Extruded profiles/sections are increasingly used in the transport industry for lightweight structures. In this paper, a wide thin-ribbed aluminium profile with asymmetric Z-shape, was manufactured by ...a novel sideways extrusion process proposed by the authors. A comparative study was conducted by utilising the direct/forward extrusion process at the same extrusion temperature and speed, in which the different process mechanics, resulting microstructures and mechanical properties of profiles have been investigated by experiments and finite element modelling. It was revealed that, compared with sideways extrusion, although the design of a die pocket in forward extrusion induces preform and avoids the use of the large-diameter billet and extrusion container/press needed for extruding wide profiles, it requires a greater extrusion force due to work-piece upsetting necessary to fill the die pocket and leads to a lower effective strain in the profile rib. EBSD characterisation of the regions with an equal effective strain indicated that an increased shear strain is more efficient for obtaining fine grains with a higher average misorientation angle. In the same region of the profile rib made from the two different processes, sideways extrusion results in greater grain refinement due to greater effective strains, and a slightly greater texture intensity was found due to the intensive shear deformation. Tensile tests on formed profiles revealed that sideways extrusion leads to a higher yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) but a relatively lower elongation to failure, due to the combined effects of grain refinement, GND and texture intensity enhancement. Compared with the billet, the profile formed by forward and sideways extrusion has a YS increased by about 60% and 79% respectively, and an UTS increased by about 74% and 80% respectively in the extrusion direction, demonstrating an advantage of the sideways extrusion process in improving material strength under the same extrusion condition.
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•Wide thin-ribbed aluminium profiles were manufactured by sideways and forward extrusion at the same condition.•Deformation mechanisms, resulting microstructures and mechanical properties for the two processes were compared.•Sideways extrusion requires a lower extrusion force but results in higher effective strains in the profile rib.•Sideways extrusion leads to greater grain refinement, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength.•Strength and ductility are improved simultaneously for the profile formed by sideways extrusion at elevated temperature.
Extrusion is a versatile process capable of producing a variety of new and novel foods and ingredients, thus increasing manufacturing opportunities. Further, it could provide nutritious, safe, ...sustainable, and affordable foods, especially directed at individualized consumer needs. In addition to past research efforts, more investigations should be conducted in order to refine, redesign, or develop new extrusion processing technologies. The present review highlights the current advances made in new and novel food product development by considering the extrusion process, the influencing parameters, and product characteristics and properties; the most promising extrusion processes that can be used in novel food product and ingredient development, such as extrusion cooking, hot-melt extrusion, reactive extrusion, and extrusion-based 3D printing; the possibilities of using various raw materials in relation to process and product development; and the needs for product development modeling along with extrusion process design and modeling. In correlation with extruded product development, topics that merit further investigation may include structure formation, plant and animal biopolymers functionalization, biopolymer reactions, process simulation, modeling and control, engineering and mechanical aspects of extruders, analysis of pre-processing treatments, as well as prototyping, risk analysis, safety, sensory and consumer acceptance.
The emerging 3D printing technique allows for tailoring hydrogel‐based soft structure tissue scaffolds for individualized therapy of osteochondral defects. However, the weak mechanical strength and ...uncontrollable swelling intrinsic to conventional hydrogels restrain their use as bioinks. Here, a high‐strength thermoresponsive supramolecular copolymer hydrogel is synthesized by one‐step copolymerization of dual hydrogen bonding monomers, N‐acryloyl glycinamide, and N‐tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl acrylamide. The obtained copolymer hydrogels demonstrate excellent mechanical properties—robust tensile strength (up to 0.41 MPa), large stretchability (up to 860%), and high compressive strength (up to 8.4 MPa). The rapid thermoreversible gel ⇔ sol transition behavior makes this copolymer hydrogel suitable for direct 3D printing. Successful preparation of 3D‐printed biohybrid gradient hydrogel scaffolds is demonstrated with controllable 3D architecture, owing to shear thinning property which allows continuous extrusion through a needle and also immediate gelation of fluid upon deposition on the cooled substrate. Furthermore, this biohybrid gradient hydrogel scaffold printed with transforming growth factor beta 1 and β‐tricalciumphosphate on distinct layers facilitates the attachment, spreading, and chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs) in vitro. The in vivo experiments reveal that the 3D‐printed biohybrid gradient hydrogel scaffolds significantly accelerate simultaneous regeneration of cartilage and subchondral bone in a rat model.
A high strength biohybrid hydrogel scaffold with precisely designed gradient/architecture, and controllable loading of transforming growth factor beta 1 and β‐tricalciumphosphate particles in distinct layers, mimicking an osteochondral tissue and its micromilieu, is custom‐made by a one‐step thermal‐assisted extrusion printing technique. The seamless integrated scaffold demonstrates an excellent ability to boost simultaneous osteochondral regeneration in a rat model.
