| |
Technology Station in Reinforced & Moulded Plastics
Reinforced & Moulded Plastics is the technology transfer mechanism of the Centre for Advanced Materials, Design & Manufacture at the DUT. Within the The DUT Technology Centre are four highly qualifiedand experienced professors of mechanical engineering, who interact with industry via the Technology Station.
Aims & Objectives
The main aim of the Technology Station is to provide companies within these sectors with subsidised services and assistance in product design, prototype development and tooling design, development and manufacture. The main objective is to ultimately assist these companies to become more competitive via technology transfer. The rate of subsidisation involved depends on the size of the company, turnover, ownership and the particular project.
Within the Technology Station there are three operating units:
Prototyping & Testing Unit
The PPT Unit specialises in the fabrication of prototypes and tooling for the composites sector. Materials and structural testing can also be undertaken.
The PPT is equipped with state of the art layup facilities (including a large autoclave) and testing equipment (including NDT). PPT Unit main resources: closed mould, wet layup, vacuum bagging, oven (1m x 0.5m), autoclave (1.5 m diameter, 3m length), cold-storage (for prepreg materials), computer controlled Lloyds universal testing machine (30 kN capacity), test grips for ASTM testing of composite materials (in-plane proper ties), real-time strain capture and monitoring capability, acoustic emission unit, digital ultrasound unit, radiographic unit, microscopy capability (including SEM), ignition loss testing.
Design Unit
The TS Industrial Design Unit specialises in conceptual design and design verification of metallic and non-metallic fabrications and systems and makes use of some of the most sophisticated design analysis software and techniques (like finite element analysis – FEA) available. The Unit focuses on conceptual design, design analysis, optimisation and verification of non-metallic (and metallic): aerospace and other advanced structures, custom fabrications, pressure and vacuum vessels, process tanks and vessels, specialised process equipment
Main (software) resources
- SolidEdge (CADD)
- Rhinoceros (surfacemodeling)
- MSCNastran (FEA)
- Caesar II (pipeline flexibility analysis)
- FibreSim (laminate analysis)
Contact Details
Technology Station Manager: Prof. Mark Walker
Tel: 031 373 2543
Email: walker@dut.ac.za
 |
|
Publications
Success Stories
|
