LCD technology has been known for decades and used in the manufacture of components with photosensitive material (6K, 8K, polyurethane- based elastics resin, eco- and bioresins). The functional characteristics and aesthetics of components can be improved by adding reinforcing materials in the form of powders, pigments, or other additives. The paper presents the effects on the printing process with such a modified resin through a systematic approach. The modifications consisted in adding metallic powders with two different grain size (aluminum and copper). The results showed not only the possibility of successful printing but also problems that can occur during the processes. Several tests were carried out on a desktop LCD 3D printer, which makes the proposed approach applicable to any type of equipment.

One of the common welding methods for polymer rooftop sheets is the overlap welding by hot air either done manually for small parts or with a welding machine for long sheets. The weld quality depends on different parameters like the welding speed, the welding temperature or the pressure applied on the joining materials. Due to the field of application of rooftop sheets, there are other environmental influences like the ambient temperature, the air humidity or direct sunshine which can cause a decrease of the welding quality. This work will focus on a pre welding influence, the storage temperature of the rooftop sheets and how it affects the welding quality. Two poly vinyl chloride (PVC) rooftop sheets were chosen and tested separately. The materials were cut into small sheets, stored under different temperature conditions, and were welded afterwards. The welded samples were tested according to the DIN EN 12317-2 to determine the shear resistance of the weld as it is an important mechanical property and a good indicator for the quality of the weld. The results show a minor influence on the welding process but no influence on the quality of the weld itself as all weld lines of all samples managed to stay intact

Fused Filament Fabrication builds parts layer-wise by depositing molten thermoplastic in the shape of filaments. Those are characterized by thickness and width. Together with the deposition speed, they determine the material flow. Depending on the extrusion system melting capacity and the considered materials, the flow can be limited to a certain degree, leading to under-extrusion. Slicing tools such as Cura allows filaments to overlap to compensate for under-extrusion and prevent voids formation. However, if the superposition is too high, the melt is squeezed out of the deposition path, affecting the surface quality. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of raster width, angle, overlap, and deposition speed over the top surface topography of samples printed of ABS, ASA, and PC. The results show that the rasters’ width and overlap significantly influence top surface topography. 

In recent years multi-material Additive Manufacturing gained more interest as new applications were found in domains such as bioengineering, soft robotics and actuators, electronics and many more. Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) is one of the most used AM technologies for multi-material 3D printing due to relatively low-cost equipment and a large variety of thermoplastic materials. Even so, issues are still to be solved regarding the adhesion mechanisms at the level of bond interface, especially for dissimilar materials. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify influencing factors over the printing process of multi-material parts at the interface level. The influencing factors were determined using a literature review and Cura slicing tool user guide and systematised using a cause-effect diagram. The main domains of influence are Materials bonding, Printing equipment, Model geometry, and Method of printing and processing. These domains were further split into more specific factors and discussed based on their influence over multi-material interface printing.

Purpose: Magnetic separation of microbes can be an effective tool for pathogen identification and diagnostic applications to reduce the time needed for sample preparation. After peptide functionalization of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with an appropriate interface, they can be used for the separation of sepsis-associated yeasts like Candida albicans. Due to their magnetic properties, the magnetic extraction of the particles in the presence of an external magnetic field ensures the accumulation of the targeted yeast.

Materials and methods: In this study, we used SPIONs coated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and functionalized with a peptide originating from GP340 (SPION-APTES-Pep). For the first time, we investigate whether this system is suitable for the separation and enrichment of Candida albicans, we investigated its physicochemical properties and by thermogravimetric analysis we determined the amount of peptide on the SPIONs. Further, the toxicological profile was evaluated by recording cell cycle and DNA degradation. The separation efficiency was investigated using Candida albicans in different experimental settings, and regrowth experiments were carried out to show the use of SPION-APTES-Pep as a sample preparation method for the identification of fungal infections.

Conclusion: SPION-APTES-Pep can magnetically remove more than 80% of the microorganism and with a high selective host-pathogen distinction Candida albicans from water-based media and about 55% in blood after 8 minutes processing without compromising effects on the cell cycle of human blood cells. Moreover, the separated fungal cells could be regrown without any restrictions.

In recent years the interest in finding new shape memory polymers has increased. Withal, fewer studies approached the use of regular materials such as polyethene terephthalate (PET), a widely available material. The research investigated the shape memory characteristics of regular PET 3D printed samples in two testing cycles. The recovery temperature was determined through dynamical mechanical, followed by tensile testing and heat treatment of the specimens. The results show PET has good shape memory properties, recording a slight increase in shape recovery during the second testing cycle without affecting the sample integrity. The thermal analysis of the recovered material shows that heat treatment time or/and temperature need to be improved to stabilise the PET material structure.

Dielectric properties for nanocomposites with metallic fillers inside a polymer matrix were determined using CST STUDIO SUITE—Electromagnetic field simulation software followed by the free-space Nicolson–Ross–Weir procedure. The structure is randomly generated to simulate the intrinsic non-uniformity of real nanomaterials. Cubic insertions were equated to corresponding spherical particles in order to provide either the same volume index or the same exterior surface index. The energy concentration around the inserts and within the entire material was determined as useful information in practice in order to design materials tailored to avoid exceeding the field/temperature limit values. The paper successfully associated the dialectic measurements with the results from the computer simulations, which are mainly based on energetic effects in electromagnetic applications. The experimental results are comparable with the software simulation in terms of precision. The conclusions outline the practical applications of the method for both electromagnetic shielding and microwave domain/telecommunications applications.