O'Connor, Heather

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O'Connor, Heather
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O'Connor, Heather

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  • Publication
    Low‐pressure additive manufacturing of continuous fiber‐reinforced polymer composites
    (Wiley, 2019-11)
    O'Connor, Heather 
    ;
    Dowling, Denis P. 
    Continuous fibre reinforced polymer composites have found a wide range of applications in the automotive and aerospace industry, due to their lightweight properties. Recently the use of additive manufacturing (AM) has been developed for the fabrication of these composites. This study investigates the use of both atmospheric and for the first time, low-pressure (1 Pa) processing conditions, for the AM of continuous carbon, glass and Kevlar fibre reinforced nylon composites. DSC was used to compare the thermal properties of the three types of fibre reinforced filament, prior to printing. It was found that the melting peak was dependent on filament type, which can be related to the polymer processing conditions used during their fabrication. Based on computed tomography measurements, it was found that the use of low-pressure printing conditions yielded a reduction in porosity for the carbon, glass and Kevlar printed composites of 5.7, 1.0 and 1.7 % respectively. The mechanical properties of the composites were compared, using a short beam shear test, which assisted in the measurement of interlaminar properties. An increase in interlaminar shear strength of 33, 22 and 12% was obtained for the carbon, glass and Kevlar fibre reinforced polymer composites respectively, when printed under low-pressure, compared with that obtained at atmospheric pressure.
      574Scopus© Citations 59
  • Publication
    3D printing of PEEK reactors for flow chemistry and continuous chemical processing
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020-04)
    Harding, Matthew J. 
    ;
    Brady, Sarah 
    ;
    O'Connor, Heather 
    ;
    Lopez-Rodriguez, Rafael 
    ;
    Edwards, Matthew D. 
    ;
    Tracy, Saoirse 
    ;
    Dowling, Denis P. 
    ;
    Ferguson, Steven 
    ;
    et al. 
    Chemically resistant parts for flow chemistry, with integrated mixing elements have been produced using the 3D printing process of fused filament fabrication, from poly(etheretherketone). Poly(etheretherketone) has greater chemical resistance than common fused filament fabrication materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polypropylene, or even high-performance plastics like poly(etherimide), in addition to having superior thermal resistance and excellent mechanical strength. Printed reactors were demonstrated to be suitable for liquid–liquid extraction and flow chemistry and to be capable of withstanding pressures of at least 30 bar allowing superheated solvents to be used. Burst tests in simple geometries of 20 minute duration have indicated that increased operating pressures of up to 60 bar could be accommodated in future reactor designs. The ability to use fused filament fabrication for these reactors allows highly customisable, cost effective flow reactors and equipment to be fabricated on relatively inexpensive benchtop scale printers. X-ray microcomputed tomography was utilised to non-invasively image and verify the internal structure of the prints to ensure fidelity in reactor fabrication. This non-invasive method of equipment validation shows potential in helping to demonstrate regulatory compliance for bespoke additively manufactured components, for example in continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing where the methods and printer used in this work should be sufficient to produce, (continuous) manufacturing scale equipment.
      602Scopus© Citations 38