The contribution of the new technologies to the 21st - Century Design

In the past the market economy was dominated by the local and regional design,characterized for strong links to the customs, traditions and natural resources from eachregion.As the consequence of the technological advances and the growing needs of consumption,at present, products are manufactured based on economical, functional and marketingcriterions, which means that their design is very offset from the regional and local signs.Between the challenges that characterize the actual economy, one highlights the existenceof more market niches, product variations and shorter life cycles. To survive in this economy,marked by the competition and the globalisation, one search to imply in product developingprocess, the design, engineering, marketing and production department, that composes aknown industrial methodology called concurrent or simultaneous engineering.In this article, one intends to exhibit the applications and advantages of the newtechnologies, like Rapid Prototyping (RP), that are valuable tools of the concurrentengineering and to analyse the specific implications in the design history and teaching.RP is a family of modern technologies that generate three-dimensional solid objects undercomputer control. Besides its designation be reported to the first major application that isindustrial prototyping, the RP equipments also allow the rapid tooling and the directmanufacture of small series or single products.Nowadays, the commercialisation of RP equipments, termed concept modellers or 3Dprintersis in great expansion. Although these machines use a very reduced class of cheapmaterials with poor mechanical characteristics, they allow the designers to verify and quicklytest the ideas that they are developing during the creative process. The designer can realize inplenitude the iterative process of creation without the traditional economical and materialslimitations, being enough to send the CAD file directly to the RP equipment placed in aoffice, like an usual inkjet printer. So it is possible to test new ideas with better accuracybefore its concretisation, avoiding misunderstandings and delays and inciting the positivecriticism through the involvement of the technical staff from all the related departments.Particularity, faced to the challenges due to the globalisation, the traditional and regionalindustries will find in these technologies the means that they need to ensure its own futuresurviving.This presentation is divided in the following sections:- Innovation loop in the past and in the present. The iterative process.- New technologies available to the design and the designers: Rapid Prototyping andInternet.- Design Pedagogy: new challenges in the formation of future generations of designers.- Conclusions and future trends

Indirect rapid tooling with aluminium and milled fibre reinforced resins

It is well known that Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Rapid Tooling (RT) are fundamental technologies to reduce the time tomarket and consequently increase productivity and competitiveness of companies working in different industrial sectors.RT with epoxy resins is presently accepted as an established process of indirect rapid tooling. However, patents,processing difficulties and companies limitations disable a wider implementation of this technology.This paper presents the experimental results of a detailed work, conducted at INEGI, to manufacture moulds for plasticinjection, with tailored properties, using RP models and aluminium filled and fibres reinforced epoxy resins

Study of up- and downstream processes in Microcystis aeruginosa cultivation - One approach, two distinct objectives

BioTech 2017 and 7th Czech-Swiss Symposium with Exhibition[Excerpt] The cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa and the accumulation of its cyanotoxin microcystin (MC) have been responsible for several human/animal deaths and intoxication incidents. Therefore, the World Health Organization established recommendation values for MC in water, givingrisetoanincreasingdemandforMC’s analytical standards to be used as laboratory standards both in human and environmental risk assessment studies. These Cyanotoxinsarealsoconsideredpromising anticancer/antitumor drugs as well as antifungal, antialgal and insecticide agents. Despite the interest, commercial MC availability is still limited due to constraints found in production, which inflate the final price to values as high as 28000 e/mg. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estudo da injecção de termoplásticos em moldes produzidos em compósitos de base epoxídica de alta temperatura

Os moldes rápidos baseados em compósitos de base epoxídica de alta temperatura e utilizados no fabrico rápido de ferramentasapresentam uma durabilidade intermédia entre as chamadas ferramentas soft tooling e hard tooling. Tal facto deve-se àcombinação de uma elevada tenacidade e boa estabilidade térmica das resinas epoxy com a alta rigidez, dureza e boa condutividadetérmica das partículas metálicas. Esta última característica reduz o choque térmico no molde em cada ciclo de moldação, permiteuma redução da temperatura do molde e reduz o tempo do ciclo de injecção.Produziram-se materiais compósitos carregados com elevadas concentrações de partículas de alumínio e materiais compósitoshíbridos constituídos por partículas de alumínio e fibras moídas, que além de serem testados em ensaios de laboratório foramtambém testados em moldes de injecção para termoplásticos. Esta comunicação pretende fornecer os resultados deste estudo quevisa contribuir para a implementação destas tecnologias como alternativa viável para a obtenção de protótipos com tempos e custosreduzidos, permitindo às empresas aumentar a sua competitividade