ZK60 Magnesium tubing has been friction extruded from as-cast billets and T5 conditioned bars using Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE). Tubes having an outer diameter of 50.8 mm and wall ...thickness of 1.9 mm were extruded with >20 times less ram force compared to conventional extrusion due to the unique shearing conditions and tooling inherent to ShAPE. Microstructures of the as-cast billet and T5 bar feedstock materials were significantly different from each other in terms of grain size, texture, and second phase distribution; yet the resulting microstructures after ShAPE were remarkably similar. An average grain size of 4–5 μm, 20° tilt of basal texture away from the extrusion axis, and refined second phases having a uniform distribution were achieved independent of the feedstock material. Hardness for as-extruded and artificially aged tubes are presented with isotropic behavior explained by detailed microstructural analysis. This work suggests that bulk ZK60 magnesium alloys extrusions may be fabricated in a single step, with microstructures that are unobtainable with conventional extrusion.
Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) enables the extrusion of many alloys with enhanced properties. In this study, ShAPE was used to extrude tubes of aluminum alloy 6063 measuring 12 mm in ...diameter at extrusion speeds up to 3.8 m/min, an increase of 10 times over what has previously been reported for ShAPE. Increasing the extrusion speed from 0.7 to 3.8 m/min resulted in using 68% less process energy at steady state without any loss in mechanical properties.
As-extruded tubes had ultimate tensile strengths on par with conventional T5 extrusions and double the elongation at break. ShAPE extruded tubes that underwent a T5 heat treatment had yield and ultimate strengths of 198 and 234 MPa, respectively, which is ~30% higher than standard T5 material and comparable to T6 properties.
Microstructural analyses were performed on as-extruded and T5 treated tubes. Grain refinement below 20 μm was identified, with no detectable growth of macroscale Mg2Si strengthening precipitates. Nanoscale β″ was not observed in the as-extruded materials but was prominent after T5 heat treatment suggesting that β″ strengthening precipitates were solutionized in situ during the ShAPE process. The ability to perform solution heat treating in situ, rather than post-extrusion, eliminates an energy intensive process step and is applicable to a wide variety of alloys.
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•Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) was used to produce AA 6063 tubing.•Maximum extrusion speeds of 3.8 m/s were achieved, over 10 times faster than any previous friction extrusion.•Energy efficiency increased with extrusion speed, reaching up to 42% at steady state.•ShAPE Extrusions with a T5 heat treatment achieved mechanical properties on par with a traditional T6 heat treatment.•ShAPE + T5 resulted in peak to slightly over-aged microstructure, similar to a conventional T6 microstructure.
Wide stiffened aluminium panels are extensively used in aerospace, marine, and civil industries due to their light-weight structure and high stiffness. In this paper, a wide stiffened aluminium panel ...was manufactured using the principle of the multi-container extrusion, and a comparative study was conducted using two different die designs at the same extrusion condition, in which metal flow behaviour, extrusion force, welding quality, and billet material utilisation have been investigated numerically. Additionally, the effect of extrusion speed on the extrusion process was evaluated with the modified design. It was shown that, compared with the initial design, better metal flow behaviour can be obtained in the modified design. Multi-container extrusion greatly reduces the extrusion force, and the modified design results in a more uniform extrusion force for each extrusion container. The total extrusion force for the modified design is slightly higher compared with the initial die design, due to the increased friction in the upper die channels and the second-step welding chamber. Besides, the modified design of the multi-container extrusion can obtain better welding quality evaluated by different welding criteria, and the extrusion speed has a minor effect on the welding quality. The most notable feature is that the modified design greatly improves the material utilisation, which could save 39.5% material compared to the initial design.
Polylactic acid (PLA) has been widely used in the field of medical devices. However, few studies have been conducted on the extrusion molding of PLA micro tubes for the preparation of biodegradable ...vascular stents. In this paper, the extrusion die for PLA single-cavity micro tubes was designed and manufactured by micro-extrusion theory. Taking the outer diameter, wall thickness, wall thickness uniformity and ovality of micro tubes as the evaluation index, the influence of the main extrusion process parameters on the evaluation index was studied. The experimental results show that the outer diameter and wall thickness are significantly affected by screw speed, pulling speed and gas flow rate; extrusion process parameters have little influence on wall thickness uniformity and ovality within a certain range, which mainly depends on the processing accuracy and assembly accuracy of the extrusion die. However, excessively high screw speed and low gas flow rate have significant effects on ovality. Finally, according to the influence of extrusion process parameters on the evaluation index, a series of micro tubes that meet the design requirements are extruded and carved into vascular stent structures.