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The aviation industry is adopting a promising approach to decarbonize the aviation sector dramatically by incorporating hydrogen fuel cell technology and expects to start some commercial services as early as 2035. The authors estimate the aircraft operating cost to become less expensive eventually with this forthcoming fuel cell technology, and the total maintenance cost of hydrogen-powered aircraft to come down in the long run for all segments of the aviation sector, from short haul to long haul services. With the possible incorporation of a new superconducting electrical system, a pneumatic power system, and a fully integrated electrical drive train system, additional maintenance will be required due to their cryogenic factors and associated safety issues. This chapter focuses on the potential impacts of hydrogen fuel cell technology on aircraft maintenance reliability, cost, and safety across the wide range of commuter, regional, short, medium, and long-haul segments of the aviation industry.

Incentive programs are widely used by airports as a marketing tool to attract new services. Empirical evidence regarding the effects of an isolated incentive program is yet to be explored. In this ...

This paper proposes a methodology based on agent-based simulation to define the new optimum airport level-of-service (LOS) that guides cost-efficient terminal design while providing passengers with...

3D bioprinting is one of the rapidly evolving fields of tissue engineering where microengineering meets cells biology within an unprecedented precision to construct tissue structures of various forms with complexity. However, enabling simultaneous printing of heterogeneous biomaterial along with scaffold components through the currently available printers is still considered as a major challenge due to the lack of instrumentation. Flow control is one of the major issues associated with the process. In this aspect, a microfluidic nozzle head equipped with two shape-memory alloy (SMA) actuators was proposed and integrated with a commercially available 3D printer to assist the biomaterial printing in a more systematic manner. The SMA actuator restrains the amount of flows for fabricating the desired scaffold components. Experimental results illustrated that the use of SMA actuator ensued a rapid and precise flow control of biomaterial and can further facilitate to maintain the width of any printed structures. As a proof of concept for the profound biomedical applications with the present manufacturing configuration, a 3D printed hydrogel platform was fabricated with demonstrated characters for later cell seeding after the printing further opens a new chapter in terms of biomaterial printing.

As the airport retail industry continues to grow due to increasing travel demands, airport operators are increasingly developing their retail revenue potential to ensure financial viability. This s...

This article reports the results of a holiday destination choice model of domestic travelers in Australia. Although destination choices have been studied before, travelers’ behavior when choosing an airline ticket is less well investigated, in particular the effect of the choice of airline ticket and tourism features on each other and on the final destination choice. Multinomial logit (MNL) models were estimated using data from a Stated Preference (SP) choice experiment based on a D-Efficient design. Following the leader-driven primacy phenomenon, the article also tests whether destination choices are influenced by sequentially receiving information about airline tickets and tourism features. Results show that when airline ticket information is presented first, the destination choice behavior could be affected. In this context, the information sequencing effect is clear. However, the influence of tourism features is not as clear on the final choice when travelers are first exposed to tourism features and then airline tickets.

While fuel regulations traditionally rely on a prescriptive safety margin approach that includes a significant buffer for fuel loadings, the current enhancements in computational power and understanding of in-flight uncertainties allow for the implementation of a performance-based approach. A performance-based approach is a risk-assessed fuel uplift decision dependent on historical performance and is becoming increasingly plausible and recommended by modern civil aviation authorities. This paper investigates the evolution of fuel planning policies and explores the potential integration of current research pertaining to performance-based fuel policy-making. We consolidate the developments of three research areas - fuel consumption estimation, in-flight uncertainty quantification and decision analysis, and provide insight for regulators and airline operators in identifying potential transformation towards more efficient operations. Three future research directions in (1) risk assessment on fuel uplift decision, (2) uncertainty quantification and propagation and (3) policy assessment and evaluation, are suggested to assist policy-makers in efficiently implementing a performance-based fuel policy.

This study proposes a novel framework to investigate the interdependence and determinants of tourism participation, expenditure, and duration related to tourism behavior. A discrete–continuous model was constructed to jointly estimate the participation and expenditure decisions. Then, a structural equation model was used to explore the corresponding influential determinants of tourism expenditure and trip duration. An empirical study was conducted using historical travel data collected from Taiwanese citizens traveling abroad. Results revealed a significant relationship between participation and expenditure as well as between expenditure and duration. Furthermore, package and frequent travelers were willing to spend more on trips of shorter duration, but individual and independent travelers were more cost-conscious and travel for longer periods. Overall, time constraints were found to take priority over personal income when making tourism decisions. These findings help travel agents and policymakers to better understand travelers’ needs and develop tourism policies.

Route development programs have become popular with airports worldwide to enhance air connectivity. Enhanced air connectivity of an airport has been found to have a positive and significant impact on the competitiveness and attractiveness of the airport and the regional economy in which the airport is located. However, the drivers behind route development programs and their performance are not always clear; this has been less explored in the literature. In this paper, a dynamic performance management approach is taken to build a modeling framework in which key drivers affecting route development performance and strategic resources affecting key drivers are identified. Route-level planning is used in an empirical study to demonstrate the dynamic mechanism of airport route development initiatives and performance measurements. The proposed framework can not only provide performance monitoring, but also suggest suitable indicators to evaluate the performance for policymakers in future airport route development.

