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The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship among rheology, tribology and traditional standardized technological parameters of lithium lubricating greases.

Lubricating greases having the same composition but differing in processing protocols have been manufactured and characterized in order to isolate the rheological behaviour from the formulation.

Some successful empirical correlations between rheological (viscous and viscoelastic) and technological standardized parameters, with the friction factor obtained from a ball‐disc tribometer, have been established in order to elucidate the role of the rheological behaviour of lubricating greases on the friction process. In addition to this, an energetic evaluation of the structural degradation of greases during the friction process has been carried out by performing stress‐growth experiments. Thus, the storage energy density, which is related to the grease capacity to accumulate energy in the elastic deformation, and the limiting energy density, which represents the dissipation of energy in the flow process, have been satisfactorily correlated with the friction factor.

The complex rheological behaviour of lubricating greases, the extreme deformations and the high‐shear stresses resulting in a tribological contact imply that it is difficult to develop a model to describe their behaviour in an elastohydrodynamic lubricating contact.

This paper provides a resource of practical data to be applied in tribological systems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the formulation of a solder paste (with regards to the flux and particle size distribution (PSD)), can influence its creep and recovery performance.

New lead‐free paste formulations were characterised utilising viscometry and oscillatory methods, after which creep/recovery investigations were conducted to determine the recovery performance. Measurements were recorded using a rheometer with a parallel plate geometry of 40 mm and a sample height of 1 mm.

Results from the study highlighted that the formulation of a solder paste can have a significant impact on the creep/recovery measurements. Variations in flux and PSD highlighted a considerable difference in the recoverability of the solder pastes, in one instance demonstrating more than a 20 per cent increase in structural recovery.

More extensive research is needed relating to reduced PSDs, such as type 6 and 7 solder pastes, to fully understand their influence on the creep/recovery performance.

The results presented in this paper emphasise important information and investigational methods for research and development, and quality control.

The paper highlights how the composition of new paste formulations can influence the creep/recovery behaviour. It was found that the recoverability can be increased by careful selection of the flux and PSD, which in turn could reduce slumping influences in the print process. If used as a quality control tool, this paper may allow for the reduction in print defect occurrence.

The purpose of this study is to test a flexible polymer with different characteristics compared to other classical polymers mostly used in the additive manufacturing process, and to improve its mechanical properties and microstructure, by modifying different printing parameters, to make it more suitable for various industrial applications.

Seven parameters were tested, namely, nozzle temperature, bed temperature, layer thickness, printing speed, flow rate, printing time gap between two successive printed layers and raster orientation. Rheological characterizations were conducted to evaluate the influence of nozzle temperature on the melt viscosity of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The effect of thermal printing parameters on the crystallinity behavior was explored. Tomographic characterizations were realized to measure the porosity and evaluate the internal structure quality of printed specimens.

Increases of the nozzle temperature, bed temperature, layer thickness and flow rate had a positive influence on the tensile strength properties of TPU with a reduction of porosity. Higher printing speeds created defects and negatively influenced the strength properties of TPU. An increase in the printing time gap between layers led to poor interlayer adhesion and decreased the tensile strength. Specimens with layers all oriented parallel to the loading direction exhibited superior mechanical properties compared to other raster orientations.

Thermoplastic elastomers are a unique class of polymers characterized by the combined thermal, chemical and mechanical properties of their elastomer and thermoplastic parts. TPU elastomer, as one of the elastomer families, has found an important position in the bioengineering and three-dimensional printing industry. This study reports a comprehensive study of the impact of additive manufacturing parameters on the properties of TPU.

This work aims to provide additional insights regarding the practicability of using conventional materials in the fused filament fabrication (FFF) process.

Two different acrylonitryle butadiene styrene (ABS) grades are studied and compared, aiming to check to what extent the regular ABS developed for conventional polymer processing, with a different rheology than the one provided for the FFF process, can also be used in this process (FFF).

