Laser surface texturing with shifted method—Functional surfaces at high speed

Laser surface texturing is a promising technology for future wide applications of functional surfaces with specific properties like hydrophobic, antibacterial, adhesive, self-cleaning, anticorrosion, light absorbing, low friction, etc. Great advancements have been made in this field in the last few years, but in most cases, it takes from minutes up to 1 h to produce 1 cm2 of a functional surface. Even the availability of high-power ultrashort pulsed lasers in the last few years did not dramatically increase productivity, because there are physical limitations of current processing methods: heat accumulation and oxidation, plasma shielding effect, and precision at high speeds. In order to solve these limitations, there have been developed a new method called a shifted laser surface texturing (sLST) method. The new method has a potential to be at least 100 times more productive with no heat accumulation effect and virtually unlimited number of complex shape objects produced with high precision on the surface. In the present work, the principle and advantages of the method are described. The results of the method are compared with two standard methods (path filling of objects and hatch over all objects). The sLST method is presented in both single pulse and burst variants. Examples of its application on different materials for increased adhesion of surface coatings are shown.