The work presented by two of the students, Mr Daniel Farrugia and Ms Nadine Mifsud was carried out in close collaboration between DIME and Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Malta. Daniel Farrugia had investigated on how to improve the interlayer adhesion of parts manufactured using polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and a filament 3D printer. Despite its high performance and heavy-duty applications e.g. in automotive and medical sector, PEEK poses a challenge to be 3D printed, namely due to its low interlayer bonding strength. On the other hand, Nadine Mifsud presented her work titled ‘Additive Manufacturing and Performance Analysis of Rubber Components’.
Most of the published studies have analysed and evaluated the behaviour of components 3D printed from thermoplastics, and there is little to no research on additive manufacturing of rubbers or thermoset elastomers. Hence, this study was very innovative and novel.
Mr Albert Curmi demonstrated part of his work on the development of a flexible 3D printing system to be able to 3D print parts from polymer pellets instead of filament, which could reduce the material cost up to around tenfold.
This project is supported by the Fusion R&I Technology Development Programme of the Malta Council for Science and Technology (Project R&I 2018-009-T) and is led by the University of Malta and its industrial partner is Abertax Quality Limited.
