Ranvijay Kumar

Development of Low-Cost Graphene-Polymer Blended In-House Filament for Fused Deposition Modeling

Abstract Graphene (Gr) is a highly expensive engineering material having remarkable mechanical/metallurgical/thermal/electrical properties. Some studies have been reported in the past for Gr extraction and its use for three-dimensional (3D) printing. But hitherto much less has been reported for production of low-cost Gr-reinforced polymer matrix-based feedstock filament for fused deposition modeling (FDM) applications. In this article, a systematic procedure for extraction of low-cost Gr followed by development of feedstock filaments for FDM has been detailed. The case study suggests that 25% reinforcement of Gr in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymer matrix improves the thermal conductivity by 76 times.

Prospect of Graphene for Use as Sensors in Miniaturized and Biomedical Sensing Devices

Nanoparticles have boundless impact on health and life science, and have exceptional sensible features such as biological, chemical, thermal, material, optical, electrical, and physical properties. In recent years graphene nanoparticles have acquired powerful technological and scientific attention with potential applications such as in fabrication of supercapacitors, batteries, solar or fuel cells, miniaturized and biomedical sensors. Graphene is the most putative nanoparticle for fabrication of biomedical sensors for biosensing, bioimaging, and therapeutic usage due to some of its stimulating qualities such as outstanding aqueous processability, functional surface properties, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, cell growth ability, and biocompatibility certainties. The present study highlights the state of art review and potential future prospect of graphene for use as sensors in miniaturized and biomedical sensing devices for bioimaging, biosensing, and diagnostic applications.

Thermal Analysis for Joining of Dissimilar Polymeric Materials Through Friction Stir Welding

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is one of the most effective thermal analysis techniques to determine the energy absorbed or released by a sample as it is heated or cooled. In the past 2–3 decades friction stir welding (FSW) has emerged as one of the most economical, widely applicable, and process compatible techniques that can be applied in different fields. Recently DSC has gained the scientific and technological attention of researchers to evaluate the thermal behavior of the weld joints produced by different welding techniques. In the present article a thermal analysis has been conducted on a joint produced by FSW technique by introducing a semiconsumable tool of dissimilar thermoplastic materials.

Investigations for Development of Feed Stock Filament of Fused Deposition Modeling From Recycled Polyamide

In this article an attempt has been made to explore the behavior and characteristics of the recycled polyamide (PA6) polymer through twin screw extrusion (TSE) and single screw extrusion process for increase in recyclability (as primary recycling process). The mechanical properties (tensile strength, Young’s modulus, peak load), metallurgical properties (porosity, wear, and material loss) supported with optical microscopy were investigated to ensure the recyclability of PA6 as a properties enhancing extrusion process. It has been observed in the present study that melt processing by screw extrusion at best settings of input process parameters enhances the material properties for various engineering applications.

Investigating the Polymeric Composites for Online Repair and Maintenance

Polymers are one of the most commonly used materials in engineering applications (such as structure, pipelines, etc.). Infield practices, whenever a crack/leakage develops in polymeric pipelines, there is need of quick online repair/maintenance. In such cases, replacement of the whole pipeline section can lead to high downtime and cost. The online repair/maintenance of those cracks/leakages can be performed with the application of friction/friction stir welding but it needs the development of polymeric composite material that is compatible with substrate (pipeline) materials. This study outlines the development of such polymeric composites on the basis of maintaining rheological properties. In this chapter, an experimental investigations have been reported for two differently characterized polymers (namely, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polyamide (PA)6), which were reinforced with Al metal powder by twin screw extrusion process. The results suggested that ABS reinforced with 15% Al metal powder by weight (ABS–15Al) and PA6 with 50% Al (PA6–50Al) resulted in similar range of melt flow index (MFI) as 11.57 g/10 min and 11.97 g/10 min, respectively, and confirmed the compatibility for joining of both polymer by friction/friction stir welding. The functional prototypes have been printed on commercial fused deposition modeling (FDM)-based 3D printer, (by using feedstock filament prepared with standard twin screw extrusion process). The mechanical properties of composite feedstock filaments were investigated for optimization of extrusion parameters. Additionally, friction stir welding has been performed to check the feasibility of joining of developed composite parts (prepared as functional prototypes) on FDM.