Laser Optical Engineering Limited Public Funding

Laser welding is a high throughput, low distortion, fully automated joining method, already used by aerospace and automotive industries for several decades to fabricate structures from fuselage sections to car bodies. The requirements on the welds in such structures, depending on the application in question, can be very demanding: strength, resistance to fatigue, resistance to corrosion, aesthetics etc. Laser welding takes place at high speed and results in very small welds. This, coupled with the demands placed on the welds, renders even small imperfections unacceptable. Meeting this quality challenge is always difficult. This is becoming more so, as structures needed for safer and more energy-efficient aircraft and mass-electrification of road transport become larger and more intricate. This currently limits the broader uptake of laser welding, which would otherwise be an attractively productive manufacturing technique. This is compounded by the fact that laser welding requires precise setup. Welding can prove intolerant to small gaps between parts, or small positioning errors between the laser beam and those parts. Gaps and errors can result from problems upstream, with inadequate material controls, incorrect part placement, and poor fixturing, as well as distortion-induced part movement during welding. Such problems are further exacerbated in larger structures made out of thin materials. Cost-effective, flexible, and accurate beam manipulation over a large working area is essential, as is a capability for intelligent real-time adjustments in the beam during welding. This requirement is not currently well served by industrial robots, nor alternative manipulators such as scanners or gantries. The e-Tau project will develop, test and validate a novel precision laser welding system, facilitating a step-change in the quality of larger aerospace and automotive welded structures: * By developing cutting-edge high precision parallel kinematic machine (PKM) Tau robot manipulation * That works with advanced laser beam wobbling optics * Integrated with intelligent quality assurance and control sensors * Then demonstrating the application of that system to the fabrication of large wing skin structures for the aerospace sector, and assembly of a range of automotive parts for e-mobility * Along with an accompanying digital twin system, to visualise and quantify production applications with throughput and cost information. With this, e-Tau will unlock, for manufacturing as a whole: * Improved tolerance to part placement and fit-up for laser welding. * Improved - and maintained - weld quality. * Increased productivity and reduction in repairs and scrap. Reduced and potentially eliminated need for expensive and time-consuming post-weld NDT.

Thermoplastic composites are gaining favour in place of traditional thermoset versions for their toughness, ease of recycling and ability to be manufactured in high volume without autoclaves. The High Volume Manufacture and Inspection Processes for Composite Pipes project aims to develop novel manufacturing and inspection processes for production of cost-effective thermoplastic composite tube, and to fully qualify the material. The consortium comprises Sigma Precision Components (lead), Pultrex, Laser Optical Engineering and University of Manchester. The project will develop a pultrusion process to make high-quality thermoplastic composite tube and a semi-automatic laser shearography inspection system to check for flaws. The carbon /thermoplastic material will also be one of the first to be fully characterised for aerospace use. The partners will need to ensure the processes are capable of achieving cost and productivity targets while maintaining product quality. Sigma is a manufacturer of metallic aerospace pipe assemblies and has developed thermoplastic composite tube technology that can be used for lightweight pipe assemblies and torque shafts. To fully capitalise on market opportunities, Sigma will perform a work package to fully qualify the thermoplastic composite material (overseen and published by NCAMP) through a series of coupon tests. Currently there are very few thermoplastic composites published in the industry's Composite Materials Handbook 17. In addition, the manufacturing costs for the tube need to be reduced, addressed by the two other work packages Although pultrusion is an established technology for making various thermoset composite sections, Pultrex (a UK based manufacturer of pultrusion equipment) will develop innovative solutions to adapt the process for thermoplastic tubes, in particular the heating and cooling systems and consolidation die design. University of Manchester will assist by transferring knowledge from their laboratory pilot process, and maintain close academic interest for teaching purposes. Pultrex also anticipates potential sales of this equipment in other sectors such as automotive. For the third work package, Laser Optical Engineering will adapt one of their existing laser shearography systems to inspect composite tubes for flaws such as inclusions, porosity and delamination. The system will use special lasers, cameras and semi automatic image analysis to inspect the tube more quickly than traditional C scanning techniques. Their innovation will focus on miniaturising a rugged system for both industrial use and for inspecting composite structures on aircraft during maintenance, or even wind turbine blades.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Laser Optical Engineering wish to develop a high performance photovoltaic based solar collector with a 3 fold increase in power output over current offerings. The product will use a solar harvesting area three quarters smaller and much simpler than currently available, using optics to concentrate and steer solar energy onto Photo voltaic cells. this approach will reduce the conventional tracking of the sun from two planes to a single linear motion which will be done within the system. Novel optics will also reduce the accuracy of the tracking needed improving the system performance and output duration. By keeping the moving parts within a sealed system the impact on the environment and maintenance will be significantly reduced: low curvateure outer optics will be much easier to clean than the heavily radiused, or stepped fresnel lenses found in most concentrating systems. The current system offerings are frequently based upon silicon based photo cells which are at best 13% efficient – which means large areas committed to extracting a small amount of electricity from the sun. Currently high efficiency solar cells cost significantly more per watt making them commercially uncompetitive. Our approach uses an innovative approach to significantly increase the collection efficiency by both generating electricity at a conversion rate of 40% and making use of heat generated. To do this we utilise highly efficient multiple junction photovoltaic cells and integrate them with cooling circuits to increase the efficiency of an air conditioning cycle. By integrating both these circuit in a stand alone module our system will be able to provide both hot water and electricity from a small foot print module. Since up to 70% of electricity in some countries is used to provide air conditioning and cooling our system could be used to power a heat exchanger to convert hot water to cold.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