The rheological results show that a general-purpose ABS (ABS-GP) melt is much more viscous and elastic than ABS-FFF. It is clear that using ABS-GP as feedstock material in the FFF process results in poor coalescence and adhesion between the extruded filaments, which has a detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of the printed specimens. Despite its lower performance, ABS-GP can be a good choice if the objective is to produce an aesthetical prototype. If the objective is to produce a functional prototype or a final part, its mechanical performance requirements will dictate the choice.

This work provides insightful information regarding the use of high viscosity materials on the 3D printing process.

The purpose of this paper is to study the integration between fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology and abrasive flow machining process to improve the surface quality of FDM printed parts. FDM process has some limitations in terms of accuracy and surface finish. Hence, post-processing operations are essential to increase the quality of the part.

Initially, a sustainable polymer abrasive gel-based media (SPAGM) using natural polymer and natural additives (waste vegetable oil) was prepared using different combinations of (abrasive mesh size, percentage of abrasives and percentage of liquid synthesizer); then the characterization of media was done to check various properties. As media is an essential part in the process which helps in increase the surface finish, it needs to have some desired characteristics such as the following: the developed SPAG needs to hold the abrasives; its viscosity has to be medium so that it can easily flow through the machine; and its thermal stability caused by the increase in the temperature during various cycles of operation. For that, it is characterized rheologically as well as thermally to find its various properties.

Experiments were performed on FDM-printed parts using an L9 orthogonal array with different parameters to find their effect on the workpiece. Scanning electron microscope images of SGAPM showed sharp edges of abrasive particles and bonding pattern between polymer chain molecules. Good surface finish and material removal rate (MRR) was observed at high pressure and long finishing time with 50 per cent abrasive concentration.

The authors confirm that this work is original and has neither been published elsewhere nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to find a new method to reinforce high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with polyacrylonitrile fibers (PAN). Furthermore, the crystallinity, viscoelasticity and thermal properties of HDPE composites have also been investigated and compared.

For effective reinforcing, samples with different content fillers were prepared. HDPE composites were prepared by melt blending with double-screw extruder prior to cutting into particles and the samples for testing were made using an injection molding machine.

With the addition of 9 Wt.% PAN fibers, it was found that the tensile strength and flexural modulus got the maximum value in all HDPE composites and increased by 1.2 times than pure HDPE. The shore hardness, storage modulus and vicat softening point of the composites improved continuously with the increase in the proportion of the fibers. The thermal stability and processability of composites did not change rapidly with the addition of PAN fibers. The degree of crystallinity increased with the addition of PAN fibers. In general, the composites achieve the best comprehensive mechanical properties with the fiber content of 9 Wt.%.

The fibers improve the strength of the polyethylene and enhance its ability to resist deformation.

The modified HDPE by PAN fibers in this study have high tensile strength and resistance to deformation and can be used as an efficient material in engineering, packaging and automotive applications.

Fabrication settings such as printing speed and nozzle temperature in fused deposition modeling undeniably influence the quality and strength of fabricated parts. As available market filaments do not contain any exact information report for printing settings, manufacturers are incapable of achieving desirable predefined print accuracy and mechanical properties for the final parts. The purpose of this study is to determine the importance of selecting suitable print parameters by understanding the intrinsic behavior of the material to achieve high-performance parts.

Two common commercial polylactic acid filaments were selected as the investigated samples. To study the specimens’ printing quality, an appropriate scaffold geometry as a delicate printing sample was printed according to a variety of speeds and nozzle temperatures, selected in the filament manufacturer’s proposed temperature range. Dimensional accuracy and qualitative surface roughness of the specimens made by one of the filaments were evaluated and the best processing parameters were selected. The scaffolds were fabricated again by both filaments according to the selected proper processing parameters. Material characterization tests were accomplished to study the reason for different filament behaviors in the printing process. Moreover, the correlations between the polymer structure, thermo-rheological behavior and printing parameters were denoted.

