dime newsletter - 2014

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2014

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Faculty of Engineering

A message from the editor….

Welcome to the 16th edition of the

department’s annual newsletter. For the

second consecutive year I was entrusted

with the compilation of this publication and

I must say that with pleasure we are

presenting a 12-pager packed with news

about the academic, research and

development activities which were held

over the past twelve months.

This year’s edition includes a feature article focusing on the main

six laboratories which house the majority of the research and

practical teaching activities which are held by the department.

Another feature gives an update on the R&I project which is

currently being coordinated by the DIME. The industrial firms

which have collaborated with the department are mentioned in a

short article showing the effort of the staff members to

collaborate with industry in their research and academic projects.

The news section highlights the industrial tour which was

organised for our undergraduate and postgraduate students in

Germany and the departmental research seminar which was held

at Mount St Joseph last February. As one flips through the pages,

one cannot but notice the continuous effort of the academic

members of staff to collaborate with departments either from our

university or from foreign institutions and publish the research

findings in journals and international conferences.

The newsletter concludes with an article about the research

carried out by a number of postgraduate students. Any students

interested in pursuing their studies are invited to approach any

academic member of staff to discuss the possibilities.

I hope that you find this newsletter interesting and finally I would

like to wish all the graduates success in their engineering career!

Message from the Head of Department

I would like to join my colleague and

editor Ing. Paul Refalo, in welcoming you

to this latest edition of our newsletter. As

you will see, DIME has continued to take

a very active leadership role in teaching

and researching topics falling under the

wide area of industrial and manufacturing

engineering, and strives to remain at the

cutting edge of the state of the art.

At the undergraduate level, DIME provides study-units in a wide

range of topics covering areas such as basic and advanced

manufacturing processes and systems; engineering drawing;

engineering design; computer integrated manufacturing;

metrology; polymer and composites manufacturing; tool design

and manufacture; mechatronics; robotics; automation; artificial

intelligence; quality and reliability engineering; maintenance

management; and sustainable manufacturing. Many of these

topics are also taught at a more advanced level in the MSc in

Integrated Product Development, spearheaded by DIME in

collaboration with other departments including the Department

of Management of the Faculty of Economics, Management and

Accountancy.

DIME also offers opportunities for M.Sc. by Research and Ph.D.

studies, where students can work alongside our academic staff

in exciting research projects in areas such as design; integrated

product development; polymer manufacturing; additive

manufacturing; robotics; industrial automation; among others.

This newsletter provides a glimpse of the current activities of

our staff, our labs, and our students, as well as of our

collaborations with other institutions and with industry. I invite

you to contact me or any of the DIME staff for further details on

opportunities for study, research, collaboration, or industrial

services within our department.

Editor: Ing. Paul Refalo

Editing & Printing: Ms Sharlene Cachia

Published by:

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,

Faculty of Engineering, University of Malta, Msida MSD2080.

Tel : +356 2340 2061 Direct: +356 2134 6761

web: www.um.edu.mt/eng/ime Fax: +356 2134 3577

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/IndManufEngineering

Issue No. 16 July 2014

Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba Head of Department

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS ISSUE:

DIME Staff Page 2

DIME News 3

Research and Training Visits 4

Publications 6

Participation in Conferences 7

Feature Article: DIME Labs 8

EX-MMIM / Collaboration with Industry 10

Post Graduate Research 11

Students Supervised @ DIME 12

Ing. Paul Refalo Editor

2 Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2014

Ing. John Paul Borg Systems Engineer

Mr Michael Attard Assistant Laboratory Manager

Mr Michael Curmi Senior Laboratory Officer

Mr Jesmond Pace Senior Laboratory Officer

Mr Joseph Curmi Senior Laboratory Officer

Mr Josef Attard Senior Laboratory Officer

Mr Josef Briffa Laboratory Officer

Ms Sharlene Cachia Administrative Assistant

Ms Therese Caruana Clerk

Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba Head of Department, Associate Professor Robotics, Industrial Automation

Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg Associate Professor (On Sabbatical in Industry till Sep’14) Design of Products & Technical Systems, Integrated Product Development, Innovation, DFX, Intelligent CADCAM

Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia Senior Lecturer Innovative Product Development, Collaborative Design, Additive Manufacturing, Injection Moulding

Dr Arif Rochman Lecturer Tool Design and Manufacturing, Polymer Processes, Micromoulding, Simulation of Polymer Processing, Rapid Tooling, Additive Manufacturing

Ing. Pierre Vella Assistant Lecturer Design of microscale products, manufacturing processes for microscale products

Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza Assistant Lecturer Factory Planning, Digital Factory Tools, Simulation of Manufacturing Systems

Ing. Paul Refalo Assistant Lecturer Sustainable Manufacturing, Clean Production, Energy and Water Management in Manufacturing

Dr Ing. Conrad Pace Visiting Senior Lecturer Autonomous Mobile Robotic Systems, Advanced Actuator and Sensory technology

Ing. Francis E. Farrugia Visiting Senior Lecturer Metrology, Quality

Ing. Amanda Azzopardi Visiting Assistant Lecturer Computer Aided Engineering Design, Artificial Intelligence in Engineering

DIME Staff

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2014 3

During 2013-14 Prof. Dr Ing. Michael A. Saliba was appointed to the Scientific Committee of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM). He also served as an evaluator for the Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, and for the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering.

Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia presented the paper titled 'A Training Strategy for Managing Distributed Conceptual Design Work' at the 19th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED13) held in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2013. The paper received the reviewers' favourite award, meaning that it was rated in the top 10% papers out of over 340 papers which were accepted for publication in the ICED13 proceedings. The paper has been authored together with Prof. Ing. Jonathan Borg from the University of Malta and Dr Andrew Wodehouse and Dr Hilary Grierson from the University of Strathclyde in UK. This paper reviews how sketching can support distributed design teams in the early phases of concept design.

In September 2013, a group of mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and M.Sc. in Integrated Product Development (IPD) students went for an industrial study tour in Munich, Germany. The group of twenty students was led by Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia and Dr Arif Rochman. Students had the opportunity to visit the manufacturing line of the BMW 3 series model, the manufacturing of helicopters at Eurocopter and the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. The students also visited the

Deutsches Museum, the world's largest museum of science and technology and the Allienz Arena.

Dr Ing. Farrugia and Prof. Gabriela Goldschmidt, who chaired the session 'innovating design education' and who presented him with the award.

Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia was appointed as a Senior Lecturer at DIME, as from September 2013. He was also appointed as a member of the Scientific Committee of a number of International Conferences including: the International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research (KEER2014), the 16th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (EDPE14), the ASME 2014 International Design and Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference.

A team-building activity for all the academics, researchers, industrial and administrative members of staff was held in December 2013.

DIME News

Prof. Dr Ing. Jonathan C. Borg was re-appointed by the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry to sit on its RTDI Committee. In this capacity, Prof. Borg was instrumental to put forward a number of research initiatives that help foster collaboration between industry and academia, some of which were discussed by the committee in meetings it had with Parliamentary Secretary Hon. Dr Stefan Buontempo.

Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan Borg has in the last twelve months been appointed in the Scientific Committee of a number of International Conferences including: the 19th International Conference on Engineering Design held in Seoul, Korea; the 8th International Conference on Digital Enterprise Technology held in Stuttgart, Germany; The ASME 2014 International Design and Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference being held in Buffalo, NY/USA; International Conference on Research into Design being held in Bangalore, India (2015) and The Integrated Design and Manufacturing in Mechanical Engineering Conference being held in Toulouse, France (June 14).


On the 19th of February 2014, the Department together with the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) UK Malta Branch, held a public lecture by Dr Ing Sebastian Horbach on “Industry 4.0 and Cyber Physical Systems”. Dr Ing Horbach introduced the topic by defining the terms relevant to this new industrial revolution, highlighting the technologies and challenges involved and then presented a number of interesting projects in the area of Industry 4.0. Dr Ing Horbach works as a researcher at Chemnitz University of Technology, in the Department of Factory Planning and Factory Management under the chair of Prof Egon Müller. Following the presentation participants networked over refreshments sponsored by the IED.

