Press Releases

On April 8 and 9, 2025, the UKP workshop will once again open its doors and bring together experts from industry and research at the venue DAS LIEBIG in Aachen. As the most important platform for material processing with ultrashort pulse lasers, this event not only offers visitors the latest insights into technological advances, but also a unique opportunity to discuss the latest applications and solutions.

The now firmly established “UKP Workshop“ brings together leading experts in ultrashort pulse laser technology every two years. On April 8 and 9, 2025, the 8th UKP Workshop will take place in Aachen, where specialists will present the latest developments in the field of ultrashort pulse laser technology. Around 20 international speakers will give presentations on practical applications and processes with USP lasers. This time, the focus will be on innovative beam shaping solutions specially optimized for different processes. These solutions open up new possibilities for laser-assisted processing in industries such as electronics, energy storage, glass processing and microelectronics.

A new ultrashort pulse (USP) laser beam source from TRUMPF, designed for industrial use, will significantly expand the range of applications of USP laser processes. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen will be systematically exploring the potential of this beam source with an average output of 1 kW in the coming months. Among other things, experiments are planned to optimize processes in battery and fuel cell production, toolmaking and semiconductor technology, as well as to test various beam guidance strategies. Many of these pilot applications have their origins in the Fraunhofer internal Cluster of Excellence Advanced Photon Sources (CAPS), to which 21 institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft belong.

Ultra-short pulsed (USP) lasers are versatile tools in laser materials processing, but work even more efficiently when the laser pulses are optimally manipulated in space and time. How important this is for the new high-power sources with 300 W and more could be experienced at the “7th UKP Workshop Ultrafast Laser Technology” in Aachen. Visitors could also see how USP lasers make the electrodes of batteries for electric cars or hydrogen systems significantly more efficient.

Every two years, the “UKP Workshop” gives its visitors a sneak peek into the current state of this innovative laser technology. It will be that time again: On April 26 and 27, 2023, the ultrafast laser community will meet in Aachen. In addition to presenting the state of the art in kW beam sources, the workshop will focus on process development and future markets for laser material processing. For two days, experts from research and industry will exchange ideas – finally in live personal contact again.

Together with Hamamatsu, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen has set up an application lab for advanced laser material processing with ultrashort pulsed (USP) laser radiation. In Aachen, the partners jointly developed an industrial processing SLM-head that can use customized, dynamic beam shaping combined with large laser average output powers for a wide range of applications. The applied, new Spatial Light Modulator from Hamamatsu can be operated up to 150 watts of average output power.

Many industries are ready to break new ground in production with lasers. To do this, users and suppliers must reconcile digitalization and sustainability, ecology and economy. As an important means to this end, lasers can be integrated into the emerging process chains so that they interact with the entire upstream and downstream processes, saving both time and money. The more than 520 participants at the AKL'22 International Laser Technology Congress in Aachen learned how the laser community is already proactively tackling these tasks.

After having to take a pandemic break of four years, the industrial laser technology community met at “AKL'22 – International Laser Technology Congress” in Aachen from May 4 to 6, 2022. The industry is doing well, and the biggest trend is the extensive digitalization of processes. At the same time, common beam sources are being pushed to ever new levels of peak performance. New to the conference program was the Quantum Technology & Photonics Forum, where major German companies presented an amazing range of topics.

Until now, wastewater treatment plants have not been able to sufficiently filter out tiny microplastics in wastewater, but this could soon change: The first laser-drilled microplastic filter is being tested in a wastewater treatment plant. It contains sheets with extremely small holes just 10 micrometers in diameter. The technology to efficiently drill millions of such holes was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, and now the institute’s engineers are scaling up ultrashort-pulse (USP) laser technology in the kW range. Visitors can learn more about the microplastic filter and ultrashort-pulse lasers at the Fraunhofer booth A6.441 at LASER World of PHOTONICS.

