Transfer and Optimisation of Injection Moulding Manufacture of Medical Devices Using Scientific Moulding Principles

Scientific moulding, also known as decoupled injection moulding, is a production methodology used to develop and determine robust moulding processes resilient to fluctuations caused by variation in temperature and viscosity. Scientific moulding relies on the meticulous collection of data from the manufacturing process, especially inputs of time (fill, pack/hold), temperature (melt, barrel, tool), and pressure (injection, hold, etc.). This publication presents a use case where scientific moulding was used to enable the transfer and optimisation of an injection moulding process from an Arburg 221M injection moulding machine to an Arburg 375 V model. The part was an endovascular aneurysm repair dilator device where a polypropylene hub was moulded over a high-density polyethylene dilator insert. Upon transfer, multiple studies were carried out, including material rheology study during injection, gate freeze study, cavity balance of the moulding tool, and pressure loss analysis. A design of experiments was developed and carried out on the process with a variety of effects and responses. The developed process cycle time was compared to that achieved theoretically using mathematical modelling and the original process cycle time. The studies resulted in the identification of optimum parameters for injection speed, holding time, holding pressure, cooling time, and mould temperature. The process was verified by completing a 32-shot study and recording part weights and dimensional measurements to confirm repeatability and consistency of the process. The output from the study was a reduction in cycle time by 12.05 s from the original process. A cycle time of 47.28 s was theoretically calculated for the process, which is within 6.6% of the practical experiment results (44.15 s).

Emergency responses to the climate crisis: The case of direct air capture of CO2

<p>Global emissions of CO<sub>2</sub> have been rising at 1–2% per year, and the gap between emissions and what is needed to stop warming at aspirational goals like 1.5ºC is growing. To stabilize warming at 1.5ºC, most studies find that societies must rapidly decarbonize their economy while also removing CO<sub>2</sub> previously emitted to the atmosphere. In response to these realities, dozens of national governments, thousands of local administrative governments, and scores of scientists have made formal declarations of a climate crisis that demands a crisis response. In times of crisis, such as war or pandemics, many barriers to policy expenditure and implementation are eclipsed by the need to mobilize aggressively around new missions; and policymaking forged in crisis often reinforces incumbents such as industrial producers. Though highly motivated to slow the climate crisis, governments may struggle to impose costly polices on entrenched interest groups and incumbents, resulting in less mitigation and therefore a greater need for negative emissions.</p><p>We model wartime-like crash deployment of CO<sub>2</sub> direct air capture (DAC) as a policy response to the climate crisis, calculating (1) the crisis-level financial resources which could be made available for DAC; (2) deployment of DAC plants paired with all combinations of scalable energy supplies and the volumes of CO<sub>2</sub> each combination could remove from the atmosphere; and (3) the effects of such a program on atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration and global mean surface temperature.</p><p>Government expenditure directed to crises has varied, but on average may be about 5% of national GDP. Thus, we calculate that an emergency DAC program with annual investment of 1.2–1.9% of global GDP (anchored on 5% of US GDP; $1–1.6 trillion) removes 2.2–2.3 GtCO<sub>2</sub> yr<sup>–1</sup> in 2050, 13–20 GtCO<sub>2</sub> yr<sup>–1</sup> in 2075, and 570–840 GtCO<sub>2</sub> cumulatively over 2025–2100. Though comprising several thousand plants, the DAC program cannot substitute for conventional mitigation: compared to a future in which policy efforts to control emissions follow current trends (SSP2-4.5), DAC substantially hastens the onset of net-zero CO<sub>2</sub> emissions (to 2085–2095) and peak warming (to 2090–2095); yet warming still reaches 2.4–2.5ºC in 2100. Only with substantial cuts to emissions (SSP1-2.6) does the DAC program hold temperature rise to 2ºC.</p><p>Achieving such massive CO<sub>2</sub> removals hinges on near-term investment to boost the future capacity for upscaling. With such prodigious funds, the constraints on DAC deployment in the 2–3 decades following the start of the program are not money but scalability. Early deployments are important because they help drive the technology down its learning curve (indeed, in the long run, initial costs matter less than performance ceilings); they are also important because they increase the potential for future rapid upscaling. Deployment of DAC need not wait for fully decarbonized power grids: we find DAC to be most cost-effective when paired with electricity sources already available today: hydropower and natural gas with renewables; fully renewable systems are more expensive because their low load factors do not allow efficient amortization of capital-intensive DAC plants.</p>

Taguchi Design for Heat Treatment of Rene 65 Components

Rene 65 is a nickel-based superalloy used in aerospace components such as turbine blades and disks. The microstructure in the as received condition of the superalloy consists of ~40% volume fraction of gamma prime precipitates, which gives such a high strength that thermomechanical processing is problematic. The goal of this study was to develop a heat treatment for manufacturing of Rene 65 components by changing the size distribution and volume fraction of those precipitates and lowering the strength. Gamma prime in this alloy is observed in three sizes, ranging from a few μm to tens of nm. For the design of the heat treatments, Design of Experiments (DOE) has been used; more specifically Taguchi’s L8 matrix. The four factors that are examined are cooling rate, hold temperature, hold time and cooling method to room temperature. The levels of the factors were two (high and low) with replication. Microstructures were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy and mechanical properties by Vickers microhardness testing.