The academic members of the DIME held a half-day off-campus departmental meeting at Mount St Joseph in February 2014. The afternoon was dedicated to a research seminar where the academics and the postgraduate researchers gave an overview of their ongoing research.

Prof. Dr Ing Jonathan C. Borg set up together with Prof. Dr Ing. Sandor Vajna of Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany, a two-week PhD Summer School on Integrated Product Development. The Summer School, one spin-off from the sabbatical period of Prof. Borg, is aimed at researchers interested in both understanding and researching the various interrelations between design, manufacturing and business issues, as well as other complex aspects involved in the life cycle of products/services. The first session of this Summer School was hosted in Malta by Prof. Borg early in May. Twelve participants from nine countries attended this Malta session, including PhD candidates from Daimler AG and PSA Peugeot Citroën. During the Malta session, the participants had the opportunity to be exposed to research work taking place in the Concurrent Engineering Research Unit (CERU) and to lectures related to the scientific principles of an IPD approach. The second session of the 2014 IPD Summer School will now take place in Magdeburg in September.

DIME News


In December 2013, Prof. Dr Ing. Jonathan Borg hosted a two day meeting in Malta with researchers from Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France), University of Bergamo (Italy), the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and Fraunhofer IAO (Germany). During this meeting, also joined by video conference with researchers from the University of Strathclyde (UK) and Politechnico di Milano (Italy), the participants explored common research interests related to concurrent product development to help identify joint collaborative project opportunities.

Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia visited the Munich University of Applied Sciences in Germany, between the 12th and 16th May 2014. He met Prof. P. Leibl to discuss future research avenues between the two institutions, and delivered a course related to tool design and manufacture to international students.

During the last several months, Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan Borg paid a number of research visits both in other aca-demic institutes as well as to industrial entities. These included a visit to Otto-von-Guericke University, Magde-burg (Germany), Colleg Cambria in Wrexham (Wales) and The School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic.

Research and Training Visits

Four members of the DIME support staff (Ing. John Borg, Michael Attard, Joseph Curmi and Jesmond Pace) visited the City University London as part of an Erasmus exchange. This exchange was very fruitful as it allowed the staff to explore a very similar organisation of a mechanical workshop of a university in the UK. The workshop of City University London is split in two areas: one for the technicians and one for the students. In the students’ workshop, students have practical machining sessions. These sessions cover the use of manual lathe, manual milling, drilling, tapping, measurement including vernier and micrometer, CNC CADCAM software and 3D printing. This area includes four new manual lathes – model “Colchester student”, Bridgeport manual milling, material cutting equipment, drilling, ample bench spaces and HAAS CNC mini mill – using CADCAM software. The second workshop area is accessible only by the workshop staff and is used for the student’s projects as well. It houses another two CNC milling machines, a CNC lathe and a 4th axis option, all from HAAS and can be used on any of the machines.


Publications

Farrugia L., Borg, J. C., “A Module Interface Concept Evaluation Approach Promoting the Concilience of Design Science, Practice and Emotion”. In Proceedings of the International Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research 2013 held in Tokyo, Japan, 26-30th August 2013. Borg, J. C., & Farrugia, L. (2014). “Life-Cycle Interactions for Modelling Human Emotions”. In Design and Emotion Confer-ence, Bogota ,Colombia (2014).

Farrugia P., Camilleri K.P. and Borg J.C. , “A Language for Representing & Extracting 3D Geometry Semantics from Paper-based Sketches”, Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 2014, (in press). Wodehouse A., Farrugia P., Grierson H. and Borg J.C. , “A Training Strategy for Managing Distributed Conceptual Design Work” in Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED13) held in Seoul, South Korea, August 2013. Farrugia P., Pollacco K. and Borg J.C. “Exploiting Logarithmic Aesthetic Curves for Proactively Providing Design for Emotions Guidance” in Proceedings of the International Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research 2013 held in Tokyo, Japan, August 2013. Fenech G. and Farrugia P. “An integrated Product Development Model for Aircraft Dispensing Machines”, in Proceedings of the Design 2014 conference held in Cavtat, Croatia, May 2014.