A drone hovers in the sky above the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen. It films 50 employees from the “Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF)” department from above as they stand together and form the number 25. The anniversary of the basic patent for LPBF marks an occasion for a video clip: 25 years ago, only one Fraunhofer ILT researcher was actively working on the project and the patent for metallic 3D laser printing was filed in 1996. “This is an auspicious occasion for a retrospective and outlook on our technology,” Jasmin Saewe says, pleased. She has been head of the LPBF competence area at Fraunhofer ILT for several months. Today, she is in charge of around 50 employees and students.

The LASER World of PHOTONICS Industry Days took place from June 21 to 24, 2021. With this online event, Messe München – organizer of the world's largest trade show for applied laser technology and photonics – offered its community a high-quality program including market overviews, trend analyses and panel discussions. Industrial laser technology today and tomorrow was one focus of the program.

In the Cluster of Excellence “Internet of Production” (IoP), 200 scientists at RWTH Aachen University in cooperation with Fraunhofer ILT have set up a data center for controlling and monitoring industrial processes. The concept for this is based on a project for controlling laser systems developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT and uses the open source software Kubernetes. A corresponding system has been running successfully at the institute for two years, and with it the institute can automatically and remotely install the software for new lasers in just a few minutes.

Ultrafast lasers have become a standard manufacturing tool for the display industry, with even more and even larger applications coming in the next few years. The technology and processes needed for these new applications were presented at the 6th “UKP-Workshop: Ultrafast Laser Technology”, held by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen on April 21 and 22, 2021. Their spectrum ranged from ultra-powerful beam sources to processes that can be used to enlarge the surface of a metal electrode, for the generation of hydrogen, a thousand times.

A photonics network of pan-European scale will start in January 2021 as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program: The project „Photonics Digital Innovation Hub“– PhotonHub Europe for short – is designed to make small and medium-sized European companies fit for the future by supporting them in the use of photonic technologies. The „PhotonHub Europe“ expects more than 1000 new high-tech jobs and around one billion euros in sales by 2025. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT coordinates one of the eight technology platforms. With its focus on laser-based production, this platform plays an important role in European photonics.

The ultra-short pulse laser is seeing ever wider acceptance among industrial users as a tool for precision manufacturing. In particular, these advances are due to new developments or technological progress in system technology, which increase productivity considerably. Increasing productivity significantly was also the goal of a team from industry and research, which was awarded the Science Prize of the Stifterverband for Collaborative Research at the annual conference of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft on October 9. The team has developed a technology in which a laser beam is split into up to 16 partial beams. That means there are 16 tools controlled in parallel and individually to produce functional surfaces.

The ultrashort pulse (USP) laser has been known to shine whenever highly sensitive material needs to be machined quickly yet gently. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has investigated one such application that certainly looks to have a bright future: The Aachen-based researchers developed a quick, reliable and nondestructive method of ablating lithium-ion batteries’ anode material with an ultrashort pulsed laser beam. This ablation technique exposes electrical contact points called tabs.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT have come up with a striking new addition to contact stamping technologies in the ERDF research project ScanCut. In collaboration with industry partners from North Rhine-Westphalia, the Aachen-based team of researchers developed a hybrid manufacturing process for the laser cutting of thin-walled metal strips. This new process makes it possible to fabricate even the tiniest details of contact parts in an eco-friendly, high-precision and efficient manner.

Owing to the progressing coronavirus pandemic, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has decided to cancel the International Laser Technology Congress AKL in 2020. The safety and health of our attendees, partners and employees has top priority for us. The next AKL will take place from May 4 to 6, 2022, thus maintaining its regular biennial rhythm. However, so that interested parties do not have to wait another two years for the live demonstrations in Europe's largest laser system park, which are firmly anchored in the AKL, Fraunhofer ILT intends to open its doors as early as this autumn and in 2021 for various planned symposia in Aachen – provided that the general conditions allow it again.

Experts in composites strive to develop and research special combinations of materials for lightweight construction and other innovative applications – results of their work will be on show at JEC World in Paris from March 3 to 5, 2020. As the world’s leading trade fair for the composites industry, JEC World offers comprehensive insights into the entire value chain of custom material manufacturing and processing. The Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT will be taking the opportunity to showcase laser-based processes for lightweight materials and hybrid joints.

