3D Printing of Flow-Inspired Anisotropic Patterns with Liquid Crystalline Polymers

Anisotropic materials formed by living organisms possess remarkable mechanical properties due to their intricate microstructure and directional freedom. In contrast, human-made materials face challenges in achieving similar levels of directionality due to material and manufacturability constraints. To overcome these limitations, an approach...

A Critical Review on the Use of Molecular Imprinting for Trace Heavy Metal and Micropollutant Detection

Molecular recognition has been described as the “ultimate” form of sensing and plays a fundamental role in biological processes. There is a move towards biomimetic recognition elements to overcome inherent problems of natural receptors such as limited stability, high-cost, and variation in response. In recent years, several alternatives have...

The effect of Laser-Induced deconsolidation on the compaction behavior of thermoplastic composite tapes

The effects of laser-induced deconsolidation on the compaction process of CF/PEEK tapes were investigated. First, tapes with different degrees of deconsolidation were manufactured using a laser heater. This procedure resulted in samples with different waviness, thickness, void content and surface roughness values. Then, as-received and laser...

Deconsolidation of thermoplastic prepreg tapes during rapid laser heating

In this study, the effect of rapid laser heating, which is typical during laser-assisted fiber placement (LAFP), on the micro- and meso- structure of the thermoplastic tape was investigated. Thermoplastic tapes were heated above the melting temperature with different heated lengths (30 and 80 mm and heating times (0.2 and 0.8 s) in a dedicated...

The influence of inter-laminar thermal contact resistance on the cooling of material during laser assisted fiber placement

The effect of thermal contact resistance (TCR) correlated to the degree of intimate contact (DIC) between the incoming tape and the substrate on the temperature history during laser-assisted fiber placement (LAFP) was investigated. A novel experimental methodology was designed to understand the effect with a non-contact method which did not...

Characterising microstructural organisation in unidirectional composites

Understanding the three-dimensional variability of unidirectional composites is relevant to the material performance and the development of advanced material modelling strategies. This work proposes a new methodology for the characterization of unidirectional composites, showcased on carbon fibre/poly(ether-ether-ketone) tapes. Three...

Intimate contact development during laser assisted fiber placement: Microstructure and effect of process parameters

Intimate contact development under LAFP-specific thermal and mechanical boundary conditions/interactions and the effect of process parameters are investigated. One-layer, unidirectional strips of CF/PEKK material were placed with different process parameters on a flat tool surface to create different intimate contact conditions. The concept...