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The purpose of this review paper is to provide a review of the most recent advances in the field of manufacturing composite sandwich panels along with their advantages and limitations. The other purpose of this paper is to familiarize the researchers with the available developments in manufacturing sandwich structures.

The most recent research articles in the field of manufacturing various composite sandwich structures were reviewed. The review process started by categorizing the available sandwich manufacturing techniques into nine main categories according to the method of production and the equipment used. The review is followed by outlining some automatic production concepts toward composite sandwich automated manufacturing. A brief summary of the sandwich manufacturing techniques is given at the end of this article, with recommendations for future work.

It has been found that several composite sandwich manufacturing techniques were proposed in the literature. The diversity of the manufacturing techniques arises from the variety of the materials as well as the configurations of the final product. Additive manufacturing techniques represent the most recent trend in composite sandwich manufacturing.

This work is valuable for all researchers in the field of composite sandwich structures to keep up with the most recent advancements in this field. Furthermore, this review paper can be considered as a guideline for researchers who are intended to perform further research on composite sandwich structures.

Coventry‐based Shipley Europe have appointed George Allardyce to the newly‐created position of European technical manager. The appointment further strengthens Shipley's research, development and technical support team serving the European marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summarization and review of the present author's main investigations on failure modes of reticular metal foams under different loadings in engineering applications.

With the octahedral structure model proposed by the present authors themselves, the fundamentally mechanical relations have been systematically studied for reticular metal foams with open cells in their previous works. On this basis, such model theory is continually used to investigate the failure mode of this kind of porous materials under compression, bending, torsion and shearing, which are common loading forms in engineering applications.

The pore-strut of metal foams under different compressive loadings will fail in the tensile breaking mode when it is brittle. While it is ductile, it will tend to the shearing failure mode when the shearing strength is half or nearly half of the tensile strength for the corresponding dense material and to the tensile breaking mode when the shearing strength is higher than half of the tensile strength to a certain value. The failure modes of such porous materials under bending, torsional and shearing loads are also similarly related to their material species.

This paper presents a distinctive method to conveniently analyze and estimate the failure mode of metal foams under different loadings in engineering applications.

Due to an uncertainty between actual model and assembled slices, there is always an extra material on assembled slices in laminated tooling. Therefore, a post processing, usually CNC machining, is required to remove this extra material and reach the near net shape surface for final product. One of the issues in laminated tooling is to minimize the amount of this extra material and reduce the cost of the post processing. Direction of slicing is an important parameter in this issue. This research aims to introduce a method to find the best slicing direction based on CAD model surface geometry and minimize the amount of the extra material in the assembled slices. Researches on the best slicing direction investigation so far were mostly based on the extra volume calculation for a number of candidate directions. Since the time needed for the extra volume calculation is proportionally high, the number of candidate directions to be investigated was usually limited, whereas, in the proposed method, the best slicing direction is found based on CAD model surface geometry and there is no need to find the actual amount of the extra volume. Moreover, the suggested method is developed to the cases where having more than one slicing direction is desirable for more reduction in the amount of the extra volume. The proposed optimization method can be used to find the best slicing direction in laminated tooling. Moreover, the ability to suggest multiple slicing directions can provide more reduction for the amount of the extra material. However, the number of candidate directions in the case of multiple slicing directions is limited due to joining problems in laminated tooling.

The investigation is based on the situation of normal vectors on CAD model surface. The CAD model surface is considered as a combination of planar tiles and all normal vectors of these tiles are considered as the candidate directions. This provides a number of candidates that can cover almost all possible slicing directions. The best slicing direction is then found by estimating the amount of the extra material produced on the tiles by each normal vector.

The proposed method applied to some examples. The case studies included the simple predictable models to qualify the reliability of the proposed method. Also more applicable examples were provided to show how the suggested method acts in real cases.

The proposed method can be applied to each and every CAD model. Therefore, there is no limitation with regard to the type of model which can be investigated by the proposed method. However, there is limitation on the number of times the building direction can be changed in laminated tooling.

The proposed method can be employed to reduce the post processing time in laminated tooling.

Following the prior study researchers conducted in optimization of laminated dies, another parameter, slicing direction, is considered in this research. This brings a new approach on laminated dies optimization to reduce the production cost.

This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied to the analysis of ceramics and glass materials. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations on the subject that were published between 1977‐1998. The following topics are included: ceramics – material and mechanical properties in general, ceramic coatings and joining problems, ceramic composites, ferrites, piezoceramics, ceramic tools and machining, material processing simulations, fracture mechanics and damage, applications of ceramic/composites in engineering; glass – material and mechanical properties in general, glass fiber composites, material processing simulations, fracture mechanics and damage, and applications of glasses in engineering.

Both glazing and laminating play a certain role in finishing and protecting the surface of printed matter. This study makes a comparative analysis of the two through life cycle assessment (LCA) and theoretically explores the difference between them.

