Final Report Summary - MESMESH (Ultra-thin conductive ceramic mesh to monitor stress and wear on a steel surface)
Executive summary:
Today there are no adequate means of measuring the surface damage done to steel surfaces in industrial machinery like drive shaft's, axels, gears, brake pads, flanges for fixed drilling and grinding machines, dyes for extrusion or moulds for injection moulding. This means that it is impossible or very difficult to determine when to change a part or perform maintenance.
This results in enormous losses for the European Community due to machines breaking down and causing delays in production and delivery. For validating the technology we have chosen to focus primarily on flanges and moulds for injection moulding due to the relative ease of applying the proposed technology to these application areas.
We have addressed the problem by creating a cheap, innovative ultra-thin conductive ceramic mesh to monitor stress and wear on a steel surface, incorporating novel technologies centred on laser etching, conductive ceramic alloys and advanced algorithms capable of detecting wear and tear or damage to a metal surfaces in real time production environments.
The benefits that the MESMESH sensor technology provides are:
- an in situ structural health monitoring system for steel surfaces subjected to continuous friction to increase end product quality and reduce scrap production by ensuring surfaces on flanges, moulds, dyes are not worn out or damaged;
- a real-time structural health monitoring system for steel surfaces to allow the end user to perform preventive maintenance instead of waiting for the machine or tool to break down;
- a measurement system which can continuously or at any particular desired instance monitor;
- a steel surface without physically interrupting the process utilising the steel surface and with negligible preparation time.
Innovative areas of research in the project included:
- utilisation of femtosecond laser technology in making microscopic grooves on the steel mesh;
- development of conductive ceramics;
- micromachining holes and notches in the 250 µm diameter ceramic fibre in order to improve the wire bonding;
- development of conductive ceramics;
- successfully bonding ultra-thin wires to the ceramic sensor.
Additional breakthroughs during the project included:
- utilisation of femtosecond laser technology in fibre laser technology;
- utilisation of femtosecond laser technology in fibre laser technology;
- development of wear prediction algorithm;
- development of an accurate accelerated wear process;
- extending the thin bonded wires to make them more robust;
- developing a graphical user interface to show the resistance of the ceramic in real time.
The overall technological aim was the development of a pre-commercial prototype mould with an in situ sensor and measurement system to allow continuous structural health monitoring. This aim was fulfilled and the technology has proven to be viable in a commercial environment.
Project context and objectives:
Project context
The proprietary concept devised by Müggler, and upon which the MESMESH proposal is based on the need of increasing production efficiency by increasing machine utilisation, increasing quality of manufactured goods and reducing the amount of scrap parts produced. Considering the European Union (EU) market for manufactured plastic goods (large scale production of batches of 100 000 or more parts) there is a significant environmental impact leading due to the reduction of several thousand tonnes of plastic that would otherwise be disposed by landfill or incineration.
A significant aspect of the proposed technology is that it can easily be adapted to monitor the structural health of complex metal engineering components such as for instance, gears, drive shaft's, axles, brake pads and dies for extrusion.
There are no systems on the market capable of performing the measurements needed to give a full overview of the wear, tear and damage done to a metal surface. The best technologies currently available fall short of being effective for the following reasons:
- the current methods are focused only on measuring the strain a surface is subjected to, and they do not measure the actual wear and damage done to the surface;
- the current methods are expensive to embed (particularly optical fibres) and require expensive optical equipment;
strain gauges are not large enough to cover the surface of a mould; furthermore, it is exceedingly difficult to embed strain gauges or fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) in a mould and the information obtained would only be strain measurements, which is not a direct indicator of the wear or damage done to the mould;
- the scalability of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) is also very limited: some systems such as electromagnetic systems would require a number of different products to be used with different size moulds. Furthermore, most of these are based on indirect measurements, which would give a very poor signal to noise ratio, meaning it would be impossible to make accurate measurements.
Scientific and technological objectives
Our overall technological aim is the development of a pre-commercial prototype mould with an in situ sensor and measurement system to allow continuous structural health monitoring. This system consists of a sensor grid (mesh) incorporated into the outer surface layer of the metal mould. The sensor grid system will be created micromachining a smooth walled, depth controlled grooves in to the metal surface using a femtosecond laser. Into the groove a ceramic is deposited and sintered to form a thin continuous layer. The sensor measurements generated by the sensor grid will be processed by a monitoring device to give the user a real-time indicator of the structural health of the metal part.