Francalanza, E., Borg, J.C., Constantinescu, C., "An Approach Framework Supporting Manufacturing System Design for a Range of Products" in Enabling Manufacturing Competitiveness and Economic Sustainability, ed. M.F. Zaeh, Springer International Publishing, pp. 61. Munich, Germany, Sep 2013 Carmen, C., Davide, M., Désirée, D., Emmanuel, F., Martin, B., "Modeling of System Knowledge for Efficient Agile Manufacturing: Tool evaluation, selection and implementation scenario in SMEs",Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Digital Enterprise Technology - CIRP DET 2014, Stuttgart, Germany, 26th-28th March 2014. Constantinescu, C.,L., Francalanza, E., Matarazzo, D., Balkan, O., "Information Support and interactive planning in the Digital Factory: Approach and industry-driven evaluation", Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Digital Enterprise Technology - CIRP DET 2014, Stuttgart, Germany, 26th-28th March 2014. Francalanza, E., Borg, J.C. & Constantinescu, C.L. 2014, "Deriving a systematic approach to changeable manufacturing system design", Proceedings of 47th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems Elsevier CIRP Procedia, Windsor, Canada, 28th-30th May 2014. Constantinescu, C.L., Francalanza, E., Matarazzo, D., "Towards knowledge capturing and innovative human-system interface in an open-source factory modelling and simulation environment",Proceedings of the 9th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering, Elsevier CIRP Procedia, Naples, Italy, 30th June - 1st August 2014.

Refalo P., Zammit M., ‘Water Management in Sustainable Manufacturing’, Proceedings of the 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing - Innovative Solutions, Berlin, Germany, 2013. Refalo, P., Ghirlando, R., Abela, S., "The Effect of Climatic Parameters on the Heat Transfer Mechanisms in a Solar Distillation Still," Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol. 35, pp. 1473-1481, 2014. Refalo, P., Abela, S., Ghirlando, R., ‘Distillation Unit’, UK Patent Application No: GB1315655.9, Sep 2013. Borg A.K., Rochman A., Design, Manufacture and Testing of Titanium EBM Insert for Injection Molding, International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping (VRAP), Leiria, Portugal, October, 2013.

Saliba, M. A. and Ellul, C. “Dexterous actuation”, Mechanism and Machine Theory, Vol. 70 (2013), 45-61.

Vella P.C. , Dimov S. S. , Whiteside B. R., Brousseau E., Tuinea-Bobe, C. L., Gant C., Minev E., Petkov P. “Validation of a New Process Chain for Producing Bulk Metallic Glass Replication Masters with Micro and Nano-scale Features”, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Multi-Material Micro Manufacture held in San Sebastian, Spain, October 2013.


In October 2013, Ing. Emmanuel

Francalanza attended CARV 2013 – 5th

International Conference on Changeable,

Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual

Production. The conference was held in

Munich with the theme "Enabling

Manufacturing Competitiveness and Eco-

nomic Sustainability". He also had the

opportunity to visit the learning factory of

the Institute for Machine Tools and

Industrial Management (iwb) at the

Technische Universität München.

Prof. Jonathan C. Borg attended the International Congress of the International Association of

Societies of Design Research 2013 held in Tokyo, Japan during 26-30th August 2013. During

this event, Prof Borg presented two papers: one entitled “A Module Interface Concept

Evaluation Approach Promoting the Concilience of Design Science, Practice and Emotion”

co-authored with Lawrence Farrugia and another one entitled “Exploiting Logarithmic

Aesthetic Curves for Proactively Providing Design for Emotions Guidance” co-authored with

Dr.Ing. Philip Farrugia.

