Event Information

Structured & Freeform Surfaces- ASPE euspen Joint Topical Meeting

07 March 2011 to 08 March 2011
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, US

ASPE and euspen are delighted to announce the following joint topical meeting:

Structured and freeform surfaces have numerous applications ranging from optics to automotive, from aerospace to biomedical and from micro-fluidics to power generation. The key feature that determines a structured or a freeform surface is that its topography is not just an artifact of the process used to generate the surface, i.e. it has been engineered for a specific function. Thus, for a structured surface, typical parameters such as Ra do not adequately characterize its properties. A freeform surface can have a topography that significantly departs from a standard geometric element and thus conventional metrology methods tend not to be adequate. For these reasons, such surfaces are a challenge to manufacture and a challenge to measure. However, their function is by definition profoundly affected by their geometrical characteristics. Examples include:

• Antireflective or polarization sensitive structures on optics
• Structures to enhance bone ingrowth for orthopedic implants
• Freeform surfaces that allow novel optical function and/or multiscale optics
• Surfaces to control the tribological characteristics of mating components
• Micro-lens arrays for computational imaging and photo-voltaics;
• Prismatic polymer coatings to enhance reflectivity and light management
• Nanostructured surfaces for anti-reflection coatings, waveguides and color control
• Microfluidic surfaces for flow control, mixing, lab-on-a-chip and biological filtering

The purpose of this spring topical meeting is to provide an open forum for focused presentation and focused discussion on the manufacture, measurement and function of structured and freeform surfaces. Four sessions are planned:

1. Structured surfaces to affect function
2. Large area structured surfaces
3. Freeform surfaces
4. Multi-scale surfaces (deterministic)

The organizing committee for this Spring Topical Meeting range from academia to industry to national measurement institutes: Matthew Davies (UNC Charlotte), Thomas Dow (NC State University), Richard Leach (NPL), Dan Luttrell (Moore Tool Company, Inc.), Jeff Roblee (AMETEK Precitech, Inc.), Paul Shore (Cranfield University) and Christian Wenzel (Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT).

For further infomation on the meeting please contact: debbie-nyman@euspen.eu /tel. +44 (0)1234 754154