The Study of Underfill Epoxy Hardness in Reducing Curing Process Time for Flip Chip Packaging

Underfilling is the vital process to reduce the impact of the thermal stress that results from the mismatch in the co-efficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the silicon chip and the substrate in Flip Chip Packaging. This paper reported the pattern of underfill’s hardness during curing process for large die Ceramic Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FC-CBGA). A commercial amine based underfill epoxy was dispensed into HiCTE FC-CBGA and cured in curing oven under a new method of two-step curing profile. Nano-identation test was employed to investigate the hardness of underfill epoxy during curing steps. The result has shown the almost similar hardness of fillet area and centre of the package after cured which presented uniformity of curing states. The total curing time/cycle in production was potentially reduced due to no significant different of hardness after 60 min and 120 min during the period of second hold temperature.

MICROWAVE HYDROTHERMAL SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF Co3O4 NANOCRYSTALS

Microwave hydrothermal method is employed to synthesize Co 3 O 4 nanocrystals. Co ( OH )2 from reaction of C 4 H 6 CoO 4·4 H 2 O with NaOH aqueous solution is used as starting material. With a fixed hold time of an hour, the results show that high quality Co 3 O 4 nanocrystals can be synthesized at 200 °C. Decrease of the hold temperature leads to deteriorated crystallinity and incomplete reaction.

Polyphenol Oxidase Activity as a Potential Intrinsic Index of Adequate Thermal Pasteurization of Apple Cider

In response to increasing concerns about microbial safety of apple cider, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has mandated treatment of cider sufficient for a 5-log reduction of the target pathogen. Pasteurization has been suggested as the treatment most likely to achieve a 5-log reduction, with Escherichia coli O157:H7 as the target pathogen. Regulators and processors need a reliable method for verifying pasteurization, and apple cider polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity was studied as a potential intrinsic index for thermal pasteurization. The effect of pasteurization conditions and apple cider properties on PPO activity and survival of three pathogens ( E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes) was studied using a Box-Behnken response surface design. Factors considered in the design were pasteurization conditions, i.e., hold temperature (60, 68, and 76° C), preheat time (10, 20, 30 s), and hold time (0, 15, 30 s), pH, and sugar content (° Brix) of apple cider. Response surface contour plots were constructed to illustrate the effect of these factors on PPO activity and pathogen survival. Reduction in PPO activity of at least 50% was equivalent to a 5-log reduction in E. coli O157:H7 or L. monocytogenes for cider at pH 3.7 and 12.5 ° Brix. Further studies, however, are needed to verify the relationship between PPO activity and pathogen reduction in cider with various pH and ° Brix values.

The Influence of Thermal History and Alloying Elements on Temporary Strengthening of Thin Al-Cu Films

The influence of Cu on the response of Al-Cu thin films to thermally induced stress is studied. The copper concentration is varied between 0 and 1.15 at. %. It is proposed that copper atoms which have not formed precipitates, largely affect the mechanical behaviour. This idea is supported by the following observations. An isothermal hold results in temporary strengthening of the films. The extent of this strengthening increases with copper concentration, increases with decreasing isothermal hold temperature and saturates with increasing isothermal hold period. Based on these observations the large tensile stress increase below 200 °C is ascribed to the formation of Cottrell atmospheres.

Processing and Properties of IM7/LARC ™ -RP46 Polyimide Composites

LARC™-RP46 resin system is a PMR type polyimide and is prepared by replacing methylenedianiline in the PMR-15 composition with 3,4′-oxydianiline. This resin system retains the same processing characteristics as PMR-15 but also offers enhanced fracture toughness. Rheological measurements were conducted on pre-imidized LARC™-RP46 moulding powder subjected to various ramp and hold temperature schemes. Adequate flow properties were found with theoretical (formulated) molecular weight 6 ≤1500 g mol−1. Critical transition temperatures for optimizing the process cycle were identified. They included the resin softening point, the imidization reaction peak, the isomerization reaction peak and the gelation point. Utilizing this information, 1.72 × 10 6 Pa (250 psi) cure cycles were designed for B-staged (dry) and unstaged (wet) prepregs. Composite laminates were fabricated which exhibited excellent consolidation and a void content below 0.1–0.2% as measured by image analysis. IM7/LARC™-RP46 exhibited higher composite mechanical properties than IM7/PMR-15. Short-beam shear strength, flexural strength and flexural modulus were measured at room temperature, 93, 150 and 177 °C. Composite engineering properties were also obtained including longitudinal tension, logitudinal compression, interlaminar shear, short block compression, open hole compression (OHC) and compression strength after impact (CAI). Excellent longitudinal tensile and compressive strengths were obtained and the CAI strength was 40% higher than that for PMR-15. Over 80% retention of all RT strengths were noted at 177 °C.