Damage and wear of the wave guide material will affect the magnitude and characteristics of a signal passed through it and thus we can determine the onset and extent of damage in the surrounding surface layer of the metal.
The pattern in which the grooves are micro-machined into a mould or other metal surface will be dependent on the specific application, size of mould and user requirements. It is anticipated that in commercial use the mesh will be confined to a few critical areas governed by the application and observed damage mechanisms in the mould.
Our specific scientific objectives are centred in the field of mould modifications:
- development of predictive models for frequency-dependent electrical properties of ceramic composites;
- understanding of microstructure-property relationships for the frequency dependent properties of conductor-insulator ceramic composites;
- to carry out research work related to ultra-short laser ablation process at different radiation parameters such as wavelength, pulse energy density, repetition rate and spatial pulse shape.
Our detailed technological objectives for individual elements are as follows:
- electrical characterisation of conductive ceramic composites;
- use of predictive tools for the design of optimum conductive ceramic for the waveguide sensor application;
- development and embedment of the conductive ceramic for the waveguide application into steel;
- to find optimal process parameters for forming smooth walled and depth-controlled grooves in metal by laser ablation.
Our detailed integration performance objectives are to:
- be able to produce moulds with a laser etched grove with a width and depth of = 200 µm with a deviation of no more than 5 %;
- produce a conductive ceramic with a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of 36 x 10-6 K-1 (the same as steel) that can be bonded and / or sintered into the laser etched grove to form a mesh;
- have a software that can interpret the signal responses from the ceramic mesh to provide the end user with a tool to do real-time monitoring of the structural health of a given steel surface;
- ensure that the production costs of the developed technology when applied to a mould will not increase costs by more than 20 %. This is considered acceptable as the life expectancy of the mould will be increased by no less than 20 % whilst giving the end user benefits of reduced scrap and increased quality.
As per our objectives we developed a novel technology based on state of the art knowledge in both micromachining using Pharos femtosecond lasers and the latest knowledge and insight in the field of conductive ceramic based materials. Combined with cost-effective digital signal processing and advanced control algorithms we integrated this into a commercial application that has been tested and had its performance verified.
The technology for the MESMESH sensor is viable, promising and relevant for many different applications in various industrial sectors. Preventive maintenance is a constant battle for European production companies and the MESMESH technology has the possibility to provide them with an effective tool in the battle against lost production time.
Project results:
Innovative laser cutting
Vilnius University Laser Research Centre (VULRC) took part in the MESMESH project as the main developer of laser micromachining system, capable to cut micro fine grooves on metallic sample surface without any degradation of material's physical and chemical properties. Lasers offer great freedom for flexibility, degree of automation, they may work without any consumable materials and in a non-contact way.
Femtosecond laser ablation, because of the reduced heat-affected zone, where melting and solidification can occur, allows the micromachining and surface patterning of materials with minimal mechanical and thermal deformation and with micrometre precision.
Although femtotechnology is still not mature, it is successfully competing in some specific challenging fields of automotive industry, medicine, production of microelectromechanical and microfluidic systems and also consumer electronics. Researchers at VULRC have developed several micromachining systems, researched micro-cutting physics and performed optimisation tasks in order to achieve grooves with parameters fully fulfilling MESMESH project needs.
Conductive ceramics
VULRC took part in the MESMESH project as the main developer of conductive ceramics and insulation.
A key aspect of the MESMESH concept is the ability to measure the level of wear occurring on the surface of the steel mould (substrate) without the need to dismantle the system for microscopic examination. The method proposed was to fill the grooves in the steel mould with an insulating ceramic material into which is inserted a conducting ceramic fibre (which is thus electrically isolated from the steel substrate). The conductive material should (a) wear at a rate comparable to the steel and (b) to have a resistivity which is large enough to realise an easily measurable change in resistance (approximately 100 Ohm) when the surface is worn down by not more than 5 µm.
University of Bath was able to optimise the development process of the ceramics and developed conductive ceramic fibres of tailored and reproducible resistivity.
It is all about bonding
UAB Modernios E-Technologijos (MET) has performed a scientific study of material and design of the bonding technology and proposed the methodology of the further materials and bonding technology investigations.
Primarily it was expected that the sensor embedded into the mould must work in the high frequency (HF) (possibly in microwave band). The sensor itself is a kind of conductive ceramics placed in the groove that is ablated with laser in the steel housing.
