PT news archive


11-10-2011

	Recently post-doctoral researcher Sergey Ivanov said good bye to the Production Technology chair. As a good bye present he was given a pair of signed, Dutch wooden shoes, which he liked very much. He will continue his work in the field of fibre reinforced composite materials within the group of prof. Lomov in Leuven, Belgium.
16-03-11

	The Mechanical Engineering Study Association Isaac Newton awarded Ton Bor with the Best ME Teacher of the year trophy. ME students chose Ton as their favourite teacher for his enthusiasm, knowledge, and teaching skills. Ton is automatically nominated for the central University-wide education award.
15-01-2011

	A consortium of Dutch companies, including TPRC, won the JEC composites Innovation Award 2011, transportation category, with a composite tipper prototype. More...
15-01-2011
	Want to see how far an ex-Production Technology student and ex-colleague can go in a professional sense? Check this film from polymer producer Ticona on the production and use of Thermoplastic Composites in the Netherlands (It is about dr.ir S. Wijskamp)

15-12-10
	Arnoud van der Stelt won the best poster price at the yearly M2i conference entitled ‘Materials to innovate Industry and Society’ held in the Netherlands on the 13th and 14th of december 2010

01-11-10
	A new project in the field of pipe condition monitoring is starting next January. Material considered is asbestos-cement pipes used in waterworks systems. Post-Doc Vaidotas Cicėnas, an ultrasonic specialist, will work the coming three years on this project.

01-07-10
	Friction Stir Welding in the lift! The FSW research has got its own machine, which is used for classic FSW, and for local alloying or cladding of Al-alloys using FSW! See for related research de webpage of Arnoud van der Stelt, and contact for more information Ton Bor	Arnoud van der Stelt

01-06-10
	Two new members of staff within a few weeks! Bert Rietman and Roy Visser joined the Production Technology group, both as assistant professors. Roy studied Mechanical Engineering at the UTwente and finalised his PhD a few month ago, in the field of condition monitoring of polymer structures . Bert also studied Mechanical Engineering at the UTwente, did his PhD in the Applied Mechanics group 10 years ago, and spent the last decade polishing his numerical skills at INPRO in Germany. Expect an interview of both Roy and Bert soon!		Roy Visser Bert Rietman


13-05-10
	Ashok Sridhar defended his PhD thesis on the 12^th of May 2010. Title of Ashok's thesis is 'An inkjet printing-based process chain for conductive structures on printed circuit board materials'. A process chain to fabricate conductive structures on printed circuit board materials is presented in this thesis. This process chain comprises four main steps: plasma treatment, inkjet printing, electroless plating and functional characterisation. It represents a drastic reduction in the number of process steps when compared to the conventional lithography-based method, widely used in the printed circuit board industry. The proposed process chain is validated by fabricating radio frequency circuit structures in the form of an S-band filter and a transmission line, and comparing their performance with that of conventionally fabricated S-band filter and transmission line. The comparison shows that the inkjet printing-electroless plating combination can be used even for the GHz frequency range, marking an improvement from the oft-discussed RFID applications in the context of inkjet printing. Ashok is now at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS, Department Printed Functionalities, Chemnitz, Germany. More


22-01-10
	Roy Visser will defend his PhD thesis on the 22^nd of Januari. Title of his thesis ‘Residual Lifetime assessment of uPVC gas pipes’…In 1959 a large amount of natural gas was found in Slochteren in the northern part of the Netherlands. This discovery led to major investments in the installation of thousands of kilometres of pipe to form an extensive piping network. The majority of these pipes are still in use. About 15 percent of the current gas distribution network is made of unplasticised or rigid poly(vinyl chloride) (uPVC) and has been installed in the period between 1959 and 1974. The lifetime of these of the pipes was expected to be around fifty years at the time of instalment. Even after forty years in service, the network service providers barely experience problems with this part of the network. Therefore, the question arises whether it is possible to replace the pipes based on their residual quality in stead of their service life time. This new approach can improve the efficiency of the replacement policy and increase the integrity of the network. The residual quality of the uPVC pipes is determined by its fracture toughness. The main focus in this study will be on the process of physical aging. During this process the yield stress of the polymer increases. As a result plastic deformation occurs on a more local scale, which finally will result in (macroscopic) brittle behaviour, and thus a decreased fracture toughness. The influence of physical aging on the yield behaviour of uPVC is modelled and validated using various experimental techniques (e.g. tensile, compression, impact and indentation tests). Roy Visser is now a member of staff of the Production Technology group. More…(1) More…(2)


26-11-09
	Official kick-off of the STW project TRANSFORCE (Transverse Reinforcement of Carbon Fibre Composites with Carbon Nano Fibres) took place last November. Aim of the project is to improve the transverse properties of carbon fibre composite by letting Nano fibres grow on Micro Carbon Fibres. This is performed by catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbon gas over metal particles. This is a most promising technique for the increase of the fibre/matrix interfacial strength and intra- and inter-bundle transverse mechanical behaviour. The technique has not been explored on composite level yet. The project is performed by two groups, the PT group, as well as the CPM group, responsible for the innovations on the growth of the Nano fibres. The research is carried by Vitaly Koissin from the PT group, and Željko Kotanjac from the CPM group. TRANSFORCE is supported by STW, as well as by TenCate Advanced Composites, Fokker Aerostructures, NLR, Airborne and Stork SP Aerospace

09-11-09
	Ashok Shridhar wins the best author price for his performance at the 3^rd Int. Conf. on Print & Media Technology in Chemnitz (Germany). Title of his paper was ‘Surface modification of PCB substrates for better adhesion of Inkjet printed circuit structures’. Ashok won this award two years after after his best best poster price at the second Int. Conf. on Print & Media Technology at Chemnitz. Congratulation!

