Additive Manufacturing of next Generation Injection Mould Tooling

Background.
The Institute’s Centre for Precision Engineering, Materials and Manufacturing research (PEM Research Centre) is a partner in the newly established I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to deliver high-impact research in advanced manufacturing. The Centre is particularly focused on additive manufacturing (3D printing), combined with the use of digital technologies in manufacturing and brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers in manufacturing engineering, materials and data science. The Centre is hosted by University College Dublin, in partnership with NUI Galway, Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin, Institute of Technology Sligo and Waterford Institute of Technology and also operates in close collaboration with a number of leading international manufacturing research centres. The PEM Research Centre is collaborating with Abbvie based in Sligo on one of the Industrial Spoke research projects within the I-Form Centre and now has an opportunity to recruit a number Postdocs and PhD researchers to work specifically on this project.

Purpose
The recruited researcher(s) will contribute to the Abbvie project “Additive Manufacturing of next Generation Injection Moulding ” working with Principal Investigators Dr. Marion McAfee and Dr. David Tormey. The role will contribute to developing specific knowledge in the following areas: Design for Additive Manufacture (DfAM), Material models for AM, conformal cooling of AM fabricated moulds, AM process Optimization, inline AM mould/part monitoring. The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the formulation and submission of research publications and research proposals as well as help in setting a direction for this complex and challenging project as opportunities allow.

Requirements
Contribute to the development and deployment of material models for optimising AM process parameters and conditions that can reduce post processing of AM fabricated moulds, enhance surface finishing, and predict desirable mechanical properties that can be experimentally validated. Injection Mould tooling will be fabricated on an open SLM platform and then compared and evaluated against the same mould tool design fabricated by a commercial Concept Laser AM system in respect to surface finish and mechanical performance. It is fully envisaged that this work will be conducted in close collaboration, through leveraged expertise and resources, with the other academic I-Form partners.

1) Review state-of-the-art DfAM and AM process optimisation.
2) Contribute to the design and development of conformally optimised moulds with embedded sensors.
3) Conduct Melt Pool Monitoring (MPM) data analysis for developing, evaluating and optimising AM process window for fabricating individual moulds.
4) Develop materials models, process-structure-property maps, in conjunction with other I-Form academic partners, for simulating microstructure evolution during thermal cycling within powder bed.
5) Conduct designed experiments using material models in conjunction with Melt Pool data analysis to identify optimal AM process parameters, with respect to material structure/property, that can be deployed for predicting desirable mechanical properties of IM tools.
6) Participate in the specification and installation of the test mould.
7) Experimentally validate material models and corelated optimised AM process windows through the AM fabrication of IM tooling tested in-situ for a range of physical-mechanical properties.
8) Contribute to the experimental validation of other I-From platform research outputs, in particular platform 1 – Digitisation of Additive Manufacturing.

Candidate should have minimum 2.1 Hons Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, Materials Science or other cognate area. The PhD student will be working as part of a team involving the academic supervisors, postdocs as well as other PhD students pursuing projects in similar areas. Candidates will need show that they are capable of working in a team environment, but also that they can “self-start” and work unsupervised when required. It is also expected that the student will be capable of innovative thinking and problem solving. This project is being carried out with the close cooperation with the Industrial partner Abbvie. Candidates should possess characteristics and attributes that equip them well for working in such a collaboration.

Candidates with experience in the following areas are particularly desirable..
• Research Masters in the areas of materials and manufacturing…
• Experience of Mould design and Injection Moulding processes.
• Good knowledge in Additive Manufacturing processes and in particular in the application of AM components used within production processes.
• Excellent knowledge in the use of computational and modeling tools such as moldfow, openFOAM, multiscale modeling and simulation.
• Data Modelling and Analysis tools
• Knowledge of DoE method and tools…
• Excellent knowledge in material characterization methods, SEM, micro-CT, XRD, Powder Processing, microscopy and spectroscopy.
• Scripting languages, Python, C++…