As measurements at a very HF range are technically and methodologically complicated MET performed a theoretical research on several cases of high frequencies with different measured parameters and frequency values, and in case of direct current (DC) regime, when resistances of first and second sensors or difference between them are measured in DC regime. In case of DC regime the ceramic was isolated from steel housing by coating inner surface of laser ablated groove with non-conducting thin film. It was proved that this additional technological task is not complicated comparing with difficulties expecting in the case of HF.
Investigations have demonstrated that measurements at very HF range are realistic in principle. However, they are complicated and expensive. Therefore the decision to shift from HF to DC has been made and the further work plan, scheduling and concrete implementation actions have been adjusted to reflect the above-mentioned decision.
During the second half of the project the main attention has been paid to the contact processing on the fibres and to the investigation of their characteristics. Contact quality was tested by measuring current-voltage characteristic of the samples made from the fibre with wires attached to the contacts.
Electronics tie it all together
The MESMESH concept is to be able to measure wear on the surface of steel mould tool in real time. Pera Innovation developed the electronic hardware connected to the sensor, and took into consideration that DC resistive measurement were chosen to detect the wear of the ceramic microstrip.
The proposed electronic hardware must be capable of:
- monitoring the wear of the mould tool by measuring the resistance of the ceramic insert;
- providing a visual aid for the operator to easily determine the condition of the tool;
- providing historical data in order to predict the wear of the tool.
The electronic hardware is connected to a computer via the RS232 connection to display the status of up to 8 ceramic microstrip sensors on a given mould tool. Pera successfully completed the task. The interface has been developed trying to keep operation simple and allow users to quickly learn and familiarise with the different features and operation of the software.
Results
We have demonstrated successfully that the MESMESH system can accurately measure the resistance of the ceramic microstrip. This has been verified by comparing the MESMESH resistance reading from the laboratory to the results obtained with the end-users on site. The results are very promising.
Potential impact:
Economic and industrial impact
Plastics manufacturing in Europe is still subject to sustained pressure for improved standards of moulded parts quality, reduced product development time and lower average variable cost (cost per unit of output). The aim of this project has been to provide a viable solution to the manufacturers concerning improved standards, quality and reduced development time and costs areas.
In regard to price, the technology developed in the MESMESH project will allow the companies to cut their production costs by reducing significantly the level of output of scrap parts, thus optimising the manufacturing process and providing them with opportunities for exploitation of economies of scale.
A fundamental strategic aspect of the proposed solution is that it facilitates the manufacturers of plastic parts to increase the quality of their output. The constantly increasing requirements imposed on moulders often exceed their capabilities as evidenced by long product development cycles, excessive tooling costs, low process yields, and inferior product quality. Failure to comply with the quality requirements set by the OEMs can result in severe penalties on moulders, and even can lead to complete loss of business. Moulders rely heavily on visual inspection and other sampling and quality assurance techniques, which do not necessarily guarantee moulded product quality. The plastics industry requires improved quality control technology that provides assurance in an automated fashion, without a constant feedback from a human operator. The sensor prototype has a great potential in addressing this need by providing an advanced solution that will guarantee more efficient quality control and minimum level of scrap parts.
To maintain a cost advantage, the plastics manufacturers must reduce the mould changeover time. Hence there is a constant need in the injection moulding sector to reduce machine downtime and to maintain production continuity. Even with quick mould changes the production start-up can be a prolonged process due to lack of set-up and control of proper moulding conditions. As such, the industry needs more consistent optimisation procedures which guarantees moulded part quality in reduced set-up times. The technology accruing from the MESMESH project addresses directly this need by offering the possibility of preventive maintenance.
Once the technology is matured, it will be possible to migrate the technology into other markets. Seeing that injection moulding is a very big market on its own, and plenty of spill over markets are readily available, we have identified this as a good market to mature the technology and promote and disseminate the technology.
Environmental impact
The sustainability of the technology and the environmental benefits of the MESMESH sensor prototype revolve around the significant reduction in the output level of defective parts. The minimised level of plastics waste production is the key to the environmental benefits, resulting in lower level of pollution, as well as in considerable energy savings. According to a 2001 Environment Agency report, 80 % of post-consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill, 8 % is incinerated and only 7 % is recycled. Hence, reducing the amount of plastics waste requiring disposal can have several other advantages:
- conservation of non-renewable fossil fuels - Europe's plastics production uses 2 % of the world's oil production, 1 % as feedstock and 1 % during manufacture;
- reduced consumption of energy;
- reduced amounts of solid waste going to landfill;
- reduced emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NO) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).