In August 2013, Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia attended the 19th International Conference on

Engineering Design (ICED13) held in Seoul, South Korea. He presented the paper titled'A

Training Strategy for Managing Distributed Conceptual Design Work'. The paper was

presented in the session on innovating design education. The paper received the reviewers'

favourite award.

Between the 28th and 30th of April 2014, Ing

Emmanuel Francalanza travelled to Windsor,

Canada for the 47th CIRP Conference on

Manufacturing Systems. This conference was very

well attended with over 200 participants from 21

different countries. The conference was hosted in

the newly inaugurated Ed Lumley Centre for

Engineering Innovation (CEI). The theme of the

conference was “Variety Management in Manufac-

turing” and Ing Francalanza presented his PhD

research work on deriving a systematic approach to

changeable manufacturing system design.

Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza attended the CIRP 8th International Conference on Digital Enterprise

Technology (DET2014), which was held in Stuttgart, Germany between 26th and 28th of March 2014.

During this conference Ing. Francalanza had the opportunity to visit the Fraunhofer IAO Centre for

Virtual Engineering (ZVE), the Mercedes

Museum and the Wittenstein Advanced Manufacturing Plant for gear

production.

In December 2013, Prof. Jonathan C. Borg attended the DesignEd Asia

Conference as part of the Business of Design Week (BODW2013) held in Hong

Kong. During this visit, Prof. Borg also held meetings with Prof. Ming Xi Tang at

the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design to discuss how to foster

collaboration between the two institutions on product design and development.

Participation in Conferences


Concurrent Engineering Research Unit

It is well known that product design influences several product life-cycle issues including manufacturing, user-functionality and disposal. For this reason, the Concurrent Engineering Research Unit (CERU) has been set up several years ago to carry out research on the impact design has on various life-cycle aspects. This goal is reflected in CERU’s mission which is: "Searching for and applying concurrent engineering principles to develop innovative products, manufacturing systems, tools and methods that provide a competitive edge to industry." Thus, research taking place in CERU has touched upon a spectrum of topics as archived in www.eng.um.edu.mt/~dmeu/ceru/. CERU has over the years attracted external research funding such as that related to the development of a Novel Laparoscopic Surgery Tool (http://www.eng.um.edu.mt/~dmeu/idelap/) and that related to Amplifying Innovation in Manufacturing (http://univmalta.wix.com/innov) both of which included industrial partners. CERU work has been influential in contributing to the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector in Malta through activities of the Manufacturing Research Platform (http://manufacturingresearch.eu/). A typical project being currently carried out is An Emotion-Oriented approach to Integrated Product Development, aimed at developing a design means to aid designers in the development of products which elicit positive emotions. Due to its research work being published in international scientific journals and conferences, CERU has attracted a number of internships

from France, UK, and Germany.

Robotics and Industrial Automation Laboratory The mission of the Robotics and Industrial Automation Laboratory (RIAL) is to be a Centre of Excellence in Malta for research, development, teaching and outreach in the broad areas of Robotics and of Industrial Automation, as well as to make contributions to the international community in niche areas of Robotics and of Manufacturing Automation. The lab facilities include two state of the art industrial robots, six programmable logic controllers (PLCs), two machine vision systems, as well as various sundry equipment, components and tools related to robotics and to automation. These facilities help provide laboratory support to the Robotics, Industrial Automation, and Mechatronics study-units that are offered by the department at both the undergradu-ate and postgraduate levels.

Over the years the research in the lab has focused on reconfigurable automation (i.e. automation systems that can be reconfigured to handle product variety); on issues pertaining to the development of versatile / dexterous robotic grippers and hands; and on general industrial automation collaborations and applications in the local manufacturing industry. Recent work includes the development and evaluation of a new artificial endo-skeletal hand with ten joints (Figure 1), the development of a prototype tactile sensor, studies in manual dexterity and actuation dexterity, and industrial collaborative projects with Abertax, Baxter, Cheops, Methode, Prominent, and Toly (Figure 2). Research results are regularly published in international journals and conferences.

