SPEAKER PROFILE



Prof. Dr. Patrik Hoffmann
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, LAMP & EPFL, LP-MAT

Switzerland

Materials processing with Lasers – any limits?

Abstract

Applications for lasers in materials processing is continuously increasing. Well established cutting, drilling, marking processes as well as welding and milling need fundamental understanding for correct process control.
Examples of industrial solutions such as titanium welding, steel polishing, polymer ablation are presented and the limitations of the processes are discussed. Furthermore results of 3-D printing novelties such as epitaxial growth of Silicon pillars on Silicon wafers, or dissimilar metal deposition will be introduced.


Bio

Patrik Hoffmann a chemist from KIT carried out his PhD thesis at EPFL. After a post doctoral fellowship at IBM ARC, San Jose (USA), he returned to EPFL as project leader before joining Gramm Technik (Germany) an electrochemical company as dental section manager. From 1997 until 2009 he carried out research on Laser Micro-Processing and Focused Electron Beam Induced Processing (FEBIP) at EPFL. Since 1997 he is teaching in micro-engineering and materials sciences at EPFL. Hoffmann won the EPFL Innovation award 2006. Since 2009 head of the Laboratory of Advanced Materials Processing at Empa, continuing teaching at EPFL as adjunct professor. He is co-author of more than 130 peer reviewed journal papers and inventor or co-inventor of half a dozen patents. Guest professor at Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan and at the Shengzhen Technology University in China.