Consideration of gender aspects
In accordance Articles 2 & 3 of the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and other EU policy directives (COM (96) 67 final) and reports (EUR 2002) the MESMESH consortium committed to incorporating the principles of gender mainstreaming throughout the various elements of the project. The consortium made every effort to ensure that the work plan and related activities contributed to the promotion of gender equality wherever possible, and none of the activities within the project contributed to gender inequality or aggravated existing gender inequality.
The following objectives underpinned our approach to gender issues:
- the consortium sought to ensure that women and men had equal opportunities to participate in the various parts of the project;
- in addressing diversity, the consortium took account of the different situations needs and interests of women and men;
- the project sought to contribute to reducing inequalities between women and men. Female researchers and administrative staff were employed when possible;
- the consortium sought to employ female participants to positions that are visible and influential e.g. one of the main performing researcher at Bath was female and the project manager of the whole project was female;
- during the project all the participants were visible through the dissemination material, and in this way the female participants can act as role models for young women about to select their career path;
- the consortium also promoted a policy where time off or flexibility for family commitments is allowed and respected and during the project monitor and control equal opportunities within the team and the project management process to ensure constant vigilance of the gender sensitive issues;
- no gender sensitive issues arose during the project.
Ethics
The project did not involve research on animals, humans, human embryos, privacy or personal information, developing countries or dual use.
List of websites: http://www.mesmesh.eu
Contact information of project partners
PERA Innovation
Paul Holdsworth Paul.Holdsworth@pera.com
Vilnius University, VU Laser Research Centre
Valdas Sirutkaitis: Valdas.Sirutkaitis@ff.vu.lt
Modern E-Technologies
Daiva Ulbikiene: daiva.ulbikiene@met.lt
University of Bath
Vana Adamaki: va253@bath.ac.uk
Chris Bowen: C.R.Bowen@bath.ac.uk
Matrican
Javier Mesón: jmeson@matrican.es
Baltijos Polistirenas
Mindaugas Velicka: m.velicka@balpol.lt
Today there are no adequate means of measuring the surface damage done to steel surfaces in industrial machinery like drive shaft's, axels, gears, brake pads, flanges for fixed drilling and grinding machines, dyes for extrusion or moulds for injection moulding. This means that it is impossible or very difficult to determine when to change a part or perform maintenance.
This results in enormous losses for the European Community due to machines breaking down and causing delays in production and delivery. For validating the technology we have chosen to focus primarily on flanges and moulds for injection moulding due to the relative ease of applying the proposed technology to these application areas.
We have addressed the problem by creating a cheap, innovative ultra-thin conductive ceramic mesh to monitor stress and wear on a steel surface, incorporating novel technologies centred on laser etching, conductive ceramic alloys and advanced algorithms capable of detecting wear and tear or damage to a metal surfaces in real time production environments.
The benefits that the MESMESH sensor technology provides are:
- an in situ structural health monitoring system for steel surfaces subjected to continuous friction to increase end product quality and reduce scrap production by ensuring surfaces on flanges, moulds, dyes are not worn out or damaged;
- a real-time structural health monitoring system for steel surfaces to allow the end user to perform preventive maintenance instead of waiting for the machine or tool to break down;
- a measurement system which can continuously or at any particular desired instance monitor;
- a steel surface without physically interrupting the process utilising the steel surface and with negligible preparation time.
Innovative areas of research in the project included:
- utilisation of femtosecond laser technology in making microscopic grooves on the steel mesh;
- development of conductive ceramics;
- micromachining holes and notches in the 250 µm diameter ceramic fibre in order to improve the wire bonding;
- development of conductive ceramics;
- successfully bonding ultra-thin wires to the ceramic sensor.
Additional breakthroughs during the project included:
- utilisation of femtosecond laser technology in fibre laser technology;
- utilisation of femtosecond laser technology in fibre laser technology;
- development of wear prediction algorithm;
- development of an accurate accelerated wear process;
- extending the thin bonded wires to make them more robust;
- developing a graphical user interface to show the resistance of the ceramic in real time.