Metrology Lab The DIME also houses a Metrology Lab which is essential for education and research efforts as well as for industrial services in precision engineering. The metrology lab is well equipped with a wide variety of traditional dimensional measurement instruments such as vernier caliper and internal/external micrometer as well as optical measurement instruments such as autocollimator and engineering microscope, and supported with different type of gauges such as slip, plug and dial gauges. In addition, it also includes advanced measurement instruments, for instance computer controlled coordinate measuring machine (CMM), surface tester, gear and roundness tester and laser interferometer.

Feature Article: DIME Labs


Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Lab The DIME labs also include a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) lab. This lab is used to hold lab sessions on this subject and also to machine parts required for students’ projects and from other requestors at university. In this lab, copper electrodes required for the die sinking machine are also machined. The lab facilities include two vertical milling machines: Bridgeport Series 1 Interact with a Heidenhain TNC 145 controller (2.5 axis) and a Cincinnati Arrow 500 vertical machining centre with Siemens Acramatic 2100 controller (3 axis). There is also a high speed attachment that can provide a spindle speed of 25000 rpm. Such speeds are required to provide optimum cutting conditions when using small cutters.

Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) Lab CAD/CAM technologies have nowadays become an integral part of product development. This is especially true given the increasing competition in industry and the diminishing time-to-market of a product. In the CAD/CAM Systems lab at the DIME, knowledge transfer activities are carried out to equip undergraduate and postgraduate students with skills required to design, simulate and build physical prototypes of product and factory designs. In the CAD/CAM lab manufacturing engineering students are given practical and hands-on instruction of simulation tools for injection moulding processes, factory layout and human ergonomics. Research activities are also conducted at the CAD/CAM Systems lab. These include customisation of CAD packages, development of Knowledge Intensive CAD support, proof-of-concept computer-aided sketching tools, and intelligent computer-based tools supporting factory design and simulation. The CAD/CAM systems lab is also frequently used to carry part-time short evening courses, in various areas of product development such as 2D and 3D CAD modelling and Rapid Prototyping.

Advanced Manufacturing Lab The Advanced Manufacturing Lab at the DIME can be divided in three sections: - Rapid Prototyping or Additive Manufacturing Lab equipped with a plastic 3D printer (fused

deposition modelling - FDM) and Titanium 3D printer (electron beam melting - EBM) - Micro Machining Lab equipped with micro electro discharge machining (µEDM) - Polymer Processing Lab equipped with a multi-functional thermoforming machine and

micro injection moulding machine with a second vertical injection unit for manufacturing 2-component microparts.

This lab is used to provide our under and postgraduate students with comprehensive knowledge and experience in advanced manufacturing technology and also to offer services to local industry. A number of student and industrial projects have been conducted such as rapid manufacturing of product prototypes, architectural models, wind turbine blades, medical implants and injection moulding tools as well as micromoulding of 2-component microparts.

The work carried out at the abovementioned labs is only possible thanks to the dedication of the academic and technical members of staff, as well as of the students.

DIME Labs


The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering is coordinating a project financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology through the National Research & Innovation Programme 2012. This 142kEur project, entitled “Exploiting Multi-Material Micro Injection Moulding for Enhancing Manufacturing Competitiveness” (EX-MMIM) (project reference number R&I-2012-002) started in November 2012. The research team is currently composed of Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia, Dr Arif Rochman, Ing. Pierre Vella and Mr. Christian Camilleri. The industrial partners are Tek-Moulds Precision Engineering Ltd, Techniplast Ltd and Playmobil Malta Ltd.

The demand for micro-products or products with micro features has been rapidly increasing. Examples of such products include micro hearing aid devices, microfluidic devices for biomedical applications and micro lenses for endoscope applications. The trend towards product miniaturization has brought with it a number of challenges. In particular, designers tend to develop new products, whose components, collectively integrate a variety of functions, thus broadening the products’ application areas without increasing significantly their weight or

overall size. A recurring issue in the fabrication of such multi-functional (material) parts is the cost and complexity of micro assembly. One way to tackle such an issue is to reduce or eliminate micro material handling and manipulation by increasing the integration be-tween a part’s constituent materials using one high value adding manufacturing process.