28-10-09
	Ted Ooijevaar wins Corus young talent award 2009, accredited by The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities! The jury selected Ted on basis of his Master’s Thesis titled ‘Vibration based Structural Health Monitoring of a composite T–beam’. The subject is relevant for the aircraft industry, where the use of composite materials causes several issues on reliability and maintenance. Ted developed a procedure for damage detection and localization. The method was proven experimentally on a T-beam sub-component. Within his thesis, Ted has also attended an international conference. Ted performed his master’s thesis within the groups of Applied Mechanics and Production Technology, and will start as a PhD student on the same subject from the first of November. Ted will receive this award on the 25^th of November in Haarlem.

12-06-09
	Officials from Boeing, TenCate Advanced Composites BV, Stork Fokker and the University of Twente signed an agreement on June 12, 2009, to establish the Thermoplastic Composites Research Centre (TPRC) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. More...

05-06-09
	Roy Visser was awarded the first place for best presentation at the GERG Academic Network Event at event, on the 5^th of june 2009. Roy’s presentation, called ‘Development of a condition measurement method for polymer gas pipes’ presented an overview of his PhD study on physical ageing mechanisms of PVC gas pipes. The GERG, European Gas Research Group, is focused on the support of the European gas industry, which is achieved by research and technological innovation in all aspects of the gas chain; from production and processing, through transmission, storage and distribution, to utilisation of natural gas.

02-06-09
	Last SAMPE (Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering) Benelux technical meeting was held at the University of Twente, hosted by the chair of Production Technology. 30 participants from composite related companies and institutes registered for this meeting, with oral presentations from Ten Cate Adanced Composites, Reden, The University of Twente, UCL, KVE, the University of Gent, Stork SP and Suzlon. A tour through the Production Technology lab gave the opportunity to the participants to have an idea on the activities and possibilities given by the lab.		SAMPE BENELUX

15-04-09
	The 12^th ESAFORM conferende on Metal Forming has taken place at the University of Twente, organized by Han Huetink and Ton van den Boogaard. Also Remko Akkerman and Ton Bor from the Production Technology group were part of the organizing committee. The Production technology group was also well represented with presentations of Mark Zeinstra, who does his Master thesis within the group, Wouter Grouve, Rene ten Thije and Semih Perdahcioglu.

03-09-08
	Johan van Ravenhorst won the award of the best master thesis of the CTW faculty! His work titled ‘Design and implementation of a Rapid Prototyping system for the Hot-Wire cutting process’ was performed at 3EL under supervision of the chair of Production Technology.

01-09-08
	Dimitris Christoulis is starting on a project which will lead to the fabrication of a prototype for (Local) Alloying and Cladding of Advanced Aluminium Alloys Employing Friction Stir Welding. In other words, the designed tool will able to supply a filler material to the weld area. Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining technology which has found applications in various sectors: aerospace, shipbuilding, automotive and railway industry. Since its invention in 1991 at TWI (www.twi.co.uk), FSW has been used successfully for joining various similar (Al-alloys, Ti-alloys, steels) or dissimilar materials. This project is a collaborative research project between Materials Innovation Institute (M2i), University of Twente and the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR).

20-12-07
	Clean Sky initiative is the largest European research project ever and will run over a seven year period with a total budget of 1,6 billion euros contributed equally by the European Commission and industry. Clean Sky JTI will accelerate the introduction of new, radically greener technologies in new generation aircraft. The University of Twente will be represented by 5 different groups (also the Chair of Production Technology!) and a total of 25 scientists. More news to come. See Interview Ton Bor.

10-11-07
	Ashok Shridhar wins the poster price at the 2^nd Int. Conf. on Print & Media Technology in Chemnitz (Germany). The award was celebrated at the local brewery.

21-09-07
	René ten Thije finalised his phD thesis and was rewarded with an impressive Cum Laude. His thesis titled ‘Finite element simulations of laminated composite forming processes’ is seen by one of the committee member as a very thorough piece of work.

10-09-07
	Wouter Grouve won the award of the best master thesis of the CTW faculty! His work titled ‘Vibration based ‘in situ’ health monitoring of composite components‘ was performed under combined supervision of the chair of Applied Mechanics and Production Technology. Wouter now works on a phD thesis within the chair of Production Technology.

01-08-07
	Madhu Parlapalli started as a Post-Doc on Self-Healing of delaminations in composite materials. Use will be made for this purpose of Shape Memory Wires. This project is led in the chair of Production Technology by Ton Bor and is sponsored by IOP ‘Self Healing Materials’.