As the HIPERDIAS project progresses into the final 12 months of activity, there is a definite convergence taking place of the various technology elements into a complete solution for industry adoption in the future.
September 2018 will see a series of evaluation and validation testing milestones achieved that start with the large area, high efficiency diffraction gratings which are in the process of being mounted in place for testing with the high power laser system at USTUTT. The gratings designed by USTUTT and supplied by AMO are used within the pulse compressor to re-compress pulses to the femtosecond regime after amplification.
Another key testing programme that will get underway in September at USTUTT will be the experimental validation (at high average and peak powers) of the high PER (Polarization Extinction Ratio) fibre-based Beam Delivery System (BDS) developed by the University of Limoges (XLIM Research Institute) and produced by GLOPhotonics.
In a busy month for the project at USTUTT, September will also feature the integration of the new 200W "seed” laser developed by AMPLITUDE SYSTEMES to drive the Multi-Pass Amplifier developed by the IFSW to Kilowatt levels of average power.
Meanwhile at Class4laser Professionals in Switzerland, September will also see the power scaling of the process development work in diamond polishing for Element Six Ltd and the fine cutting of metals. All of this will be taking place at the same time as Si Ablation testing of the LASEA laser machine at USTUTT continues towards the optimisation of targeted ablation rate and surface quality parameters in collaboration with pioneering end-user Robert Bosch.
The concentration of these testing activities in September is very timely as the project heads towards its Period 2 Review in Brussels at the beginning of October and establishes a solid platform for the final phase of evaluation and validation work up to the conclusion of the project at the end of July 2019. The prospects for the individual and collective commercialisation and market acceptance of the various elements of the project are strong.