PDEng position – Robotics: Robotized hot gas welding of thermoplastic composites

The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Robotics is very interesting for you. The PDEng programme is a 2-year post MSc technological programme with a focus on technological design. This programme at the University of Twente contains an educational part that will be followed at the University, and a design project that will be carried out at the ThermoPlastic Composites Research Centre (TPRC, https://tprc.nl/). The educational programme will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with TPRC, high level, creative and new designs for complex issues will be aimed at.

PDEng Design Project - Robotized hot gas welding of thermoplastic composites
Thermoplastic composites can be joined using a hot gas welding technique similar as is done for unreinforced thermoplastics. Hot gas is used to heat the surfaces of the composite parts as well as a filler rod. The polymer in both the composite as well as the filler material softens after which a slight pressure is applied to fuse the parts and the filler material together. The process is ideally suited to manufacture for example stiffened panels typically used in aerospace applications. However, the weld quality depends to a large degree on the skill of the operator. Especially, starting and stopping as well as choosing the required welding rate heavily rely on the operator’s feel with the process. Also the relation between the main welding parameters and the mechanical performance of the weld is basically unknown. To overcome this disadvantage and to ensure reproducible weld quality, the hot gas welding process needs to be automated. This requires the design and development of a hot gas welding end effector which can be mounted on a robot. The end effector should comprise a (smart)
closed-loop control system to ensure a robust process irrespective of variations in environmental conditions.

Objective
The objective of this PDEng project is to design, build and validate a robotized hot gas welding system (end effector and feed-back control with a robot) suited to weld thermoplastic composites.

Deadline Application: 19-06-2016

Further details:
PDEng position – Robotics: Robotized hot gas welding of thermoplastic composites