The overall technological aim was the development of a pre-commercial prototype mould with an in situ sensor and measurement system to allow continuous structural health monitoring. This aim was fulfilled and the technology has proven to be viable in a commercial environment.
Project context and objectives:
Project context
The proprietary concept devised by Müggler, and upon which the MESMESH proposal is based on the need of increasing production efficiency by increasing machine utilisation, increasing quality of manufactured goods and reducing the amount of scrap parts produced. Considering the European Union (EU) market for manufactured plastic goods (large scale production of batches of 100 000 or more parts) there is a significant environmental impact leading due to the reduction of several thousand tonnes of plastic that would otherwise be disposed by landfill or incineration.
A significant aspect of the proposed technology is that it can easily be adapted to monitor the structural health of complex metal engineering components such as for instance, gears, drive shaft's, axles, brake pads and dies for extrusion.
There are no systems on the market capable of performing the measurements needed to give a full overview of the wear, tear and damage done to a metal surface. The best technologies currently available fall short of being effective for the following reasons:
- the current methods are focused only on measuring the strain a surface is subjected to, and they do not measure the actual wear and damage done to the surface;
- the current methods are expensive to embed (particularly optical fibres) and require expensive optical equipment;
strain gauges are not large enough to cover the surface of a mould; furthermore, it is exceedingly difficult to embed strain gauges or fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) in a mould and the information obtained would only be strain measurements, which is not a direct indicator of the wear or damage done to the mould;
- the scalability of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) is also very limited: some systems such as electromagnetic systems would require a number of different products to be used with different size moulds. Furthermore, most of these are based on indirect measurements, which would give a very poor signal to noise ratio, meaning it would be impossible to make accurate measurements.
Scientific and technological objectives
Our overall technological aim is the development of a pre-commercial prototype mould with an in situ sensor and measurement system to allow continuous structural health monitoring. This system consists of a sensor grid (mesh) incorporated into the outer surface layer of the metal mould. The sensor grid system will be created micromachining a smooth walled, depth controlled grooves in to the metal surface using a femtosecond laser. Into the groove a ceramic is deposited and sintered to form a thin continuous layer. The sensor measurements generated by the sensor grid will be processed by a monitoring device to give the user a real-time indicator of the structural health of the metal part.
Damage and wear of the wave guide material will affect the magnitude and characteristics of a signal passed through it and thus we can determine the onset and extent of damage in the surrounding surface layer of the metal.
The pattern in which the grooves are micro-machined into a mould or other metal surface will be dependent on the specific application, size of mould and user requirements. It is anticipated that in commercial use the mesh will be confined to a few critical areas governed by the application and observed damage mechanisms in the mould.
Our specific scientific objectives are centred in the field of mould modifications:
- development of predictive models for frequency-dependent electrical properties of ceramic composites;
- understanding of microstructure-property relationships for the frequency dependent properties of conductor-insulator ceramic composites;
- to carry out research work related to ultra-short laser ablation process at different radiation parameters such as wavelength, pulse energy density, repetition rate and spatial pulse shape.
Our detailed technological objectives for individual elements are as follows:
- electrical characterisation of conductive ceramic composites;
- use of predictive tools for the design of optimum conductive ceramic for the waveguide sensor application;
- development and embedment of the conductive ceramic for the waveguide application into steel;
- to find optimal process parameters for forming smooth walled and depth-controlled grooves in metal by laser ablation.
Our detailed integration performance objectives are to:
- be able to produce moulds with a laser etched grove with a width and depth of = 200 µm with a deviation of no more than 5 %;
- produce a conductive ceramic with a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of 36 x 10-6 K-1 (the same as steel) that can be bonded and / or sintered into the laser etched grove to form a mesh;
- have a software that can interpret the signal responses from the ceramic mesh to provide the end user with a tool to do real-time monitoring of the structural health of a given steel surface;
- ensure that the production costs of the developed technology when applied to a mould will not increase costs by more than 20 %. This is considered acceptable as the life expectancy of the mould will be increased by no less than 20 % whilst giving the end user benefits of reduced scrap and increased quality.
As per our objectives we developed a novel technology based on state of the art knowledge in both micromachining using Pharos femtosecond lasers and the latest knowledge and insight in the field of conductive ceramic based materials. Combined with cost-effective digital signal processing and advanced control algorithms we integrated this into a commercial application that has been tested and had its performance verified.