In this study, the life cycle of laminating and glazing processes was calculated through using Simapro software, and the results were compared and analyzed.

Twelve environmental categories were used to quantitatively analyze the environmental impact of the product. The results showed that the results of the 12 environmental categories involved in the analysis of glazing was less than that of laminating, indicating that the impact of the glazing on the environment was less than that of laminating on the environment.

In order to simplify the study, we only calculated and analyzed the laminating and glazing.

Green packaging is the future, 3R1D, reduce, reuse, recycle and degradable. According to the calculation results, corresponding suggestions can be put forward from production, processing, use, waste and other aspects, and make corresponding contributions to the development of green packaging.

The contribution and impact of each stage to the product life cycle can be studied. In addition, different waste disposal methods have different impacts on the environment, and the higher the recovery ratio, the better the environmental benefits of the product. Recycling should then be promoted as proportionately as possible in practice in order to reduce the environmental impact .

The purpose of the study was to develop the forming methodology for FML laminates with complex shapes, based on aluminium and epoxy-glass composite.

The subject of research encompassed Al/GFRP fibre metal laminates. Autoclave process has been selected for FML profiles production. The manufacturing process was followed by quality analysis for laminates produced.

The achievement of high stability and dimensional tolerance of thin-walled FML laminates is ensured by developed technology. The values of selected sections angles are significantly limited as a result of forming of FML laminates through the components performing. Failure to adhere to technological recommendations and to high regime of developer technology may lead to the occurrence of defects in FML.

Thin-walled composite structures could be applied in light-weight constructions, such as aircraft structures, which must meet rigorous requirements with regard to operation under complex load. The development of this type of technology may contribute to increased importance of FML sections in research area and finally to increased scope of their applications.

The production of thin-walled FML profiles with complex geometry, which would be characterized by dimensional stability and repeatable structural quality free of defects, is associated with many problems. No studies have been published so far on an effective forming process for FML laminates with complex shapes. Developed methodology has been verified through quality evaluation of produced profiles by means of non-destructive and destructive methods. The development of this type of technology may contribute to increased importance of FML, e.g. in aerospace technology.

This paper proposes sheet thickness determination in manufacturing of laminated dies as an optimization problem. The aim of this optimization procedure is finding the best set of thicknesses which minimizes the volume deviation between actual computer‐aided design (CAD) model and assembled slices.

This works uses a modified version of genetic algorithms for the optimization purpose. Each set of thicknesses that can cover the whole CAD model surface is considered as a chromosome. Genetic operators such as crossover and mutation have to be modified to be used in this application.

A new method for finding the total volume deviation between assembled slices and the actual CAD model was developed in this research. On the other hand, the results show how the program can automate the slice plane locations search process.

Premature convergence does not allow the algorithm to search the entire solution space before getting trapped in a local optimum. Even the mutation operator cannot postpone this untimely convergence.

The proposed method is a good substitute for the manual methods that are currently used in industry. These experience‐based methods are mostly based on the decision made by a well‐trained technician on picking up the thicknesses for a specific CAD model.

This is the first attempt at optimizing the slicing method in laminated tooling. Other methods are mostly based on rapid prototyping (RP) and they are not applicable in the laminated tooling process since, despite RP, here not all optimization outputs can be used in practical procedure.

This paper developed a new method of making floor from poplar using glued technology and densification technology. This paper aimed to use fast-grown poplar wood to produce floor to expand material supply range of floor in order to solve problem of material supply shortage for floor industry.

Densification technology and gluing technology were used to obtain high-density surface materials of floor under high pressure, meanwhile in order to reduce loss of poplar wood caused by compressing, high-density surface materials floor and substrate are glued and pressed under low pressure.

The method of compressing poplar wood under high pressure can improve poplar's physical and mechanical properties. Adopting densification technology and gluing technology can produce the poplar laminated composite floor which meets the requirements of Chinese standard GB/T 18103.

This method of producing floor by compression densification technology would cause wood loss from reduction in thickness because poplar was pressed under high pressure.

This method of making floor from poplar wood concerned in this study allows the floor making industry to eliminate its dependence on precious wood resource, expand supply range of floor material, and then solve problem of wood supply shortage of floor industry.

This study may help solve the difficult problem that poplar cannot directly be used to produce floor because of its softness, low density and low strength. Through densification technology, great improvement in strength and hardness of poplar had been made.

Lastform, a three year EPSRC (IMI) programme, has investigated metallic laminating techniques to produce large‐scale production capable tooling. This work is intended as an overview of the research and development performed at the University of Warwick’s Warwick manufacturing Group. The programme was a collaboration between seven industrial partners and three universities with each university having a discreet area of research. The focus at Warwick was to establish robust methods of joining metal sheets to form tools for different production processes. Bonding mediums, test parts for process evaluation, sample tools and production tools are described. The advantages of metal laminating for different processes are evaluated. Results include reduced lead‐time and cost savings and enhanced processing capability by the use of conformable heating or cooling channels.