Department of Materials

Frequency: Once per Year

Duration: One Week

Date of next course:  Spring 2014 TBA

Venue: Loughborough University, Keith Green Building and S Building

Cost: £1280 (£1180 for IOM3 and BPF members)

Accommodation:  Not included.

Recommended convenient hotels: Burleigh Court or The Link

Other Information:
Lunches for short course delegates are included, however short course delegates study alongside full-time MSc students and need to organise their own light refreshments outside of lunchtime.

Description

An intensive course taught over a one-week period comprising lectures, practicals, case studies, tutorials and complete with an up to date, comprehensive course book and all supporting lecture notes.
This course is specifically designed for people in the plastics processing or supply sectors who need a broad and deep understanding of polymer processing and selected physical properties. The course will develop understanding of the relationship between structure, properties and processing methods. Also how control of parameters in processing methods can be controlled to optimise performance.

For further information:

Administrative:
Martin White
Telephone: (0) 1509 228592
Email: m.e.white@lboro.ac.uk

Technical:
Barry Haworth
Telephone: (0) 1509 223336
Email: b.haworth@lboro.ac.uk

This event has been recognised by the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining for PD.

‘Professional development is the systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill, and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional, managerial and technical duties throughout the practitioner’s working life.’

Disclaimer - Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the details of this course are accurate, Loughborough University Department of Materials reserves the right to alter the course content and/or lecturers if the need should arise.

This course is ideal if you are working in an industrial role with plastics, their processing and formulation or the supply and development of fillers and additives to the plastics industry. The course provides a broad understanding of plastics properties and processing methods and how these are related. It will also develop your practical skills, through the use of industrial and lab scale equipment to perform experimental investigations.

The course covers a wide range of processing technologies, including, Extrusion, Injection Moulding, Blow Moulding, Thermoforming and Rotational Moulding. The physical properties of items manufactured by these methods are examined and related to physical conditions during processing and suitability for different end uses.

In this way you and your company will benefit from being able to:

• Discuss operating principles and process conditions for plastics processing methods
• Explain the importance and relevance of flow, mechanical, barrier, and optical properties, and surface technology
• Perform experimental investigations using industry scale plastics processing equipment
• Perform experimental investigations using appropriate analytical, testing or simulation equipment for plastic materials
• Appreciate and use computer simulation software for plastics process design
• Analyse, evaluate and interpret (with reference to theoretical concepts) practical data to produce a detailed technical report including a summary and conclusions
• Evaluate manufacturing processes for a range of plastics products
• Identify some interactions between process conditions, microstructure and physical properties of plastics components
• Work effectively as part of a small team in a polymer processing environment

The frequent practical sessions, working with industrial scale pilot plant and testing equipment, are designed to complement the lecture content and develop understanding of the relationship between plastics properties and processing behaviour.

Throughout the week you will have ample opportunity to clarify these issues and your specific interests in one-to-one free-time discussions with the lecturers. Our main aim is to give you the knowledge, understanding and confidence that you need to develop your role within your company.

Day 1

• Thermal Properties of Plastics
• Flow Properties of Plastics
• Barrier Properties
• Blow Moulding 1
• Labs: Physical Properties of Plastics

Day 2

• Surface Properties of Plastics
• Optical Properties of Plastics
• Nano/Bio Materials
• Mechanical Properties of Plastics
• Labs: Processing of Plastics 1

Day 3

• Injection Moulding
• Optimising the Injection Moulding Process – Moldflow CAD/CAE Technology
• Structural Effects of Processing
• Blow Moulding 2
• Industrial Processes

Day 4

• Extrusion Processes
• Process Modelling – Rheology – Extrusion
• Vacuum Forming
• Labs: Processing of Plastics 2

Day 5

• Tutorial Session
• Thermoset Materials
• Thermoset and Composites Processing
• Polymer Composites

Note: Course information subject to change due to unavoidable circumstances

The lecturers are Loughborough University and Industry based. In this way we ensure that the key elements relevant to industry are brought out and developed.

Barry Haworth – Course Leader–Senior Lecturer in Polymer Processing in The Department of Materials. Specialising in the rheology and processing of polymer materials having previously worked in the polymer processing industry.

Jane Clarke – Research Fellow in The Department of Materials, with particular interest in relationships between mixing, processing, microstructure and properties of rubber compounds and thermoplastic elastomers.

John Comyn –Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Materials at Loughborough University, having previously taught Polymer Chemistry at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) for 22 years.

Dick Heath – Senior Lecturer in Polymer Technology in The Department of Materials, with a long term interest in the environment and materials recycling, reactive polymer processing (PU’s, Thermasols, Composites) and Surface Technology.

Dave Hitt – Research Fellow in IPTME and Manager of the Polymer Processing Laboratory. Main area of expertise is in the characterisation and mechanical testing of PVC.

Simon Martin – Lecturer in Polymer Science in The Department of Materials, with a particular interest in polymer thin films and interfaces, semiconducting polymer devices and biomimetic polymer systems.

Mo Song – Professor of Polymer Science in The Department of Materials, with particular interests in polymer composites and nanocomposite systems, conductive polymer materials, carbon nanotubes and thermal analysis of polymers.

In addition we are delighted to have a number of presenters from industry including:

Don Fleming – Proprietor of Fleming Polymer Testing and Consultancy with over 20 years experience of rheology and process modelling in the polymer industry.

Eric Henry – Technical Specialist in the use of Moldflow computer modelling software for optimising the injection moulding process.