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Small- and medium-sized museums offer significant cultural and social value to visitors and communities alike. However, such establishments can inadvertently exclude individuals with vision impairment due to their reliance on visual experiences, including large collections of images. This research addresses such accessibility challenges by investigating the incorporation of additive manufacturing and the potential to recreate 2-dimensional artwork into 3-dimensional tactile parts to enhance art engagement for people with sight loss. Four focus groups were conducted involving twenty-seven participants with different degrees of sight loss. The aim of the study was to gather qualitative data on individual’s preferences and lived experiences through interacting with tactile parts, audio description, and a haptic stand developed as part of the research. The findings reveal enthusiasm for this type of art appreciation and engagement tools. Participants provided insights and feedback on prototype development that were implemented by the research team, contributing to the design process. A key output of this work is the generation of a co-designed haptic stand product enabling museum staff to implement a low-cost solution at a local level. This research provides a valuable contribution to the area of increasing museum accessibility using innovative solutions for diverse visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material Extrusion has been used extensively as an additive manufacturing technology for a variety of applications like visual models, functional prototypes, tooling components, patterns for castings, and final parts. The current research paper proposes a study on the material type influence on economic objectives in material extrusion fabrication of complex assemblies. Three economic objectives have been analysed, namely, estimated fabrication time, material usage and material cost, whilst two commercial additive manufacturing machines have been considered for the simulation. Cura and ZSuite slicing software were used for the generation of Gcode and project files. Five filaments were selected from the same manufacturer and all components of the selected assembly were included in the analysis. Throughout the study, the additive manufacturing parameters were kept constant, as well as the component layout on the build platform of the two machines. Study results were analysed in correspondence with the manufacturing requirements and the optimum fabrication scenario was selected. Further research includes the analysis of multiple material manufacturers, in order to evaluate the influence of chemical composition on economic outputs.

Additive manufacturing is a worldwide trend and has been successfully adopted in a wide variety of domains. With applications ranging from automotive, aerospace, military, consumer goods bioprinting and even wearable electronics, the need for trained workforce in additive manufacturing is in high demand. Academia all around the world is adapting to this new trend trying to develop new strategies in delivering suitable competences to their undergraduate, masters’ and PhD students. Such an initiative is the Erasmus+ project TecHUB 4.0 which brings together four complementary universities from Romania, United Kingdom and Poland. The main goal of the project is to bring together professors, industry specialists, researchers, managers, and entrepreneurs to deliver, using methods based on modern teaching technologies, especially on the use of web-based platforms and digital technologies – e-learning and interactive platforms, their knowledge to the young students wishing to become entrepreneurs in the additive manufacturing area. An Open Interactive Platform will be designed to be used equally by companies, by universities and by students, which will aggregate the demand and offer for internships developed in the scope of developing projects anchored in the day-to-day additive manufacturing business activity to solve concrete problems, but at the same time respecting all the economic constraints imposed on a business at beginning of its life.

A sintered part's mechanical properties are often variable dependent on the temperature at which it was sintered. Prior research has investigated how predefined process conditions (such as scan speed and laser power) in the 'Sinter' software affect built parts (Majewski & Hopkinson, 2011), however, little work focuses on other process conditions that can directly affect the temperature distribution in the bed relative to these parts. These conditions are not always controllable in the 'Sinter' software. By replacing the scanner at the top of the Sinterstation 2000 with a thermal imaging camera, an insight into the temperature distribution on the part bed was obtained. A temperature variance of up to 7°C was found across the bed, as well as a large temperature drop and recovery period on powder layer recoat. This paper explores the possible causes of this variation in the processing of DuraForm™ Polyamide-12 powder by monitoring and assessing build operations, enabled by replacing the front viewing window with a retro-fitted thermal imaging camera. The part bed was observed and various process conditions analyzed including powder recoat, part and feed heaters, and swing gate configuration. On powder recoat, the part bed exhibited a drop in temperature because the fresh layer of powder is at a lower temperature than the powder already present in the part bed. The part bed temperature drop lessens with raised feed bed temperatures however there are limitations. Thermal analysis of the part heater proved that the uneven part bed heat distribution was not linked to the temperature gradient of the part heater. Swing gates were found to minimise hot and cold spots but spend a substantial time oscillating on roller passing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mention the name Sinclair to a technologist of a certain age and expect a lively response — writes Tom Abram, Editor in Chief of the Archives of IT — always nostalgic and tinged with either enthusiasm or frustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Computers Limited (ICL), born out of post war computer developments, was a British icon until Fujitsu absorbed the brand in 2002, writes Tom Abram, Editor-in-Chief at Archives of IT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]