The technology for the MESMESH sensor is viable, promising and relevant for many different applications in various industrial sectors. Preventive maintenance is a constant battle for European production companies and the MESMESH technology has the possibility to provide them with an effective tool in the battle against lost production time.
Project results:
Innovative laser cutting
Vilnius University Laser Research Centre (VULRC) took part in the MESMESH project as the main developer of laser micromachining system, capable to cut micro fine grooves on metallic sample surface without any degradation of material's physical and chemical properties. Lasers offer great freedom for flexibility, degree of automation, they may work without any consumable materials and in a non-contact way.
Femtosecond laser ablation, because of the reduced heat-affected zone, where melting and solidification can occur, allows the micromachining and surface patterning of materials with minimal mechanical and thermal deformation and with micrometre precision.
Although femtotechnology is still not mature, it is successfully competing in some specific challenging fields of automotive industry, medicine, production of microelectromechanical and microfluidic systems and also consumer electronics. Researchers at VULRC have developed several micromachining systems, researched micro-cutting physics and performed optimisation tasks in order to achieve grooves with parameters fully fulfilling MESMESH project needs.
Conductive ceramics
VULRC took part in the MESMESH project as the main developer of conductive ceramics and insulation.
A key aspect of the MESMESH concept is the ability to measure the level of wear occurring on the surface of the steel mould (substrate) without the need to dismantle the system for microscopic examination. The method proposed was to fill the grooves in the steel mould with an insulating ceramic material into which is inserted a conducting ceramic fibre (which is thus electrically isolated from the steel substrate). The conductive material should (a) wear at a rate comparable to the steel and (b) to have a resistivity which is large enough to realise an easily measurable change in resistance (approximately 100 Ohm) when the surface is worn down by not more than 5 µm.
University of Bath was able to optimise the development process of the ceramics and developed conductive ceramic fibres of tailored and reproducible resistivity.
It is all about bonding
UAB Modernios E-Technologijos (MET) has performed a scientific study of material and design of the bonding technology and proposed the methodology of the further materials and bonding technology investigations.
Primarily it was expected that the sensor embedded into the mould must work in the high frequency (HF) (possibly in microwave band). The sensor itself is a kind of conductive ceramics placed in the groove that is ablated with laser in the steel housing.
As measurements at a very HF range are technically and methodologically complicated MET performed a theoretical research on several cases of high frequencies with different measured parameters and frequency values, and in case of direct current (DC) regime, when resistances of first and second sensors or difference between them are measured in DC regime. In case of DC regime the ceramic was isolated from steel housing by coating inner surface of laser ablated groove with non-conducting thin film. It was proved that this additional technological task is not complicated comparing with difficulties expecting in the case of HF.
Investigations have demonstrated that measurements at very HF range are realistic in principle. However, they are complicated and expensive. Therefore the decision to shift from HF to DC has been made and the further work plan, scheduling and concrete implementation actions have been adjusted to reflect the above-mentioned decision.
During the second half of the project the main attention has been paid to the contact processing on the fibres and to the investigation of their characteristics. Contact quality was tested by measuring current-voltage characteristic of the samples made from the fibre with wires attached to the contacts.
Electronics tie it all together
The MESMESH concept is to be able to measure wear on the surface of steel mould tool in real time. Pera Innovation developed the electronic hardware connected to the sensor, and took into consideration that DC resistive measurement were chosen to detect the wear of the ceramic microstrip.
The proposed electronic hardware must be capable of:
- monitoring the wear of the mould tool by measuring the resistance of the ceramic insert;
- providing a visual aid for the operator to easily determine the condition of the tool;
- providing historical data in order to predict the wear of the tool.
The electronic hardware is connected to a computer via the RS232 connection to display the status of up to 8 ceramic microstrip sensors on a given mould tool. Pera successfully completed the task. The interface has been developed trying to keep operation simple and allow users to quickly learn and familiarise with the different features and operation of the software.
Results
We have demonstrated successfully that the MESMESH system can accurately measure the resistance of the ceramic microstrip. This has been verified by comparing the MESMESH resistance reading from the laboratory to the results obtained with the end-users on site. The results are very promising.
Potential impact:
Economic and industrial impact
Plastics manufacturing in Europe is still subject to sustained pressure for improved standards of moulded parts quality, reduced product development time and lower average variable cost (cost per unit of output). The aim of this project has been to provide a viable solution to the manufacturers concerning improved standards, quality and reduced development time and costs areas.
