Processability enhancement of poly(lactic acid-co-ethylene terephthalate) by blending with poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), and poly(butylene succinate)

Processability enhancement feasibility of an in-house synthesized poly(lactic acid-co-ethylene terephthalate), PLET, is investigated by blending with commercial poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate), EVA, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), PHBV, and poly(butylene succinate), PBS. The three blend systems are prepared by varying PLET contents, and their properties are characterized. DSC, SEM, and FTIR results indicate that PLET/EVA blends are immiscible, while the corresponding PLET/PBS and PLET/PHBV blends are miscible and partially miscible, respectively. DMA results show that the three blend systems have storage modulus comparable to those of commercial EVA, PHBV, and PBS, when PLET content is kept lower than 50, 25, and 25 wt%, respectively. PLET/EVA blends show higher thermal stability, compared to those of the other two blend systems. Results on degradability tests indicate that PLET/PBS blends show highest hydrolytic degradability, compared to the other two blends, as both blend constituents are associated in the hydrolytic degradation.     

Solid Phase Extraction for Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Atmospheric Wet and Dry Deposition Samples

Solid phase extraction with C-18 sorbent tubes was employed for extraction and preconcentration of trace level (ng/l) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water samples obtained by collecting wet and dry atmospheric deposition. Recoveries of spiked PAHs from 0.2 to 10.0 l water samples ranged from 60% to 90%. Five deuterated PAHs (naphthalene- d 8 , acenaphthene- d 10 , anthracene- d 10 , chrysene- d 12 , and perylene- d 12 ) were added to the samples as surrogates. The recoveries of surrogates were in the same range as the spiked PAHs. The recoveries of surrogates were used to estimate the recoveries of ambient PAHs with a similar ring structure. Factors that contributed to the relatively low recoveries include breakthrough of the sorbates, adsorption on the container surface, and degradation in water during storage.     

Electrospinning of poly(l‐lactide‐co‐dl‐lactide) copolymers: Effect of chemical structures and spinning conditions

Nanofibers of poly(L ‐lactide‐co‐DL ‐Lactide) (PDLLA_x) copolymers with DL‐lactate (DLLA) contents of 0, 2.5, 7.5, and 50%, which exhibit strong structure/properties correlation, were fabricated by electrospinning. Effect of the copolymer structure and electrospinning conditions on morphology and properties of the fibers were examined by SEM, DSC, XRD, and tensile measurements. Bead‐free fibers of PDLLA_x prepared from a DMF/CHCl₃ mixed solvent are roughly 10‐times smaller in size (600–800 nm), with lower degree of surface porosity, compared to those of CHCl₃. When CHCl₃ is employed, an increase in size (2.4–5.5 μm) and surface porosity (0–45%) with relative humidity value is observed in crystallizable copolymers, whereas an amorphous copolymer shows a reverse trend. Thermal properties and chain arrangements of the electrospun fibers are critically affected by DLLA content of the copolymers and electrospinning conditions, as a result from interplay between intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonding. Contents of crystalline domains and “physical crosslinks” generated from DL lactate segments are proposed as the origin of this phenomenon. Fiber mats of PDLLA with 50% DLLA content show a large improvement in all aspects of mechanical properties, which are suitable for various biomedical applications. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:472–480, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Nanocapsules embedded in natural rubber latex gloves

To prepare medical gloves containing disinfectant agent, poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) with _w of 550 K was synthesized via the iniferter technique and then used for encapsulating disinfectant agent, i.e., chlorhexidine digluconate (CHD), droplets. The CHD‐PMA nanocapsules suspended in a sodium dodecyl sulfate aqueous solution having 93% encapsulation efficiency were successfully embedded between the outermost and inner layers of γ‐radiation vulcanized natural rubber (RVNR) latex films by the coagulant dipping process. A RVNR/CHD‐PMA nanocapsules/RVNR three‐layer structure was revealed by the contact angle measurement, ATR‐FTIR and SEM. Both the tensile strength and elongation at break of the three‐layer film were also measured. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Study on effects of negative driving torque in servomotor drivers

Many applications, such as elevators, electric cars and robotic applications, require a servomotor driver capable of controlling a motor to drive its load with either positive or negative driving torque. The negative driving torque is defined as torque applied to a load in the reverse direction of motor rotation. In a servomotor driver with a switching amplifier, when the motor drives its load with negative driving torque, effects of negative driving torque might damage the servomotor driver and complicate dynamic characteristics of the servomotor system. Thus, in order to investigate effects of the negative driving torque in servomotor drivers, this paper uses the numerical simulation that combines the simulation of a control system with that of electronic circuits. The simulation results show that the negative driving torque is required for decelerating and compensating disturbance. During decelerating and compensating disturbance, the pulse-width modulation (PWM) amplifier of a servomotor driver will generate regenerative current that flows from the motor back into the power supply, and then makes the power supply voltage rise.     

