Explore the vast range of titles available.

The manufacturing processing of Electrical Steel Laminations (ESLs) for electric machines comprises cutting, stacking, and housing techniques which can result in plastic deformation and residual stress in the soft magnetic material. These manufacturing processes result in decreasing the magnetic quality and a local increase in both the static and dynamic hysteresis losses near the cut edges and consequently a reduction in the performance of the designed motor. The iron losses resulting from cutting can vary by a factor of two or more depending on geometrical, material, and processing parameters as well as the magnetic field strength. It is advantageous to consider these manufacturing effects in the design stage to reduce the probability of underperforming mass production. In this paper, the manufacturing processes of ESLs and their modelling methods are comprehensively surveyed. The gaps in scientific understanding and the research need for the expansion of accurate modelling of the cutting and joining of ESLs are subsequently discussed.

For any cluster algebra whose underlying combinatorial data can be encoded by a bordered surface with marked points, we construct a geometric realization in terms of suitable decorated Teichmüller space of the surface. On the geometric side, this requires opening the surface at each interior marked point into an additional geodesic boundary component. On the algebraic side, it relies on the notion of a non-normalized cluster algebra and the machinery of tropical lambda lengths. Our model allows for an arbitrary choice of coefficients which translates into a choice of a family of integral laminations on the surface. It provides an intrinsic interpretation of cluster variables as renormalized lambda lengths of arcs on the surface. Exchange relations are written in terms of the shear coordinates of the laminations, and are interpreted as generalized Ptolemy relations for lambda lengths. This approach gives alternative proofs for the main structural results from our previous paper, removing unnecessary assumptions on the surface.

The soft nature of metal halide perovskites makes them potentially applicable as flexible X-ray detectors. Here we report a structure of perovskite-filled membranes (PFMs) for highly sensitive, flexible and large-area X-ray detectors. PFMs with areas up to 400 cm2 are formed by infiltrating saturated perovskite solution through porous polymer membranes followed by hot lamination. The good connectivity and crystallization of perovskite crystals in the membranes enable a large mobility–lifetime product. The sensitivity of the X-ray detectors under a field of 0.05 V µm−1 reaches 8,696 ± 228 µC Gyair−1 cm−2 and shows no degradation after storage for over six months and exposure to a dose of 376.8 Gyair, equivalent to 1.88 million chest X-ray scans. The flexible PFMs can be bent at radii down to 2 mm without losing performance. The stand-alone detector array is curved and put inside metal pipes for the detection of material defects with imaging quality superior to flat-panel detectors.Perovskite-filled-membranes enable flexible, sensitive and large-area X-ray detectors. The structures are made by infiltrating perovskite solution into porous polymer membranes.

We introduce an asymmetric distance function, which we call the “left Hausdorff distance function”, on the space of geodesic laminations on a closed hyperbolic surface of genus at least 2. This distance is an asymmetric version of the Hausdorff distance between compact subsets of a metric space. We prove a rigidity result for the action of the extended mapping class group of the surface on the space of geodesic laminations equipped with the topology induced from this distance. More specifically, we prove that there is a natural homomorphism from the extended mapping class group into the group of bijections of the space of geodesic laminations that preserve left Hausdorff convergence and that this homomorphism is an isomorphism.

The present study investigates the flexural failure properties of a hybrid laminate beam subjected to three-point bending. A symmetrically laminated hybrid beam is constructed using high-strain and inexpensive glass fibre on the top layers and low-strain and expensive carbon fiber on the middle layers. Classical lamination plate theory is used to find the stress and strain distribution that occurs due to the bending moment on the compressive side. The theoretical failure limits of the laminated hybrid beam are analyzed considering the targeted span-to-depth ratios, volume fractions of the fibers and hybrid ratios using the Tsai-Wu failure criterion and Matlab codes. Using the graph of failure index versus hybrid ratios, the minimum thickness of carbon fiber needed for the delay of failure and cost efficiency of the laminated hybrid beam is identified by applying the linear interpolation method. The numerical results indicate that the failure index increases with the increasing loading span and decreases when the volume fraction of fiber increases. In particular, the placement of glass fiber on the top layer of the laminated hybrid beam might have contributed to obtaining higher strains and curvatures before the catastrophic failure properties of carbon fiber. The flexural stiffness of the laminates is found to increase when the hybrid ratio increases. Overall, it is noted that the theoretical analysis is one method that is less time-consuming and cost-effective than other alternative approaches, such as finite element methods and experimental tests to estimate the minimum thickness of high-stiffness and the expensive material needed to maintain the strength and stiffness of the hybrid composite structures over long periods.

