A new Fraunhofer technique makes it possible to bend sheet glass into complex or unconventional shapes with the help of laser beams. This opens up a whole new range of potential products for architects and designers. The researchers are taking advantage of a particular attribute glass has of becoming viscous and therefore malleable when exposed to high temperatures. Precise calculations and gravity do the rest.
A laser beam moves across the surface of the glass with absolute precision, following a preprogrammed if still invisible path. Every now and then, the beam stops, changes position and moves on. The four-millimeter-thick sheet of glass is in an oven that has been preheated to just below the temperature at which glass begins to melt. The glass now starts to soften at the points the laser has heated and, thanks to gravity, the heated portions sink as if they were made of thick honey. Once the desired form has been achieved, the laser is switched off and the glass solidifies again. The result is a fascinating shape with bends featuring small radii, waves and round protrusions.
This is how lasers can be used to help bend sheet glass in a process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg im Breisgau. The whole process is based on a particular physical characteristic of the material; unlike metal, for instance, glass does not have a definitive melting point at which it liquefies. Instead, when exposed to a certain temperature range, it softens and becomes malleable.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @12:26AM
3D laser print me a dildo with a big swastika on the end. I want to rape some jewish bitches with it. I can't rape then with my own cock ever since my cock was bitten off by a dog.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Thursday May 04 2017, @12:46AM
Neat idea, but not exactly a recent discovery: Heat material near softening point, apply topical heat where desired, as gravity applies uniform force.
More subtle than hammering metal right out of the forge, indeed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @01:09AM (3 children)
...just like they patented MP3s.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday May 04 2017, @01:37AM (2 children)
I was going to ask, is it Fraunhofer week, or did the "Institute" just now discover that we exist?
(Score: 2) by bd on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:50PM (1 child)
Is it completely unlikely that the largest research organisation in Europe produces more than one thing worth reading about in a week?
Their press releases end up on phys.org, just like everyone elses.
Nevermind, why the hate? From what I heard from people working there (mostly ILT and ISE), their institutes are some of the nicest places to be if you are into applied science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:49PM
I had no idea from the summary that we were talking about the Fraunhofer Institute. I thought it was referring to an optical technique (e.g., related to Fraunhofer diffraction) because I didn't read through to the last sentence (having understood the technique from the second paragraph, and the third paragraph opening with "This is how lasers can be used . . ." was my "ok, there's no more useful information coming now" cue).
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday May 04 2017, @02:38AM (3 children)
First thought.. lenses.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Kromagv0 on Thursday May 04 2017, @12:14PM (2 children)
Doubtful. You would have all sorts of optical artifacts from the flow and you would still have to grind and polish the lens afterwards. For optics you would be better casting something close to the shape you want cooling in controlled conditions and the doing the fine grinding and polishing to finish the lens. As the summary states for architecture and design this seems like a neat way to create complex glass shapes and do it with more control than before.
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(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday May 05 2017, @12:11AM (1 child)
My thinking about lenses were not standard ones but applications that requires some really weird shapes. The main point being that surfaces are smooth and lasers are a precision tool.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Friday May 05 2017, @01:11PM
In that case I could see it but I wonder what one would do with such a lens?
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