The overall goal of the EX-MMIM project is therefore to create and share new knowledge on the design and manufacture of multi-material micro components fabricated by micro injection moulding.

A number of key deliverables were accomplished so far. These include the design of a case study part consisting of a micro lens and housing for endoscope applications. This micro assembly is made up of two materials and is fabricated using the same injection moulding tool. Another important milestone reached was the design and manufacture of the two-material injection mould tool, shown here.

A research paper was also submitted and accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 19th Design for Manufacturing and Life Cycle Conference, which is going to be held in Buffalo, US in August 2014. This paper focuses on analysis of the heat transfer between the second shot (housing)) and the first shot (lens). This is a primary area of concern as if the optical component is deflected due to softening it will lose its required geometry. The simulation results indicated that the heat transfer of the second material shall not interfere with the functionality of the optical component. The research team would like to thank all the DIME technical support staff members who provided their support in setting up the machine and the mould.

Further details on this research project are available at: www.exmmim.com. As part of the aforementioned platform, an on-line forum has been set up (http://exmmim.fullforums.org/). The aim of this forum is to provide relevant stakeholders in industry and academia the opportunity to share and exchange their views on issues related to micro multi-material injection moulding. If you are interested in the subject, we strongly encourage you to register and contribute in this forum.

R&I Project on Multi-Material Micro Injection Moulding

Collaboration with Industry

The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering continuously collaborates with industry in its various research projects. This article includes the firms which have collaborated with the DIME over the recent years. The DIME is currently coordinating an MCST project on Multi-Material Micro Injection Moulding and is partnered with Tek-Moulds Precision Engineering Ltd, Techniplast Ltd and Playmobil Malta Ltd.

One of the projects with Toly aimed to improve the accuracy of part placement for insert moulding. Another interesting project aimed to explore the use of shape memory alloys in the cosmetic industry. Lean manufacturing tools were used in another project to analyse, identify and consequently target the weaknesses of particular processes used in the Compact production line of Toly.

A project with Baxter evaluated and optimized the automated assembly of intravenous sets. The scope of a project with Abertax was to study the automation process of the inspection of battery gas release valves.

Methode was used as a case study to demonstrate a new approach for the development of reconfigurable manufacturing automation systems. Another project included the design, manufacture and testing of a Titanium electron beam melting (EBM) insert for injection moulding at Playmobil.

The aim of the project with Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Malta (TSSM) was to investigate the injection moulding process and provide solutions to minimise the moulding cycle time.

A digital tool to support environmental factory planning is being developed and Seifert are involved in this project as a case study. Water consumption data from Seifert and ST Microelectronics was analysed in a project on water management for sustainable manufacturing.

The cases mentioned above show the effort of the DIME staff members to continuously collaborate with industry in their research and academic projects.


Mr Keith Zahra is currently reading for a Master’s degree by research in Mechanical Engineering in cooperation with Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Malta Ltd under the supervision of Dr Arif Rochman. His project aims to improve the injection

moulding process of thermoset elastomers by introducing a melt mixer inside the nozzle. Due to a short reciprocating screw, the polymer melt will not be mixed homogeneously, especially for those polymer materials with high additives or fillers such as thermoset elastomers. To solve this problem, for thermoplastic polymers, a melt mixer with its various structural components, is used to shear the melt to deliver a homogeneous mixture with a lower temperature discrepancy, before it leaves the nozzle. Although this technique is quite established in injection moulding of thermoplastics; it is still not yet applied for thermoset elastomer processing. Mr Luke Pace is currently reading for a Master of Science in Engineering (Mechanical) supervised by Dr Arif Rochman. One major issue with thermoforming is that there is no direct control on the wall thickness distribution of the finished product. This leads to different material strength along the shape of the product. A temperature difference along the sheet results in a change in mechanical properties such as the fluid behaviour index and the fluid viscosity of the plastic sheet, leading to a

change in the stretching behaviour of the polymer sheet due to a change in its Young’s Modulus along its profile according to the temperature profile. This project will attempt to heat the polymer sheet in an uneven manner during thermoforming in order to achieve the required wall thickness, and thus improve the strength, of the finished products.

