| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/R28546/01 |
| Title: |
Direct Fabrication By Ultrasonic Object Compaction. |
| Principal Investigator: |
Soar, Dr RC |
| Other Investigators: |
|
| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
|
| Project Partners: |
|
| Department: |
Mechanical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
Loughborough University |
| Scheme: |
Fast Stream |
| Starts: |
01 October 2001 |
Ends: |
30 September 2002 |
Value (£): |
60,880
|
| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
|
| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
Transport Systems and Vehicles |
|
| Related Grants: |
|
| Panel History: |
|
|
Summary on Grant Application Form |
|
The research aims to investigate whether the advantages to be gained from ultrasonic welding can be employed as a means of bonding repetitive layers of metal foil to produce 3 dimensional objects. Ultrasonic welding is not a new technology but has never been applied to the production metal matrix composites. This is a particularly important area of research where high performance materials are required for applications as far reaching as aerospace, automotive and even sports leisure and is one where effective entrainment of continuous reinforcing fibres in a metal matrix material has been hindered by issues such as thermal shock and load fracture of the fibres during processing.We believe that ultrasonic welding may be an effective method to overcome these problems as the process has been shown (in preliminary trials with solidica) to deform thin metal foils around fibre elements without damaging them. The investigation, proposed, aims to explore the fundamental issues of how to bond multiple layers of aerospace grade alluminium foil (2xxx, 6xxx & 7xxx) through the installation of state of the art continous seam welding equipment to produce testable samples (tensile, bend, structure etc). This work will then be extended to investigate whether ultrasonic welding can indeed entrain continuous reinforcement fibres within welded aluminium foil layers to form homogeneous composite 3D structures.
|
|
Key Findings |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
|
Potential use in non-academic contexts |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
|
Impacts |
|
| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
|
| Date Materialised |
|
|
|
|
Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
| Project URL: |
|
| Further Information: |
|
| Organisation Website: |
http://www.lboro.ac.uk |