We have developed a new technology that can spot explosive residue. The main advantage of this technology is that it operates in real time, images the residue which then automatically signals an alert when a substance is spotted. This is a brand new approach to to explosive detection. Current technologies can only manually alert to the presence of explosive material, our technology can pin point the exact location on a whole consignment. The most commonly used techniques at present are x-ray screening and physical examination including sniffer dogs. Our technology will provide a vigilance that is constantly available unlike dogs who only have a 20 minute attention span and can take anything up to 8 hours to arrive on site. The key aim of this project is to develop a system prototype for scanning cargo. The proposed prototype will be a portable unit that can be taken on site. The main benefits of this technology are that a detection can be made without relying on human interpretation ; it is stand off and therefore does not affect throughput; all cargo can be scanned for surface traces of explosives rather than hand searching every item with a sniffer dog or only scanning a random selection. This will result in 100% cargo screening and security. Under ICAO law, all air cargo leaving a country is that nation's responsibility. These security controls are regulated by the Department's Transport Security and Contingencies Directorate [TRANSEC]. Under UK rules, outbound cargo can only be considered secure either if it has originated from a secure source or if it has undergone appropriate screening either at the airport or during transportation.

SCAMPER: Scale -up of Additive manufacturing with Materials manipulation Processing for higher performance and rEducing waste in manufacturing and Repair Technology Strategy Board: Technology Inspired Collaborative Research and Development – High Value Manufacturing TP number: 5684-44827 The key driver for SCAMPER is to reduce material waste for production and repair applications in the aerospace sector using Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques. AM via Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) significantly reduces material waste and enables direct manufacture of complex components in an expanded range of metallic alloys. SCAMPER will aim to improve LMD technology in terms of suitable materials, production rate and size of components for manufacture and repair applications. To meet these objectives two areas of LMD technology will be developed: Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE's) and robotic manipulation software. DOE's will enable the controlled delivery of high laser powers which will allow deposition of the desired material microstructure whilst increasing deposition rates. The robotic manipulation software will enable complex parts to be generated using laser deposition delivered by robotic arms. The total grant rewarded to the SCAMPER project is approximately £500k. The SCAMPER consortium brings together world leaders in DOE design in Laser Optical Engineering Ltd, AM software specialists Materialise Ltd, Robot supplier & system integrator Olympus Technologies Ltd and LMD Research & Development expertise from TWI Ltd. The project will be driven from end users EADS UK Ltd and Rolls Royce plc who will assist in exploitation of the LMD technology within the aerospace sector.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Development of glass repair material (either in powder, paste or solid format) that can be fused in place using a laser system, which can be pigmented to match the substrate colours and give a similar gloss appearance to the fired substrate i.e. sanitaryware or tableware glaze and vitreous enamel frit. Development of a laser fusing system giving energy efficient fusing of the glass repair material and ensuring effective bonding of the repair to the existing substrate incorporating laser optics and pre heating to eliminate thermal stresses. Combining the above processes into an integrated unit that can be operated readily in the production environment.

Awaiting Public Summary