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) components are usually assembled using fasteners. These are typically glued into the CFRP component once it has been cured and drilled. The consortium behind the CarboLase project came up with a new method, using an ultrashort pulsed laser to drill the holes for the fasteners in the textile preform with micrometer-scale accuracy. Integrating the fasteners in these high-precision cut-outs before the CFRP component is cured saves time by shortening the production process. In 2019, the project team’s efforts were rewarded with the prestigious CAMX Award in the “Combined Strength” category.

Microplastics enter our wastewater and the environment on a daily basis. Yet wastewater treatment plants struggle to filter out enough of these tiny plastic particles. Fortunately, help is on hand in the form of the SimConDrill research project, which the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been funding since 2019. Combining the expertise of five partners from industry and research, the aim of the project is to jointly develop a filter featuring tiny, laser-drilled holes that can remove plastic particles as small as 10 micrometers from wastewater. This remarkable innovation has now been nominated for the prestigious Green Award. Until February 14, 2020, you can vote online at https://greentechfestival.com/en/awards/ to support the project.

Sunny prospects: Under the direction of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen, five project partners from industry and research are developing technologies for the roll-to-roll production of organic photovoltaics in the EffiLayers project. This North Rhine-Westphalian lead market project aims to help the machine manufacturers based in North Rhine-Westphalia play a pioneering role in the market for flexible thin-film solar cells and printed electronics.

From May 6 to 8, 2020, laser manufacturers and users from various branches will meet at the AKL’20 for the 13th time. Featuring over 600 participants, 87 speakers and over 50 sponsors and exhibitors, the “AKL – International Laser Technology Congress” has established itself as the leading forum for applied laser technology in Europe. The program of events is already available at www.lasercongress.org – where you can also register now for AKL’20.

The ingenuity of pioneering breakthroughs can be witnessed in Aachen before the year is out. At its “AI for Laser Technology Conference” on November 6 and 7, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT will be tackling the question of how lasers can be used more efficiently with the help of artificial intelligence. Experts from companies including Daimler, Intel and Microsoft have already signed up for the event. The conference topics will range from machine learning in industrial settings to the use of augmented reality and analysis of neural networks.

In the 70th year of its history, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is ideally positioned for the challenges of the future, a strategy it also demonstrated at LASER World of PHOTONICS, the world's leading photonics trade fair in Munich. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, for example, presented state-of-the-art technology for quantum technologies, metallic 3D printing and electromobility.

Experts from 13 different Fraunhofer institutes are working on the development of multi-kW ultrafast lasers and various applications in the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Advanced Photon Sources CAPS. A user facility with application laboratories in Aachen and Jena is being created for this purpose, laboratories in which partners from industry and research can work with the new technology.

Car makers currently use a variety of methods to emboss plastic panels for vehicle interiors. However, manufacturing the tools required for this purpose is an extremely time-consuming process. This situation can be improved using a new laser machine that triples the rate at which these tools are produced while facilitating even more complex structures. The expertise required for the various components and processes was developed as part of the “eVerest“ project in collaboration with partners from research and industry.

Ultrashort pulse (USP) lasers have become firmly established in science and micromachining. At this year's “UKP-Workshop: Ultrafast Laser Technology” in Aachen, a new trend has emerged: Macroprocessing. Since multi-100-watt USP lasers up into the kW range have become available, the industry is looking at them with great interest for large-area applications. For this purpose, the institute is developing the complete process chain right through to fully digitized processes.

Lasers with ultrashort pulses in the picosecond and femtosecond range are often referred to as ultrafast lasers. They are known for their ultra-precise ablation and cutting results. Unfortunately, processing with such lasers takes time. To address this issue, a new research project, funded by the European Commission, aims to make material processing with ultrafast lasers up to a hundred times faster.

Separate glass with any desired contour? Without generating dust and reworking the edges? This is possible, even quickly, with specially shaped ultrashort laser pulses. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT is developing a technology that – with refractive and diffractive optical elements – gives laser beams a form optimally adapted to the respective task. In addition, the applications go far beyond separating glass: In the future, head-up displays for the automotive industry will also be produced.