Enterprise PhD Scholarship for Development of an Electronic Controlled Resin Dispenser

Etamax Engineering is seeking to collaborate with Flinders University to develop an electro-hydraulicdevice designed to improve the advanced manufacturing techniques of Filament Winding and 3Dprinting.

There are several problems with traditional wet-winding, using a mechanical resin bath:

• Control over the content of resin in the laminate is often inaccurate. It is easy to apply too muchresin or not enough, even with the best of resin baths.
• Even if the resin bath is set accurately, the amount of resin applied depends on its viscosity. But,the viscosity changes with temperature and also increases over time (since it was mixed). Thisrequires frequent mixing of small quantities or an expensive dosing machine.
• Resin content also can vary with fibre tension. To get the most consistent resin content possible,a very expensive electronic machine is required to tension each fibre creel.
• Wet winding is messy. Resin tends to get all over the machine and drip on the floor. It is difficultto clean, especially after it has cured. Cleaning requires a lot of time and labour.
• It is not possible to automatically change resin content in different areas of the winding, which issometimes desirable. An operator would be required to change the resin-bath setting manuallyat different times during the process, and so this process is subject to human-error.
• Fibres which have the resin pre-impregnated in them (ie. pre-pregs, or tow-pregs), in a semi-solidform are available, but prohibitively expensive for most filament winding applications.

Current oppening aims to develop a better system that avoids these problems. The system could be integrated into Etamax’s filament winding machines, giving them a competitive advantage overother manufacturers of such machines.

Etamax Engineering aims to develop an electronically controlled system for applying epoxy resin directly to the fibres, eliminating the need for the resin bath altogether, and allowing the use of a much simpler and less-expensive fibre tensioning system (rather than a sophisticated electronic system with closed-loop feedback). The system will measure the fibre speed in real-time using a pulley connected to an encoder, over-which the fibre passes. The system will need to make instantaneous changes in resin flow rate in response to rapid changes in fibre speed, in order to maintain the correct fibre to resin ratio.

2025 rate $35,010, indexed each year. Standard tenure min 3 years, max 3.5 years

• Having a Mechanical or Mechatronic or equivalent Honors or Master Degree
• Familiar with Fluid simulation
• Familiar with System desing and Control systems