Soft actuation allows robots to interact safely with humans, other machines, and their surroundings. Full exploitation of the potential of soft actuators has, however, been hindered by the lack of simple manufacturing routes to generate multimaterial parts with intricate shapes and architectures. Here, we report a 3D printing platform for the seamless digital fabrication of pneumatic silicone actuators exhibiting programmable bioinspired architectures and motions. The actuators comprise an elastomeric body whose surface is decorated with reinforcing stripes at a well-defined lead angle. Similar to the fibrous architectures found in muscular hydrostats, the lead angle can be altered to achieve elongation, contraction, or twisting motions. Using a quantitative model based on lamination theory, we establish design principles for the digital fabrication of silicone-based soft actuators whose functional response is programmed within the material's properties and architecture. Exploring such programmability enables 3D printing of a broad range of soft morphing structures. 3D-printed soft actuators have limited motion and are far from reaching the level of complexity found in biological systems. Here the authors present a multimaterial 3D printing platform for the fabrication of soft actuators displaying a wide range of motions that are programmable.

We report a stereolithographic three-dimensional printing approach for polymeric components that uses a mobile liquid interface (a fluorinated oil) to reduce the adhesive forces between the interface and the printed object, thereby allowing for a continuous and rapid print process, regardless of polymeric precursor. The bed area is not size-restricted by thermal limitations because the flowing oil enables direct cooling across the entire print area. Continuous vertical print rates exceeding 430 millimeters per hour with a volumetric throughput of 100 liters per hour have been demonstrated, and proof-of-concept structures made from hard plastics, ceramic precursors, and elastomers have been printed.

Glass has outstanding optical properties, hardness, and durability, but its applications are limited by its inherent brittleness and poor impact resistance. Lamination and tempering can improve impact response but do not suppress brittleness. We propose a bioinspired laminated glass that duplicates the three-dimensional “brick-and-mortar” arrangement of nacre from mollusk shells, with periodic three-dimensional architectures and interlayers made of a transparent thermoplastic elastomer. This material reproduces the “tablet sliding mechanism,” which is key to the toughness of natural nacre but has been largely absent in synthetic nacres. Tablet sliding generates nonlinear deformations over large volumes and significantly improves toughness. This nacre-like glass is also two to three times more impact resistant than laminated glass and tempered glass while maintaining high strength and stiffness.

We present a cleanroom fabrication process of free-standing open space microfluidic devices with channel widths of ~ 30 µm on the wafer scale by means of photolithography in combination with lamination technology.

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have shown great potential for monolithic three-dimensional (M3D) integration due to their dangling-bonds-free surface and the ability to integrate to various substrates without the conventional constraint of lattice matching 1 – 10 . However, with atomically thin body thickness, 2D semiconductors are not compatible with various high-energy processes in microelectronics 11 – 13 , where the M3D integration of multiple 2D circuit tiers is challenging. Here we report an alternative low-temperature M3D integration approach by van der Waals (vdW) lamination of entire prefabricated circuit tiers, where the processing temperature is controlled to 120 °C. By further repeating the vdW lamination process tier by tier, an M3D integrated system is achieved with 10 circuit tiers in the vertical direction, overcoming previous thermal budget limitations. Detailed electrical characterization demonstrates the bottom 2D transistor is not impacted after repetitively laminating vdW circuit tiers on top. Furthermore, by vertically connecting devices within different tiers through vdW inter-tier vias, various logic and heterogeneous structures are realized with desired system functions. Our demonstration provides a low-temperature route towards fabricating M3D circuits with increased numbers of tiers. We develop a low-temperature, damage-free process using van der Waals lamination to integrate multiple circuit tiers into a monolithic three-dimensional device, incorporating unique multi-tier functionality and resolving legacy issues with the layering technology.