Sealing behaviour of glass-based composites for oxygen transport membranes

In this study, seven different filler materials in different proportions were added to a Ba-Ca-Si glass matrix “H” to investigate new sealant with higher thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) value and good sealing performance for application in oxygen transport membrane (OTM). SrTi_0.75Fe_0.25O_3-δ (STF25) was used as an OTM, and the sealing partners were ferritic steel Aluchrom and pre-oxidized Aluchrom. Compatibility tests were carried out to investigate the feasibility of the composites. Higher CTE values were found in dilatometer tests on composite samples by adding 40 wt% Ag (HAg40) and 30 wt% Ni-Cr (HNC30). Gas-tightness measurements of sandwiched samples produced appropriate helium leakage rates in the range of 10^?6 mbar·l·s^?1. Sealing behaviour of sealants HAg40 and HNC30 were investigated by joining STF25 and as-delivered/pre-oxidized Aluchrom together. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on cross-sections of the joints revealed a homogeneous microstructure and good adherence of the glass sealants to support metals and STF25.     

Evolution mechanism of the microstructure and mechanical properties of plasma-sprayed yttria-stabilized hafnia thermal barrier coating at 1400 °C

Yttria stabilized hafnia (Hf_0.84Y_0.16O_1.92, YSH16) coatings were sprayed by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). The effects of thermal aging at 1400 °C on the microstructures, mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of the coatings were studied. The results show that the as-sprayed coating was composed of the cubic phase, and the nano-sized monoclinic (M) phase was precipitated in the annealed coating. The presence of M phase effectively constrained the sintering of the coating due to its superior sintering-resistance. The Young's modulus kept at a nearly same level of ~78 GPa even after annealing, and the coating annealed for 6 h yielded a maximum value of hardness but revealed a declining tendency in the Vicker's hardness with prolonged sintering time. The thermal conductivity increased from 0.8-0.95 W m^-1 K^-1 at as-sprayed state to 1.6 W m^-1 K^-1 after annealing at 1400 °C for 96 h. The dual-phase coating is promising to serve at temperatures above 1400 °C due to its excellent thermal stability and mechanical properties.     

An additive manufacturing-based approach for carbon fiber reinforced polymer recycling

The vast Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) waste accumulated is pressing for its recycling. A novel recycling approach, which integrated carbon fiber reclamation and composite additive manufacturing, is proposed to process the CFRP waste into three Dimensional (3D) parts. In the experiments, the CFRP waste was recycled by supercritical n-butanol to yield reclaimed Carbon Fibers (rCFs). The rCFs were ground by a ball mill, mixed with Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone (PEEK) powder and then extruded to the composite filament. The filament was fed to the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer to fabricate 3D parts. Mechanical and electrical properties of the parts were investigated and compared with that of pure PEEK. The results illustrate that the additive manufacturing-based approach offers a potential strategy to reuse the CFRP waste and rapidly fabricate the rCF reinforced plastics with complex geometry and function.     

Effects of short carbon fiber on the macro-properties,mechanical performance and microstructure of SiSiC composite fabricated by selective laser sintering

Selective laser sintering was combined with reactive melt infiltration to fabricate SiSiC part, and the effects of carbon fiber (C_f) on the properties of the SLS green body, the carbonized and final SiSiC sample were investigated. Results show that the addition of an appropriate amount of C_f (1.59 wt%~2.97 wt%) can increase the bulk density and geometric precision of the sample at all stages, and improve the mechanical properties of green and carbonized samples. The main phases composed of the SiSiC composite were free Si, a-SiC, β-SiC, plus a very small amount of Al–Si alloy. With 1.59 wt% C_f addition, a relatively comprehensive favorable macro-properties of both the green sample and carbonized sample was achieved, and the homogeneous microstructure of the latter favored the decreased free Si content and increased β-SiC content of the final composite. The evolution mechanism of C_f added to the raw material is inferred to be the mutual diffusion of [C] and [Si] that occurred at the C_f/Si melt boundary leading to the formation of the siliconized C_f with relatively large diameter size (24.3 μm) and high aspect ratio (>30). Amorphous C, which derived from the pyrolysis of epoxy resin E12, undergone a dissolution-precipitation mechanism with the formation of fine-grain β-SiC.     

Application of cold filamentary microplasma pretreatment assisted by thermionic emission for potato drying

Cold filamentary microplasma (CFM) pretreatment assisted by thermionic emission (TE) is a promising, cold drying technology for agricultural products. Such novel pretreatment method based on local electroporation process in the air gap. Brief theory and treatment mechanism are explained. A fractional factorial design 3³ was used to determine the effect of CFM treatment assisted by TE parameters such as pulse frequency (F = 40, 80 and 120 Hz), pretreatment duration (D = 60, 120 and 180 s) and temperature of thermionic source (T = 700, 850 and 1000 °C) on drying time and drying rate of potato samples. Maximal CFM pretreatment effect was observed at frequency of 80 Hz, treatment duration of 120 s and temperature of thermionic source of 1000 °C, and the corresponding drying rate and drying time were 35·10⁻⁵ (kg/kg s⁻¹) and 130 min. The use of CFM treatment had minor effects on the main quality characteristics (total sugar and starch content) of potato samples. Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy confirmed the absence of any modifications of functional group composition of potato samples after CFM pretreatment. Results indicate that cold pulsed filamentary microplasma can enhance the drying rate and decrease drying time without changes in quality characteristics.Practical applicationsCold filamentary microplasma pretreatment assisted by thermionic emission can improve the efficiency of potato drying. Furthermore, it has potential application for reducing energy consumption in drying. CFM pretreatment could be potentially applied for agricultural products drying.     

