Some textures on products are meant simply to be appealing to customers, said Chad Hase, director of advanced manufacturing at Custom Etch, in an interview with Design News. But functional laser texturing goes beyond that and provides actual benefits to the end user, he said. Hase is set to discuss how functional laser texturing can be used in the aerospace and food and beverage industries in a session at Advanced Manufacturing Minneapolis 2024.  

Simply defined, a functional texture is something that can assist the end user in whatever that market is, Hase said. “For example, if we're talking automobiles, if you think about your center console, most center consoles have a leather texture grain on them,” Hase said. “But if you think about where your hand would actually open up the center console, you can put a texture in that region that will help the consumer function—where a hand doesn't slide, so you can actually grip it,” he said.

Another example that Hase will explore in his presentation is hydrophobic and hydrophilic textures. “They are simply made for a liquid. These will either absorb water or repel water,” he said, by adding a microstructure to the mold.

Functional texturing can also embed codes, Hase explained. “We can actually put in a hidden QR code—think of a QR code on steroids,” he said, noting that the naked eye would not be able to see it, but a camera could. “These are what we call digital textures that could be [used] for an anti-counterfeiting measure, [or they] could be [used] for industry 4.0 for tracking and tracing,” he said. 

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If a laser-textured airplane component with an embedded digital code is found after a crash, Hase said that Industry 4.0 information can be retrieved. “Meaning, who molded it? When was it molded? What materials were used to mold it? That's all part of Industry 4.0,” he said. “All that information can be embedded into a texture.”

All of the concepts of functional laser texturing used in varied markets are basically the same, Hase said, but his presentation at Advanced Manufacturing Minneapolis will focus primarily on the aerospace and food and beverage industries. Because the basic concepts are similar, people from all sectors are welcome to attend his session, Hase said, and he encouraged attendees to bring their questions.

“The people who most get the benefit out of attending the sessions are definitely going to be engineers and designers,” he said. “Those who are designing the concept for their clients, whatever market segmentation it is, these are the ones who would be able to implement it.

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“A lot of people are still confused on what laser texturing can offer for their product,” he continued. “We keep pushing the envelope by trying to reach out to the other market segmentations and I hope that most people can walk away from this session with a better understanding of what it can do, and possibly use it,” he concluded.

Hase will present “Laser Texturing: Beyond Cosmetics to Functional” at Advanced Manufacturing Minneapolis on Wednesday, October 16, from 4:15 to 5:00 PM Central Time.

Advanced Manufacturing Minneapolis features the co-located shows Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) Minneapolis, MinnPack, Automation Technology Expo (ATX) Minneapolis, Design & Manufacturing (D&M), and Plastec Minneapolis.