Polyscale GmbH & Co. KG

Planar light guides via laser structuring

Po­ly­scale de­ve­lops and ma­nu­fac­tures op­ti­cal com­po­nents, func­tio­nal films and light guide sys­tems. The a­re­as of ap­pli­ca­tion are di­verse. The­se in­clude ge­ne­ral light­ing in flat pen­dant, ceil­ing or wall lu­mi­naires as well as e­mer­gen­cy light­ing and in­te­ri­or light­ing in au­to­mo­ti­ve ap­pli­ca­tions. In ad­di­tion, the port­fo­lio in­cludes the back­light­ing of com­po­nents, swit­ches and in­di­ca­tors, for ex­am­ple in build­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems or for dis­play back­light­ing.

Laser cutting and engraving of planar light guides via laser structuring at polyscale

Polyscale GmbH & Co. KG, Germany

Plastic lighting solutions

The company polyscale manufactures application-specific light guides using laser structuring. The products developed by polyscale, a spin-off company of Fraunhofer IPT in Aachen, are based on principles of microstructuring for optical applications.

Website: Polyscale GmbH & Co. KG
polyscale GmbH & Co. KG logo – producer of microstructured light guide plates and functional film systems for lighting, displays and light distribution solutions
CO₂ laser machine structuring a planar light guide for even light distribution – ideal for modern lighting applications

Planar lighting solutions

The functional principle of a light guide

Light is cou­pled la­te­ral­ly in­to a plas­tic pa­nel vi­a the edge u­sing LEDs. The struc­tur­ing of the pa­nel cau­ses tar­ge­ted re­frac­tion of the light, a­chiev­ing a ho­mo­ge­neous ap­pear­ance of the sur­face while si­mul­ta­neous­ly e­na­bling ef­fi­cient con­ver­sion in­to pla­nar e­mit­ted light. This con­cept e­na­bles pla­nar light­ing so­lu­tions with low e­ner­gy con­sump­tion and an ex­treme­ly flat de­sign. As a re­sult, ap­pli­ca­tions a­rise where li­mi­ted in­stal­la­tion space is a­vai­la­ble, new de­sign as­pects are be­ing ad­van­ced, or ab­so­lute­ly ho­mo­ge­neous sur­fa­ces in com­bi­na­tion with high ef­fi­cien­cy are re­quired.

What is the eurolaser machine used for?

eurolaser XL-3200 laser cutting machine

For high-pre­ci­sion la­ser pro­cess­ing, Po­ly­scale re­lies on the eu­ro­la­ser XL-3200 ma­chine. The de­ci­sive fac­tors for this choice were a­bove all the ex­cep­tio­nal fle­xi­bi­li­ty and pre­ci­sion of the ma­chine.

A par­ti­cu­lar­ly im­por­tant cri­te­ri­on is re­pea­ta­bi­li­ty: thanks to the ex­cel­lent mo­tion sys­tem of eu­ro­la­ser sys­tems, this re­quire­ment is met re­li­a­bly and con­sis­tent­ly – thus gua­ran­tee­ing per­fect re­sults with e­ve­ry pro­cess­ing o­pe­ra­tion.

CO₂ laser cutting machine eurolaser XL-3200 viewed from an angled front perspective
More about the XL-3200 laser cutting machine
More about laser processing of plastics

What technical advantages do Polyscale solutions offer?

Thin substrates, high efficiency and maximum design freedom

Polyscale succeeds in balancing surface homogeneity, high system efficiency and extremely low substrate thickness. In standard applications, substrate thicknesses are typically 3–4 mm. For special applications, thicknesses of 0.5 mm are achieved. Thanks to individual laser processing of each workpiece, prototypes and small quantities are possible as well as small- and large-scale series.

Polyscale develops the appropriate structuring for each application. In addition to the optical properties, the economic requirements for a suitable solution are also addressed. Current developments aim to enable even thinner substrates in film form, as well as curved and free-form illuminated surfaces.

Product examples