2019 Award Winners
Award-winning project: New generation of electrical plug contacts - Optimal performance through high-speed laser structuring
Project partners: TE Connectivity Germany GmbH, Speyer | Steinbeis Research Center Material Engineering Center Saarland (MECS), Saarbrücken
A look at living nature reveals that, ultimately, all surfaces are geometrically structured across a wide range of size scales and, as a result of evolution, are perfectly adapted to their respective functions. Technical surfaces, on the other hand, have so far mostly been described solely in terms of roughness measurements, which highlights the potential that has been squandered to date.
It is precisely here that the Steinbeis Research Centre Material Engineering Centre Saarland (MECS) has focused its efforts, developing an innovative, laser-based texturing process for the rapid and efficient treatment of virtually any type of surface. The process has now proven to be a disruptive innovation through long-standing collaboration with one of the world’s market leaders in the field of electrical connector systems, TE Connectivity Germany GmbH. The background to this collaboration is the increasing number and complexity of electronic on-board systems in modern cars, in which more than 2,500 contacts are currently used in over 250 connectors per vehicle. This fact presents an ever-growing challenge, particularly in view of the vision for future functionalities such as autonomous driving. In this context, both low electrical contact resistance and a reduction in the insertion force required for the ever-increasing number of connectors play an enormous role.
Thanks to the patented ‘Direct Laser Interference Patterning’ (DLIP) process, electrical connectors achieve significantly better contact properties, enabling them to reliably cope with the increasing electrification in the automotive sector. The long-standing collaboration between MECS and TE Connectivity represents a prime example of successful technology transfer, spanning from initial fundamental research in the laboratory, through product-specific optimisation, to the completion of a pilot plant for high-speed laser structuring of electrical connector contacts for industrial-scale series production. In recognition of this successful collaboration, both project partners are being awarded the Steinbeis Foundation’s Technology Transfer Prize – the Löhn Prize.