Postgraduate Research

Polymer film before heating (a) and after heating with different heating screen applied (b and c)

Mr Matthias Gramenz from the Munich University of Applied Sciences is currently carrying out research work, as part of his Masters Thesis, related to the design and manufacture of self-reinforcing structures supervised by Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia and Prof. Ing. Peter Leibl from the Munich University of Applied Sciences. The underlying principle behind a self-reinforcing structure is that is gets stronger the more load is applied.

This research showed that this could be accomplished by a shell part of certain axisymmetric forms, which provides good stress distribution within the part. This provides an improved strength to weight ratio and enhances the self-reinforcing effect. Simulation using ANSYS software combined with a design of experiment gave results which showed how a theoretically ideal self-reinforcing part should be manufactured. As the geometry of these parts is highly complex, additive manufacturing equipment available at the DIME labs had to be used. For self-reinforcing parts, electron beam melting will be used to manufacture the parts from titanium. Self- reinforcing parts can be used in the automotive and military sectors to provide improved safety in case of an accident.

The postgraduate research of Mr Lawrence Farrugia, an M.Phil. student working under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Borg, focuses on an Emotion Oriented Approach to Integrated Product Development. This research is funded through the MGSS project MEDE541/2013/33. Research into product development and emotions has been in most part focused on the emotions elicited from the end-customer through human-product interactions. To this extent the objective of this project is to provide support to product development stakeholders, with the intent to elicit positive emotions not only from the end-customer but also from the life-phase human operators. The ongoing research is trying to understand the interactions in which human operators are involved, such interactions include: the fabrication of a product using conventional and nonconventional tools, the manual assembly of an artefact and the disposal of the product at the end of its life-cycle. To this extent empirical research has been carried out in collaboration with local industry with the intent to gain a better understanding of the interactions involving human operators and the emotions elicited. The intent of this research is to enable the development of products and work environments which cater for the well-being of the human worker by reducing the elicitation of negative stress-emotions. Further details are available at: http://www.empd.co.nr/. This project is also starting to produce research results which have been accepted for presentation at the Design and Emotion Conference 2014.


Student Supervisor Title Degree

Josmar Azzopardi

Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba

Evaluation and Optimization of Automated Intravenous Set Assembly B.Eng.(Hons)

Clayton Bezzina

Dr Arif Rochman A Process Engineering Study of a Compact Production Line B.Eng.(Hons)

Christian Camilleri

Dr Arif Rochman Analysis of the accuracy of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) Process B.Eng.(Hons)

Donald Dalli


Development of a Minimal Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand B.Eng.(Hons)

Joshuel Grech


Application of shape memory alloy in cosmetic packaging B.Eng.(Hons)

Joseph Trapani


Development of a Fingertip touch sensor for a Robotic Hand B.Eng.(Hons)

Mark Cini

Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia

Semiotic Based IPD Approach for Supporting Branding in the Automotive Industry

M.Sc. (IPD)

Abigail Cutajar

Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia

Applying An Integrated Product Development Approach for Bio-MEMS M.Sc. (IPD)

Karl Zahra

Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza

Ing. Paul Refalo Developing a Digital Tool to Support Environmental Factory Planning M.Sc. (IPD)

Luke Pace

Dr Arif Rochman Stretching Behaviour of Polymer Materials During Pattern-Heated Thermoforming

M.Sc. (Res.)

Keith Zahra

Dr Arif Rochman An Investigation of Influences of Melt Mixer on Injection Moulding Process and Part Quality of Thermoset Elastomers

M.Sc. (Res.)

Lawrence Farrugia

Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg

An Emotion Oriented Approach to Integrated Product Development M.Phil.

Emmanuel Francalanza

Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg

Intelligent Support of Early Interactive Factory Planning for the Integrated Product Development of a Range of Products

Ph.D.

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