Owl-Neck-Spine-Inspired, Additively Manufactured, Joint Assemblies with Shape Memory Alloy Wire Actuators.

Nature provides a considerable number of good examples for simple and very efficient joint assemblies. One example is the enormously flexible cervical spine of American barn owls, which consists of 14 cervical vertebrae. Each pair of vertebrae produces a comparatively small individual movement in order to provide a large overall movement of the entire cervical spine.

Correlations of Geometry and Infill Degree of Extrusion Additively Manufactured 316L Stainless Steel Components.

This study focuses on the effect of part geometry and infill degrees on effective mechanical properties of extrusion additively manufactured stainless steel 316L parts produced with BASF's Ultrafuse 316LX filament. Knowledge about correlations between infill degrees, mechanical properties and dimensional deviations are essential to enhance the part performance and further establish efficient methods for the product development for lightweight metal engineering applications. To investigate the effective Young's modulus, yield strength and bending stress, standard testing methods for tensile testing and bending testing were used.

Combining Structural Optimization and Process Assurance in Implicit Modelling for Casting Parts.

The structural optimization of manufacturable casting parts is still a challenging and time-consuming task. Today, topology optimization is followed by a manual reconstruction of the design proposal and a process assurance simulation to endorse the design proposal. Consequently, this process is iteratively repeated until it reaches a satisfying compromise.

Rheological behavior of an artificial synovial fluid - influence of temperature, shear rate and pressure.

Despite the excellent clinical performance of joint replacements, wear-induced aseptic loosening is a main cause of premature implant failure. Tribological testing is usually carried out using bovine serum as an artificial synovial fluid. In order to gain new insights into the suitability to simulate human synovial fluid and provide recommendations for the conditions of tribological testing, accurate rheological measurements on the influence of temperature, shear rate and pressure on density and viscosity were performed.