In regard to price, the technology developed in the MESMESH project will allow the companies to cut their production costs by reducing significantly the level of output of scrap parts, thus optimising the manufacturing process and providing them with opportunities for exploitation of economies of scale.
A fundamental strategic aspect of the proposed solution is that it facilitates the manufacturers of plastic parts to increase the quality of their output. The constantly increasing requirements imposed on moulders often exceed their capabilities as evidenced by long product development cycles, excessive tooling costs, low process yields, and inferior product quality. Failure to comply with the quality requirements set by the OEMs can result in severe penalties on moulders, and even can lead to complete loss of business. Moulders rely heavily on visual inspection and other sampling and quality assurance techniques, which do not necessarily guarantee moulded product quality. The plastics industry requires improved quality control technology that provides assurance in an automated fashion, without a constant feedback from a human operator. The sensor prototype has a great potential in addressing this need by providing an advanced solution that will guarantee more efficient quality control and minimum level of scrap parts.
To maintain a cost advantage, the plastics manufacturers must reduce the mould changeover time. Hence there is a constant need in the injection moulding sector to reduce machine downtime and to maintain production continuity. Even with quick mould changes the production start-up can be a prolonged process due to lack of set-up and control of proper moulding conditions. As such, the industry needs more consistent optimisation procedures which guarantees moulded part quality in reduced set-up times. The technology accruing from the MESMESH project addresses directly this need by offering the possibility of preventive maintenance.
Once the technology is matured, it will be possible to migrate the technology into other markets. Seeing that injection moulding is a very big market on its own, and plenty of spill over markets are readily available, we have identified this as a good market to mature the technology and promote and disseminate the technology.
Environmental impact
The sustainability of the technology and the environmental benefits of the MESMESH sensor prototype revolve around the significant reduction in the output level of defective parts. The minimised level of plastics waste production is the key to the environmental benefits, resulting in lower level of pollution, as well as in considerable energy savings. According to a 2001 Environment Agency report, 80 % of post-consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill, 8 % is incinerated and only 7 % is recycled. Hence, reducing the amount of plastics waste requiring disposal can have several other advantages:
- conservation of non-renewable fossil fuels - Europe's plastics production uses 2 % of the world's oil production, 1 % as feedstock and 1 % during manufacture;
- reduced consumption of energy;
- reduced amounts of solid waste going to landfill;
- reduced emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NO) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).
Consideration of gender aspects
In accordance Articles 2 & 3 of the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and other EU policy directives (COM (96) 67 final) and reports (EUR 2002) the MESMESH consortium committed to incorporating the principles of gender mainstreaming throughout the various elements of the project. The consortium made every effort to ensure that the work plan and related activities contributed to the promotion of gender equality wherever possible, and none of the activities within the project contributed to gender inequality or aggravated existing gender inequality.
The following objectives underpinned our approach to gender issues:
- the consortium sought to ensure that women and men had equal opportunities to participate in the various parts of the project;
- in addressing diversity, the consortium took account of the different situations needs and interests of women and men;
- the project sought to contribute to reducing inequalities between women and men. Female researchers and administrative staff were employed when possible;
- the consortium sought to employ female participants to positions that are visible and influential e.g. one of the main performing researcher at Bath was female and the project manager of the whole project was female;
- during the project all the participants were visible through the dissemination material, and in this way the female participants can act as role models for young women about to select their career path;
- the consortium also promoted a policy where time off or flexibility for family commitments is allowed and respected and during the project monitor and control equal opportunities within the team and the project management process to ensure constant vigilance of the gender sensitive issues;
- no gender sensitive issues arose during the project.
Ethics
The project did not involve research on animals, humans, human embryos, privacy or personal information, developing countries or dual use.
List of websites: http://www.mesmesh.eu
Contact information of project partners
PERA Innovation
Paul Holdsworth Paul.Holdsworth@pera.com
Vilnius University, VU Laser Research Centre
Valdas Sirutkaitis: Valdas.Sirutkaitis@ff.vu.lt
Modern E-Technologies
Daiva Ulbikiene: daiva.ulbikiene@met.lt
University of Bath
Vana Adamaki: va253@bath.ac.uk
Chris Bowen: C.R.Bowen@bath.ac.uk
Matrican
Javier Mesón: jmeson@matrican.es
Baltijos Polistirenas
Mindaugas Velicka: m.velicka@balpol.lt
