https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=788 Publications of Auteurs Matteo Strano fr 0 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=4186 Injection molding is a widespread manufacturing technology for mass production of polymeric parts. Conventionally, fused polymers are injected at high pressure in a metallic mold. This tool is typically characterized by high manufacturing costs and times, making the injection molding process not affordable for small batches or prototypal applications. Additive Manufacturing represents a practical solution to cut down tooling costs and times of molds and inserts. In this work, FDM (Fused Deposition Technology) has been considered as candidate technology to produce polymeric inserts for injection molding. Considering the commercially available filaments for FDM, a PEI (Polyetherimide) grade has been selected as tooling material for the injection of a part made of Polypropylene. The PEI grade represents a good compromise between manufacturing costs and thermo-mechanical properties required for the application. The PEI grade has been characterized with DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry), DMA (Dynamical Mechanical Analysis) and compression tests. The data gathered were used to set up 2D simplified thermo-mechanical finite element analyses, simulating the response of the PEI inserts subjected to repeated injection molding cycles. The simulations confirmed that the PEI grade is a good candidate tooling material but the progressive tool heating could lead to prolonged cooling time of the Polypropylene part. Finally, some PEI inserts were 3D printed with FDM and tested in a real injection molding machine injecting POM. In total, 20 POM parts have been injected correctly without relevant damaging of the PEI inserts. Thu, 01 Apr 2021 15:01:28 +0200 Thu, 01 Apr 2021 15:01:33 +0200 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=4186 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=3723 The capability and applicability of additive manufacturing have mesmerized the entire manufacturing world. One major technique of additive manufacturing is extrusion-based additive manufacturing (EAM), which has been recently employed for the rapid production of ceramic components, among other applications. This study focused on establishing the process-property relations for extrusion-based additively manufactured ceramics, namely Alumina (Al2O3) and Zirconia (ZrO2), and then optimization of the relations to get the desired mechanical properties for applicability. Extrusion-based additive manufacturing was used to obtain the ceramic sample parts from ceramic-binder mixtures and by subsequent post-processing. The process parameters chosen for the study were extrusion velocity and part orientation whereas the mechanical properties selected were hardness and flexural strength. Extrusion velocity was varied at three levels i.e. 7.5 mm/s, 12.5 mm/s and 17.5 mm/s. Two levels selected for part orientation were horizontal and vertical. The design of experiments technique was used to establish the process-property relations by highlighting the most significant process parameters affecting the selected mechanical properties. Optimization was achieved by highlighting those levels of significant process parameters that provided the desired values of mechanical properties. Part orientation came out to be a significant factor affecting both the hardness and flexural strength of the two ceramics whereas extrusion velocity was found to be insignificant for both mechanical properties. Among the two levels of part orientation, vertical orientation samples showed higher values of hardness while horizontal samples showed higher flexural strength thus, aiding in the optimization of the process-property relations. Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:20:30 +0200 Thu, 08 Apr 2021 19:56:29 +0200 https://popups.uliege.be/esaform21/index.php?id=3723