Funded by Horizon 2020 and Photonics21, the TresClean project, started in 2016, aimed to develop, by laser texturing, antibacterial surfaces using ultra-short high power lasers.

Thanks to the participation of its partners - Università degli Studi di Parma, University of Stuttgart, BSH Group, Ecor International, RAYLASE GmbH and MODUS ltd - the TresClean project has developed innovative surfaces, produced without subsequent chemical treatment. They are aimed at a variety of applications such as the creation of self-cleaning and aseptic surfaces for the food packaging industry and consumer household appliances. The processes developed within the project’s framework responded to industrial constraints in terms of productivity, with the objective of achieving a processing speed of 40 mm²/s. The members of the consortium achieved the initial objective but also exceed it with a processing speed >1000 mm²/s.

To achieve this goal, the TresClean consortium made numerous innovations:

Following these varied results and at the end of the TresClean project, ALPhANOV decided to participate in the Newskin project. This project aims to create an innovation ecosystem to accelerate the "uptake" by the nanotechnology industry for the functionalization of surfaces. It brings together 35 partners (manufacturers, clusters, research institutes, etc.) and is funded by the European Union. ALPhANOV will collaborate with various partners of the IE (Innovation Ecosystem) to set up an automatic pilot line allowing the continuous mass production of functionalized surfaces (antibacterial, super-hydrophobic, anti-fouling). All this is thanks to the development of femtosecond laser nano-texturing processes coupled with roll-to-roll machines, for the continuous texturing of surfaces.

Learn more about the newskin project