as by contract.