Utilização de fibras moídas no fabrico de ferramentas de matriz polimérica

Partindo de uma matriz de base epoxídica adequada para altas temperaturas, procura-se, neste trabalho,seleccionar fases dispersas que permitam talhar as propriedades de uma ferramenta de acordo com os requisitosexigidos e específicos dos moldes de injecção de plásticos. Pretende-se assim aplicar um processo de design eoptimização que visa maximizar o campo de aplicação de sistemas de matriz polimérica no âmbito das tecnologiasde Rapid Tooling.As cargas metálicas permitem melhorar substancialmente a condutividade térmica das resinas. Neste trabalho foipossível demonstrar que pequenas concentrações de fibra moída permitem também aumentar significativamente aresistência ao desgaste, com pequeno prejuízo da facilidade de processamento e da concentração de alumínio. Coma adição de fibras moídas, propriedades mecânicas como a resistência estática e a resiliência sofrem pequenasmelhorias. Como a condutividade térmica e a resistência ao desgaste são parâmetros críticos para a durabilidadede um molde, a fabricação de moldes nestes materiais parece ser uma alternativa para tornar estas tecnologias maiscompetitivas, designadamente em indústrias exigentes como a indústria automóve

Pathway for cyanotoxin valorization: microscystin as case study

Book of Abstracts of CEB Annual Meeting 2017info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rapid tooling for plastic injection moulding using indirect rapid tooling processes

Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Rapid Tooling (RT) are well known processesfor rapidly develop new products and consequently reduce the time to market. InPortugal, many companies are still not exploring the full advantages of usingthese technologies for new products development and produce reduced runs.This work presents some results obtained with composite tools manufactured forthermoplastics injection. These tools are obtained by casting a aluminium filledresin or by arc spray metal tooling over Rapid Prototyping models.Different properties, such as: moulds roughness, hardness and the wear weredetermined and compared, and the suitability of these processes are evaluated torapidly produce prototype moulds to inject thermoplastic models and pre series

Impact Fracture Study of Filled Epoxy Resins

Epoxy-based composites moulds are frequently used for wax and polymer materials injection.Tri-phase materials, composed by an epoxy resin, aluminium particles and milled glass orcarbon fibres were produced with better mechanical and thermal performances than the single materials,increasing the competitiveness of the epoxy rapid tooling processes. Charpy Impact testswere employed to obtain a qualitative indication of the composites toughness. The electronic instrumentationof these tests allows a more accurate differentiation of the impact behaviour of theneat and aluminium filled resins, and the tri-phase composites, and consequently, more rigorouslytailor their properties

Design epoxy resins based composites for rapid tooling applications

The objective of this work was the development of epoxy-based composites moulds to injectfunctional polymer prototypes and pre-series. This indirect rapid tooling (RT) process (firmtooling) offers a high potential for a faster response to the continuous more demandingmarket needs, creating in this way a new competitive edge.The moulds developed are composed by an epoxy resin and aluminium particles, which wereadded to improve the thermal conductivity of the tool, which is an essential parameter forplastic injection moulding. However, this procedure also lowers the mechanical properties ofthe tool. In order to overcome this problem, fibres were added to the composite.The influence of the particle/resin and fibre/resin interfaces in the mechanical behaviour isanalysed. Quantitative metallography was used to determine the interface extension of thealuminium particles with the resin. The quality of the glass and carbon fibre/resin interfacewas evaluated by the determination of the interfacial shear strength based on Kelly Tyson'smodel, in order to tailor the composite for RT applications

Comparison of harvesting methods for the cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa

BioTech 2017 and 7th Czech-Swiss Symposium with ExhibitionMicrocystis aeruginosa is a wellknown cyanobacterium that has been spreading all over the world due to increased temperatures and eutrophication of water bodies caused by intensive anthropogenic activities. This toxin-producing microorganism is frequently responsible for diminishing water quality and causing intoxication of humans and animals. Due to this, its intracellular cyanotoxin – microcystin (MC) – is commonly used as tool for molecular and cell biology studies or as a standard in human and environmental risk assessment assays. Moreover, MC is a promising anticancer/antitumor drug candidate and a possible antimicrobial, antifungal, antialgal and insecticide agent. Despite MC’s potential application in several biotechnological fields, its high production costs significantly contribute for the prohibitive selling prices (28000 e/mg). Thus, improvements in process’ cost-effectiveness is needed, especially in terms of downstream processing techniques which are probably the major bottlenecks of cyanobacteria production at large scale, commonly representing 20-30 % of the total costs. Bearing this in mind, this study aimed at optimizing harvesting of M. aeruginosa induced by pH change and compares the optimal conditions obtained with the use of three different flocculant agents: chitosan, ferric chloride, and aluminium chloride. Harvesting induced by pH was assessed by testing pH values ranging between 2 and 14. Despite the fact that harvesting efficiencies above 90 % were obtained for most pH values, pH 2 was the one where higher sedimentation rate was observed and consequently the chosen method to compare with the three flocculants. Aluminium chloride addition was found to be the most efficient method, reaching 93 % of sedimentation efficiency within the first 2 h. These results are in agreement with zeta potential measurements where cells presented nearly neutral (approx. 0 mV) charge, while positive or negative charges where achieved using the other three methodologies.This research work was supported by the grant SFRH/BPD/98694/2013 (Bruno Fernandes) and SFRH/BD/52335/2013 (Pedro Geada) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal). Luís Loureiro is recipient of a fellowship supported by a doctoral advanced training (call NORTE-69-2015-15) funded by the European Social Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), Project UID/Multi/04423/2013, Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462), FCT Strategic Project of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, by the project NOVELMAR (reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035), co-financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the ERDF, and by BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio