Luka Hribar

Soft magnetoactive elastomers (MAEs) are smart materials that respond to external magnetic fields by dynamically altering their mechanical properties. They are composed of magnetically responsive microparticles embedded within a soft polymer matrix, exhibiting an effective shear modulus of up to 100 kPa. In recent decades, MAEs' bulk properties have been successfully exploited for applications such as dynamic vibration damping, vibration sensing, and actuation in soft robotics. Recent research has shifted to their surface properties, revealing promising results on tunable surface features such as roughness, adhesion, and wetting. Even the transport of small solid and fluid objects was demonstrated. The associated surface effects can be significantly enhanced through the precise engineering of surface topography. In this article, an efficient laser micromachining technique, with a resolution of 15 µm, is presented, which enables rapid prototyping of MAE surfaces. It allows the creation of various complex shapes and offers functionality beyond the one achievable with traditional molding techniques. Additionally, the approach is versatile and can be applied to any polymer that sufficiently absorbs the laser light. As an example, a lamellar surface micro-pattern fabrication process and its characterization by optical and scanning electron microscopies are shown. Its response to a magnetic field is demonstrated. The technique provides a flexible and fast solution for optimizing polymer surface design across a wide range of applications.

Soft magnetoactive elastomers (MAEs) are smart materials that respond to external magnetic fields by dynamically altering their mechanical properties. They are composed of magnetically responsive microparticles embedded within a soft polymer matrix, exhibiting an effective shear modulus of up to 100 kPa. In recent decades, MAEs' bulk properties have been successfully exploited for applications such as dynamic vibration damping, vibration sensing, and actuation in soft robotics. Recent research has shifted to their surface properties, revealing promising results on tunable surface features such as roughness, adhesion, and wetting. Even the transport of small solid and fluid objects was demonstrated. The associated surface effects can be significantly enhanced through the precise engineering of surface topography. In this article, an efficient laser micromachining technique, with a resolution of 15 µm, is presented, which enables rapid prototyping of MAE surfaces. It allows the creation of various complex shapes and offers functionality beyond the one achievable with traditional molding techniques. Additionally, the approach is versatile and can be applied to any polymer that sufficiently absorbs the laser light. As an example, a lamellar surface micro-pattern fabrication process and its characterization by optical and scanning electron microscopies are shown. Its response to a magnetic field is demonstrated. The technique provides a flexible and fast solution for optimizing polymer surface design across a wide range of applications.

Bone diseases lead to an increasing demand for implants to treat long bone defects and for load-bearing applications. Osteoporosis care and accidental injuries are major contributors to this rising need. Our research aims to demonstrate innovative material systems and methods for preparing implants that can be used in regenerative medicine. We hypothesize that by combining titanium alloys (Ti6Al4V) with hydroxyapatite (Hap), we can enhance biocompatibility and tribo-mechanical performance, which are critical for the longevity of Ti-based surgical implants. Additionally, we investigate the application of laser surface treatments to expose the underlying porosity, thereby enhancing cell transport and promoting cell growth. In this study, we investigate the effects of two fabrication techniques—Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) and powder metallurgy (PM)—on the properties of laser-textured Ti64/Hap biocomposites. Our findings demonstrate that the selected processing route significantly influences the microstructure, tribological performance, and surface properties of these materials. An X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis corroborates our results from incubation studies in simulated body fluids, highlighting the impact of phase transformations during sintering on the chemical properties of Ti-Hap composites. Additionally, while laser surface texturing was found to slightly increase the friction coefficient, it markedly enhanced the wear resistance, particularly for the PM and SPS Ti + 5%Hap composites.

It has been recently demonstrated that laser micromachining of magnetoactive elastomers is a very convenient method for fabricating dynamic surface microstructures with magnetically tunable properties, such as wettability and surface reflectivity. In this study, we investigate the impact of the micromachining process on the fabricated material’s structural properties and its chemical composition. By employing scanning electron microscopy, we investigate changes in size distribution and spatial arrangement of carbonyl iron microparticles dispersed in the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix as a function of laser irradiation. Based on the images obtained by a low vacuum secondary electron detector, we analyze modifications of the surface topography. The results show that most profound modifications occur during the low-exposure (8 J/cm²) treatment of the surface with the laser beam. Our findings provide important insights for developing theoretical models of functional properties of laser-sculptured microstructures from magnetoactive elastomers.

We demonstrate the control of wettability of non-structured and microstructured magnetoactive elastomers (MAEs) by magnetic field. The synthesized composite materials have a concentration of carbonyl iron particles of 75 wt.% (≈27 vol.%) and three different stiffnesses of the elastomer matrix. A new method of fabrication of MAE coatings on plastic substrates is presented, which allows one to enhance the response of the apparent contact angle to the magnetic field by exposing the particle-enriched side of MAEs to water. A magnetic field is not applied during crosslinking. The highest variation of the contact angle from (113 ± 1)° in zero field up to (156 ± 2)° at about 400 mT is achieved in the MAE sample with the softest matrix. Several lamellar and pillared MAE structures are fabricated by laser micromachining. The lateral dimension of surface structures is about 50 µm and the depth varies between 3 µm and 60 µm. A systematic investigation of the effects of parameters of laser processing (laser power and the number of passages of the laser beam) on the wetting behavior of these structures in the absence and presence of a magnetic field is performed. In particular, strong anisotropy of the wetting behavior of lamellar structures is observed. The results are qualitatively discussed in the framework of the Wenzel and Cassie–Baxter models. Finally, directions of further research on magnetically controlled wettability of microstructured MAE surfaces are outlined. The obtained results may be useful for the development of magnetically controlled smart surfaces for droplet-based microfluidics.

In this paper, we investigate the influence of the following parameters: pulse duration, pulse repetition rate, line-to-line and pulse-to-pulse overlaps, and scanning strategy on the ablation of AISI 316L steel and CuZn37 brass with a nanosecond, 1064-nm, Yb fiber laser. The results show that the material removal rate (MRR) increases monotonically with pulse duration up to the characteristic repetition rate (f₀) where pulse energy and average power are maximal. The maximum MRR is reached at a repetition rate that is equal or slightly higher as f₀. The exact value depends on the correlation between the fluence of the laser pulses and the pulse repetition rate, as well as on the material properties of the sample. The results show that shielding of the laser beam by plasma and ejected material plays an important role in reducing the MRR. The surface roughness is mainly influenced by the line-to-line and the pulse-to-pulse overlaps, where larger overlap leads to lower roughness. Process optimization indicates that while operating with laser processing parameters resulting in the highest MRR, the best ratio between the MRR and surface roughness appears at ~50% overlap of the laser pulses, regardless of the material being processed.