Robot Vision System for Coordinate Measurement of Feature Points on Large Scale Automobile Part

In this paper, we present a robot vision based system for coordinate measurement of feature points on large scale automobile parts. Our system consists of an industrial 6-DOF robot mounted with a CCD camera and a PC. The system controls the robot into the area of feature points. The images of measuring feature points are acquired by the camera mounted on the robot. 3D positions of the feature points are obtained from a model based pose estimation that applies to the images. The measured positions of all feature points are then transformed to the reference coordinate of feature points whose positions are obtained from the coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Finally, the point-to-point distances between the measured feature points and the reference feature points are calculated and reported. The results show that the root mean square error (RMSE) of measure values obtained by our system is less than 0.5 mm. Our system is adequate for automobile assembly and can perform faster than conventional methods.     

Effect of temperature on drying characteristics and quality of cooked rice

A shorter drying time, together with acceptable product quality, is preferred in food processing. To accomplish this requirement, the present work was studied on the effect of temperature on drying kinetics and quality of cooked rice. The long grain-jasmine rice was chosen as a raw material. The experiments were carried out at temperatures of 50, 60, 80, 100 and 120 °C. Effective diffusion coefficient was determined experimentally using a method of slopes. An empirical equation was developed to describe the effective diffusion coefficient as a function of temperature and moisture content. The developed equation was utilized to predict moisture content as the drying progressed and the prediction agreed with the experimental result relatively well. For the quality, the drying temperature affected the color of cooked rice, but it insignificantly affected shrinkage and rehydration capability of dried cooked rice. As examined by scanning electron microscope, morphologies of cooked rice dried at temperatures were similar, but they were relatively different to that of freshly cooked rice, with slightly more porous material after processing.     

Bicriterion linear programming

Basically leaning on the concept of “best” compromise, the technique seeks the optimal solution by fair relaxations of the objectives commensurate with their degrees of importance until the optimum feasible compromise is reached. The concept is made operational by deriving a linear constraint (referred to as the compromise constraint) to be added into the original set. An offspring of both objective functions, the compromise constraint cuts the original feasible region and forces both objectives to settle on a common point along this added restriction. The resulting singular equivalent of the bicriterion problem optimizes any one of the two objective functions and their equivalent sum (referred to as the supergoal) subject to the new set of constraints. Post optimality analysis is employed to minimize the computational effort usually done by a computer. A very attractive feature of this new practical technique is its ability to search for the optimum in any point in the feasible region, even other than the vertices of the convex set.     

Models for determining the optimal in-process inspection specification limits in multistage production systems

A multistage production system is characterized by items being processed through a sequence of production operations. In general, it may be desirable to have inspection operations performed between some production operations for the purpose of detecting a defective item prior to the final inspection. Furthermore, it may even be more economically desirable to consider tightening the specifications—that is. rejecting a manufacturing unit having defects less than the maximum number to be tolerated. Thus, the hypothesis examined in this paper is that there could exist a method for determination of economically optimal specifications for in-process inspection of a multistage production system. Two production environments considered are: (a) a manufacturer producing to satisfy a fixed production goal, so that any defective item must be replaced by reprocessing a substitute; (b) a manufacturer producing until be exhausts fixed levels of resource availability, so that a rejected item results in a loss in revenue. An economic dynamic programming model is formulated for each of the two production environments. Illustrative examples are presented. Indications are that the concept of specification tightening should be considered for utilization, and that the dynamic programming approach can be used to determine the most economic specification limits for a given inspection program.     

Crystallization of polylactide and its stereocomplex investigated by two-dimensional fourier transform infrared correlation spectroscopy employing carbonyl overtones

The band origins and transitions of weak vibrational modes developed in the 3500 cm(-1) region of polylactide (PLA) spectra during crystallization are investigated. The band assignment to the OH stretching mode of terminal hydroxyls is unlikely because the trace amount of chain-ends is negligible considering the long chain of high molecular weight polymer. The band intensity can be enhanced for quantitative study by increasing the sample film thickness. The results show that the transition patterns of these bands mimic those of C=O stretching modes. Therefore, these are assigned to C=O overtones. Two bands associated with crystalline and amorphous characteristics are revealed during cold crystallization. The crystalline C=O bands of PDLA and its stereocomplex counterpart are located at 3510 cm(-1) and 3482 cm(-1), respectively, indicating a weaker C=O bond in the latter crystal structure. Two-dimensional Fourier transform infrared (2D-FT-IR) correlation spectroscopy is then applied to study the correlation between C=O overtones and the crystalline characteristic band located near 900 cm(-1). The transitions of the two vibrational modes observed in crystallization of the stereocomplex are in-phase with each other. This reflects an involvement of short-range hydrogen bonding in the stereocomplex crystal structure. In contrast, crystallization of PDLA shows that the C=O overtone varies prior to that of the C-H character, indicating that dipole-dipole force is a crystal-induced interaction.