New Paradigm of Data-Driven Smart Customisation through Digital Twin

Big data is one of the most important resources for the promotion of smart customisation. With access to data from multiple sources, manufacturers can provide on-demand and customised products. However, existing research of smart customisation has focused on data generated from the physical world, not virtual models. As physical data is constrained by what has already occurred, it is limited in the identification of new areas to improve customer satisfaction. A new technology called digital twin aims to achieve this integration of physical and virtual entities. Incorporation of digital twin into the paradigm of existing data-driven smart customisation will make the process more responsive, adaptable and predictive. This paper presents a new framework of data-driven smart customisation augmented by digital twin. The new framework aims to facilitate improved collaboration of all stakeholders in the customisation process. A case study of the elevator industry illustrates the efficacy of the proposed framework.     

Intelligent tool wear monitoring based on parallel residual and stacked bidirectional long short-term memory network

Effective tool wear monitoring (TWM) is essential for accurately assessing the degree of tool wear and for timely preventive maintenance. Existing data-driven monitoring methods mainly rely on complex feature engineering, which reduces the monitoring efficiency. This paper proposes a novel TWM model based on a parallel residual and stacked bidirectional long short-term memory (PRes–SBiLSTM) network. First, a parallel residual network (PResNet) is used to extract the multi-scale local features of sensor signals adaptively. Subsequently, a stacked bidirectional long short-term memory (SBiLSTM) network is used to obtain the time-series features related to the tool wear characteristics. Finally, the predicted tool wear value is outputted through a fully connected network. A smoothing correction method is applied to improve the prediction accuracy. The proposed model is experimentally verified to have a high prediction accuracy without sacrificing its generalization ability. A TWM system framework based on the PRes–SBiLSTM network is proposed, which has a certain reference value for TWM in actual industrial environments.     

Smooth transition for collision avoidance of redundant robots: An on-line polynomial approach

The presence of cooperation between robots and machines in the industrial environment improved the solution for several manufacturing problems. With cooperation, new challenges emerged, and among these stands out the collision avoidance between such robots and machines. Collision avoidance can be dealt with in several ways, taking into account the computational effort to make a decision and the quality of the calculated trajectory for the robots, evaluated, for instance, by smooth profiles avoiding sudden variations in joints’ velocities or acceleration. In these circumstances, the involved robots need to be redundant since new movements are necessary for avoiding collisions. The strategies for collision avoidance are offline (i.e., based on pre-programming the task), or online (i.e., implemented while the robot performs the main task). In online collision avoidance strategies, numerical performance must ensure the time requirements of the main task performed by the robot; so, numerically efficient solutions are the most appropriate. This paper presents a proposal for the collision avoidance treatment from fixed obstacles for redundant robots, based on polynomial functions. The proposed solution allows achieving smooth trajectories according to criteria based on the continuity of derivatives in trajectory curve transitions. When the robot is out of the imminent collision, it is proposed to solve the inverse kinematics through the Adaptive Extended Jacobians. Throughout the text, the mathematical developments based on polynomials are presented, and in the end, a case study graphically shows comparative results.     

Study of the hinge thickness deviation for a 316L parallelogram flexure mechanism fabricated via selective laser melting

3D printing offers great potential for developing complex flexure mechanisms. Recently, thickness-correction factors (TCFs) were introduced to correct the thickness and stiffness deviations of powder-based metal 3D printed flexure hinges during design and analysis. However, the reasons for the different TCFs obtained in each study are not clear, resulting in a limited value of these TCFs for future design and fabrication. Herein, the influence of the porous layer of 3D printed flexure hinges on the hinge thickness is investigated. Samples of parallelogram flexure mechanisms (PFMs) were 3D printed using selective laser melting (SLM) and 316L stainless steel powder. A 3D manufacturing error analysis was completed for each PFM sample via 3D scanning, surface roughness measurement and morphological observation. The thickness of the porous layer of the flexure hinge was independent of the designed hinge thickness and remained close to the average powder particle diameter. The effective hinge thickness could be estimated by subtracting twice the value of the porous layer thickness from the designed value. Guidelines based on finite element analysis and stiffness experiments are proposed. The limitations of the presented method for evaluating the effective hinge thickness of flexure hinges 3D printed via SLM are also discussed.

     

特种聚合物材料表面金属化前处理工艺的研究进展

对不同类型的聚合物及其复合材料表面金属化前处理工艺进行了综述,讨论了影响镀层附着力的主要因素,展望了特种聚合物表面金属化前处理工艺的前景。