Press

The South Korean automotive supplier ILJIN was looking for a solution to a disturbing ping-noise occurring at the interface between the wheel bearing and the driveshaft. Working together with Fraunhofer ILT, the company de-veloped an EHLA-based functional coating to address this issue, and has in-tegrated it into a tailored application that is now making its way into mass production. This application demonstrates how a specific industrial challenge can lead to a laser process suitable for series production. It also shows that the solution lies not in the material alone, but in designing the component, surface, and manufacturing process to work together as a functional system.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT and the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials KIMM have been cooperating for many years on projects ranging from laser welding to micromaterial processing. With the renewal of their Memorandum of Understanding, the two institutes are now deepening this partnership. Going forward, they plan to focus on environmentally friendly manufacturing processes for electromobility and next-generation energy storage technologies.

Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen has developed a highly complex laser-optical system for a quantum computer currently under construction at the 5th Institute of Physics at the University of Stuttgart. This system enables 2,000 Rydberg atoms to be positioned with sub-micrometer precision in the computer’s highly compact vacuum chamber. To do this, the system projects an array of 2,000 individually controllable laser beams into the chamber. These beams act as optical tweezers and hold the trapped Rydberg atoms precisely at the distance required for them to interact with each other. The computer’s quantum logic processes are based on these interactions.

Regulatory pressure, high-value repair and the need for scalable industrial solutions are pushing laser-based manufacturing processes into new territory. Fraunhofer ILT and Etxetar are responding by expanding the industrial reach of laser metal deposition (LMD) and extreme high-speed laser material deposition (EHLA). Under a memorandum of understanding, the two partners are combining process expertise, industrial engineering and application know-how to address growing demands in aviation, coating and beyond.