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Carbon Fibre Composites for Orthopaedics

The project dealt with a fairly advanced technology for developing lighter external fixators, made of polyethersulphone reinforced with carbon fibre as lightweight substitute to steel rings for repairing & realignment of bones.

These fixator rings offer certain advantages like high strength-to-weight ratio, transparency to X-ray etc. Baby rings, foot rings, Italian femoral arches, long & short connection plates, carbon fibre rods, limb re-constructive system etc. were developed successfully. Commercial production of external fixators has commenced & the products are being marketed in India & abroad. The project having met all its objectives has been declared successful.

FRP beams for Railway Girder Bridges

Polymer composite sleepers were designed and developed to replace the existing wooden and steel channel sleepers on girder bridges. Full-length sleepers were successfully tested for Load test, Pulsating test, Fatigue test and Dynamic Panel test.

The sleepers are cheaper than its wooden counterpart. FRP beam offer certain critical advantages like good rail holding, electrical resistivity & anti-corrosive properties, bearing toughness & vibration absorption characteristics and offer material qualities superior to that of any conventional materials used so far.

Indian Railways have inducted 88 nos. sleepers for carrying out field trials in four locations. On successful completion of the field trials, the railways have decided to induct the FRP sleepers on a large-scale by 2002.
Development of Composite Artificial Limbs for Physically Handicapped

The project dealt with developing composite endoskeleton type below-knee artificial limb. The artificial limbs developed under the project are light-weight and better in control & appearance with improved gait for the patients. Composite artificial limbs should find wider acceptance among developing countries.

The artificial limb consists of five parts: a FRP beam structure fabricated by filament winding of glass fibre in epoxy matrix, top & bottom connectors made by injection moulding of glass filled nylon, a polyurethane foot with composite keel embedded in it and a polypropylene socket to accommodate the amputee stump.

The socket made of polypropylene is patient specific and does not create any problems like pressure sores even for diabetic patients. The FRP tube connects the socket to the foot. All the five parts and the socket are adjustable to meet individual requirements and to take care of static & dynamic alignment patterns.

A very innovative design approach was adopted for designing FRP grating for providing improved strength & flexibility in the foot piece. All the components of the limb were designed on the basis of theoretical analysis using CAD software (CSA/NASTRAN) for typical compression loads at different angles, momentary impact etc.

The evaluation of individual components and also of the entire endoskeleton assembly for compressive & bending strength were carried out. A simulated endurance test was conducted for 5-year service life of the artificial limb. More than 700 patients have been fitted with these limbs in & around Chennai.

The endoskeleton type below-knee artificial limb developed by Mohana Orthotics was awarded the prestigious National R&D Award 2001 by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Govt. of India.
  FRP Toilet units for Railway Coaches

The project launched in partnership with M/s Hindustan Fibre Glass Works, Vadodara has been a collaborative effort by a multi-agency task force involving the Industrial Design Centre & Dept. of Aerospace Engineering of IIT – Bombay, RDSO-Lucknow, RCF-Kapurthala, ICF-Chennai and Carriage Repair Workshop of Western Railway, Mumbai.

The FRP toilet unit consists of four parts : the flooring trough, two L-shaped side-walls & roof. All the four parts are fastened together with self-tightening screws at the mating faces and their assembling is done inside the coach. The salient features are :
Pultruded profiles FRP frame on all four sides of the door. Proper ventilation arrangement in the toilet on the window side-wall and the lower part of the door. Improved anti-skid PVC sheet with anti-abrasion properties for the flooring. Concealed plumbing FRP door for toilet with sandwich construction.

The FRP toilet is light in weight, corrosion resistant, fire retardant, has longer life with easy maintainability. Being modular in design, the whole toilet unit can be installed in 3-4 hours inside the coach.

Four nos. FRP toilet units were fitted to an AC-II Tier coach of Rajdhani Express (Delhi-Mumbai) in October 2001. The coach fitted with composite toilets has been operating on regular basis. Further, 36 nos. FRP toilets were fitted to Jan Shatabdi Express (Mumbai-Madgaon) in April 2002. The Indian Railways have decided to induct FRP ladders for retrofitting in old coaches as well as for new trains.

The project bagged the Certificate of Merit under the prestigious National Award for Excellence in Consultancy Services-2001 given by the Consultancy Development Centre of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India.

It is evident from the above that excellent economic advantage & technology implications in terms of creating material with superior properties, substituting costlier/scarce materials, developing value-added applications and most importantly, business volume generation could be accomplished for a few select composite products & applications in India.

  Composites Design Centres

The Mission also attempted spearheading technology incubation by setting up twoComposite Design Centre. These are the Composite Design Centre at RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and Composite Technology Centre (COMPTEC) at IIT, Chennai.