Compression tests revealed that precise printing of the characterized filament results in more accurate structure and subsequent improvement of the final printed sample elastic modulus.

The importance of material characterization to achieve desired properties for any purpose was emphasized. Obtained results from the rheological characterizations would help other users to benefit from the highest performance of their specific filament.

The purpose of this paper is to study the rheological behaviours of lead‐free solder pastes used for flip‐chip assembly applications and to correlate rheological behaviours with the printing performance.

A range of rheological characterization techniques including viscosity, yield stress, oscillatory and creep‐recovery tests were carried out to investigate the rheological properties and behaviours of four different solder paste formulations based on no‐clean flux composition, with different alloy composition, metal content and particle size. A series of printing tests were also conducted to correlate printing performance.

The results show that in the viscosity test, all solder pastes exhibited a shear thinning behaviour in nature with different highest maximum viscosity. The yield stress test has been used to study the effect of temperature on the flow behaviour of solder pastes. A decrease in yield stress value with temperature was observed. The results from the oscillatory test were used to study the solid‐ and liquid‐like behaviours of solder pastes. Creep‐recovery testing showed that the solder paste with smaller particle size exhibited less recovery.

More extensive research is needed to simulate the paste‐roll, aperture‐filling and aperture‐emptying stages of the stencil printing process using rheological test methods.

Implementation of these rheological characterization procedures in product development, process optimization and quality control can contribute significantly to reducing defects in the assembly of flip‐chip devices and subsequently increasing the production yield.

The paper shows how the viscosity, yield stress, oscillatory and creep‐recovery test methods can be successfully used to characterize the flow behaviour of solder pastes and also to predict their performance during the stencil printing process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a quality control tool based on rheological test methods for solder paste and flux media.

The rheological characterisation of solder pastes and flux media was carried out through the creep‐recovery, thixotropy and viscosity test methods. A rheometer with a parallel plate measuring geometry of 40 mm diameter and a gap height of 1 mm was used to characterise the paste and associated flux media.

The results from the study showed that the creep‐recovery test can be used to study the deformation and recovery of the pastes, which can be used to understand the slump behaviour in solder pastes. In addition, the results from the thixotropic and viscosity test were unsuccessful in determining the differences in the rheological flow behaviour in the solder pastes and the flux medium samples.

More extensive rheological and printing testing is needed in order to correlate the findings from this study with the printing performance of the pastes.

The rheological test method presented in the paper will provide important information for research and development, quality control and production staff to facilitate the manufacture of solder pastes and flux media.

The paper explains how the rheological test can be used as a quality control tool to identify the suitability of a developmental solder paste and flux media used for the printing process.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rheological behaviour of three different lead‐free solder pastes used for surface mount applications in the electronic industry.

This study concerns the rheological measurements of solder paste samples and is made up of three parts. The first part deals with the measurement of rhelogical properties with three different measuring geometries, the second part looks into the effect of frequencies on oscillatory stress sweep measurements and the final part reports on the characterisation and comparison of three different types of Pb‐free solder pastes.

Among the three geometries, the serrated parallel plate was found effective in minimising the wall‐slip effect. From the oscillatory stress‐sweep data with different frequencies; it was observed that the linear visco‐elastic region is independent of frequency for all the solder paste samples. To understand the shear thinning behaviour of solder paste, the well known Cross and Carreau models were fitted to the viscosity data. Moreover, creep‐recovery and dynamic frequency‐sweep tests were also carried out without destroying the sample's structure and have yielded useful information on the pastes behaviour.

More extensive research is needed to fully characterise the wall‐slip behaviour during the rheological measurements of solder pastes.

The rheological test results presented in this paper will be of important value for research and development, quality control and facilitation of the manufacturing of solder pastes and flux mediums.

This paper shows how wall‐slip effects can be effectively avoided during rheological measurements of solder pastes. The paper also outlines how different rheological test methods can be used to characterise solder paste behaviours.