The Materials Research Center of MINES ParisTech (School of Mines/Paris), located in Evry, received laser shock facilities in April 2009. Based on the use of the LAser Shock Adhesion Test, namely LASAT, these facilities are quite suitable for the determining of the bond strength of coatings. These were designed to meet industrial requirements. Due to high efficiency, reproducibility, sensitivity, this easy-to-use LASATester is a preview of those to be installed in industrial sites. In the meantime, the LASATester at the Center will be available to serve industry as a test bench for this novel technology with the offer of either mere LASATesting or research work through Ph.D theses for example. LASAT applications relate to numerous industrial sectors, i.e. those where coatings are used, to which one may add cell biology. Incidentally, these facilities could be also used for LASAT at a high temperature, for LASAT under vacuum, for laser peening and for laser shock densification of surfaces.
LASAT is based on the capability to generate a tensile stress at the coating-substrate interface, which results from shock wave propagation due to short-pulse laser irradiation of the material. Above a certain irradiation level, i.e. the so-called “threshold energy” density, the coating can de-bond from the substrate. The corresponding stress, namely the bond strength, can be calculated from the laser irradiation conditions which were used. Practically, calculations can be reduced to the mere reading of a previously-established graph.
The availability of a LASATester at the Materials Center/Evry is the result of about 15 years in the field by MINES ParisTech through its Competence Center for spray Processing, namely C2P, in close collaboration with LALP (“Laboratoire d’Applications des Lasers de Puissance”)/Arcueil and LCD (“Laboratoire de Combustion et Détonique”)-ENSMA/Poitiers, with the grants from several industrial partners. These facilities could be purchased thanks to funds from the Essonne Department Council in the frame of an ASTRE project in 2008 with the support of Snecma/Evry-Corbeil, Thalès Laser, the University of Evry Val d’Essonne, Génopole®, Castolin France, and CERMA.