These Centres are engaged in evolving design standard for selective composite products, prototype development, developing design modules & related software packages for composite products. They are actively involved in diffusion of technology and their services among the Indian composite industries.

The CDC at Bangalore functions as an independent technology incubation agency. They have designed and developed over 180 composite products with potential applications in housing and industrial sectors. The technology for FRP door based on a low-cost sandwich technology, has been transferred to fifty industries by the Centre.

CDC on completion of initial technology development activity, works out the project economics, prepares the detailed technology transfer document and imparts all the necessary support to an entrepreneur for technology absorption thus encompassing the entire spectrum of technology incubation.

The technology transfer package involves direct hands-on training for the entrepreneurs, assistance in equipment & material procurement and also marketing support. The Centre has been approached by Govt. of Karnataka to set up a composite technology park near Bangalore.

The Centre at IIT-Madras is providing technical support services such as product design consultancy, prototype development to the industries, supporting continuing education programmes etc. The credibility of the centre has been established amongst various composites industries in the country.

The composite study modules, prepared by the Centre, are being disseminated to the industries on payment basis. Testing & characterization equipment viz. differential scanning calorimeter, dynamic mechanical analyzer & simultaneous thermo-gravimetric analyzer & differential thermal analyzer have been installed and utilized the characterization & testing equipment for carrying out various testing assignments from the industries on chargeable basis.

These Centres are excellent examples of technology incubation & demonstration for composite products & services. The design centre at Bangalore has already been invited by the Government of Bangladesh to set up similar Centre near Dhaka. The Centre has also been interacting closely with the industries for providing design & technical Consultancy on innovative process technology.

from:tifac

Fibreglass windows were first produced in Canada in 1984, were subsequently introduced to the USA and European markets and are becoming increasingly popular. Market studies conducted on behalf of North American manufacturers predict a tenfold increase in the next few years. In the UK, Pultruded profiles fibreglass windows have been available only since the early 2000s.

Pultruded fibreglass windows offer a number of advantages over other types of window systems, as follows:

> Thermal performance. Pultruded fibreglass has a low coefficient of thermal conductivity that compares favourably with other low conductivity products like PVC or wood. Because of its great strength, profiles can be very thin, thus limiting the potential for cold bridging. Therefore, the thermal performance of the manufactured product is very good. 
> Strength. As shown in Table 1, pultruded FRP profiles have greater flexural and tensile strengths than other materials used in fenestration. Therefore, they are suitable for large openings without the need for metal reinforcements.

> Dimensional stability. Pultruded fibreglass has a low coefficient of linear expansion which is very similar to that of glass. Other window materials have much higher coefficients – aluminium’s is double that of glass and PVC’s is seven times greater. As a result, pultruded FRP frames do not distort due to thermal variations.

> Resistance to moisture. Pultruded fibreglass is virtually impervious to moisture, and therefore does not rot, warp, crack or twist.

> Chemical resistance. Pultruded profiles fibreglass is unaffected by chemicals or salt air, and is therefore suitable for coastal locations. 
> Appearance. As pultruded FRP profiles are dimensionally and hydroscopically stable, they are a good base for sophisticated finishing systems.

> Cost. Initial capital expenditure is higher than for PVC, aluminium or timber windows. However, a whole life cost study conducted by the Building Research Establishment concluded that over a 30-year period, pultruded FRP was more economical than PVC.

A relatively minor limitation of the product is that FRP grating cannot be welded, and therefore joints must be formed using adhesives.
Environmental considerations
There are a number of factors to be considered when assessing the environmental impact of pultruded FRP windows, among others:

> Resource depletion. Glass, which is silica based, accounts for approximately 65-85% of the components of FRP profiles. For all intents and purposes, sand can be considered an inexhaustible material. The polymer-based matrix is, of course, subject to the availability of oil for its production.

> Energy during manufacture. Because the main component is silica sand, this is low for FRP profiles.

> Gas release during manufacture. Unlike that of PVC, the manufacture of FRP profiles is a sealed operation, and the release of gases into the atmosphere can be closely controlled.

> Energy used during life. This is generally low, because of the good thermal performance of FRP. 
> Disposal. As previously explained, the thermoset resins used in FRP are not easily recyclable, and may, in due course, steer the industry towards the use of thermoplastics.

Pultruded profiles FRP has achieved an A rating in the latest BRE ‘Green Guide to Composites’, which is an environmental profiling system for composite materials and products published by BRE (‘A’ is the highest grade, ‘E’ the lowest). Table 2 compares the environmental impact of pultruded FRP windows with that of two alternatives.

from:ribajournal