The power law is considered one of the most enduring regularities in human geography. This article aims to develop an understanding of the circumstances that may result in the power law distribution in the geography of tourism activities. The finite Polya urn process is adopted as a device to model the preferential attachment process in the flow of tourists. The model generates a rank-size distribution of tourism regions along with intuitively appealing parameters. Empirically examined using two independent sets of Australian inbound and outbound tourism data, results show that the rank-size distribution emerging from the finite Polya urn process is a superior fit to the conventional power law curve. This rank-size distribution (termed the Polya urn process model of visitor distribution) is compatible with tourist behaviors such as habit persistence and word-of-mouth effects, and can be adopted by tourism modelers to predict and efficiently summarize the spatiality of tourism.

We developed an airline network delay propagation model using a Bayesian Network in a delay-tree framework, accounting for multiple connecting sources of an airline including aircraft, crew connections, and passenger connections. A case study was conducted to examine the heterogeneous delay propagation effects in a flight network. Results showed that the model was able to identify weak links in a flight network based on past operational data. Two new delay multiplier metrics were developed and test results showed that the Expected Delay Multiplier could better account for historical flight delay profiles by inferring posterior probability distributions based on new observations.

This paper examines the effect of passenger characteristics and terminal layout on airport retail revenue using an agent-based simulation approach. Simulation results show that passenger mix (that ...

The true demand of airline tickets is defined as the number of passengers that would book a particular flight if there was no capacity constraint. Estimating the true demand plays a crucial role in airline revenue management and pricing. In this paper, we developed a true demand unconstraining model that incorporated passenger choice models, allowing us to simultaneously estimate true demand for all booking classes in a market. Simulated booking data were generated to inform the true demand that is unavailable in the real-world setting. Numerical experiments showed that our model could outperform a benchmarking model by up to 10%.

International audience; This paper presents an innovative approach that combines optimization and simulation techniques for solving scheduling problems under uncertainty. We introduce an Opt–Sim closed-loop feedback framework (Opt–Sim) based on a sliding-window method, where a simulation model is used for evaluating the optimized solution with inherent uncertainties for scheduling activities. The specific problem tackled in this paper, refers to the airport capacity management under uncertainty, and the Opt–Sim framework is applied to a real case study (Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France). Different implementations of the Opt–Sim framework were tested based on: parameters for driving the Opt–Sim algorithmic framework and parameters for riving the optimization search algorithm. Results show that, by applying the Opt–Sim framework, potential aircraft conflicts could be reduced up to 57% over the non-optimized scenario. The proposed optimization framework is general enough so that different optimization resolution methods and simulation paradigms can be implemented for solving scheduling problems in several other fields.

There are various potential hazards that may occur in diving, but some risks can be prevented through advance planning, such as diving decompression risk is one of them. This article construction of diving record wearable device based on IOT. The instructor can set the diving height and time according to the situation of each student, and there is an emergency button set on the wearable device. When students have any problems, they can use AIS communication to send messages to the coach ship, and the coach ship can immediately locate and rescue. This article mainly uses GPS and Beacon for positioning to understand the student's position and height. This article uses the IoT sensor to understand the student's movement rate and height to avoid the danger that the student's ascent rate is too fast or the altitude is too high.

China is the second largest aviation country in the world. The Chinese aviation industry and economy both developed quickly in the last two decades. However, the interaction mechanisms of aviation and the regional economy were different in each province. Jiangsu was the most important province in the Yangtze River delta region. The GDP of Jiangsu ranked second in China, but air transportation didn’t have the same leading position in the last decade. Taking Jiangsu province as for analysis, this paper provided empirical evidence of the causality between airport development and regional economic growth. The results showed that: (1) From 2008 to 2018, the overall volume of airport passenger throughput and GDP in Jiangsu had a strong upward trend with strong seasonal fluctuations; (2) There was a bi-directional Granger causality relationship between the airport passenger throughput and GDP in Jiangsu based on the vector autoregression (VAR) model and the Granger causality test; (3) From the impulse response and variance decomposition, the inter-contribution of GDP and airport development was sustainable and increasing over time. However, the impact of economic growth on airports was more significant than the impact of airports on economic growth.

This study applied qualitative research to explore the model of tribal tourism industrial development of Wutai Township in Pingtung. According to the analytical results, the main attractions of tribal tourism are indigenous peoples’ culture, natural resources, and convenient transportation. This study also included the promotion and tourism information of governmental sectors and tribal organizations, as well as hospitality services offered by the tribes. The key of tribal tourism is the cooperation of the indigenous peoples, and their tolerance and respect for the visitors.

Ulaljuc Village is an indigenous tribe that was relocated and reconstructed due to a disaster, and mainly developed by the coffee industry for post-disaster industrial recovery. This study chose Ulaljuc Village as the research target, and collected data using various research methods, such as participant observation and in-depth interviews. The analysis results show that: (1) with assistance from government public sectors and non-profit organizations, and respect for the planning of indigenous peoples, the tribe was able to implement relocation reconstruction; (2) the development of the coffee industry enabled the tribesmen to gain economic profits and maintain the coffee plantation to effectively support the livelihood of tribesmen. Hopefully, the case in this study can serve as reference for the future industrial development of tribes or communities implementing post-disaster reconstruction.

This paper aims to explore the flight choice behaviour of business passengers; in particular, we explored the potential differences between those who work in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and those in non-SMEs. Discrete choice models with attribute non-attendance data were used to model flight choice behaviour. Results showed that fewer flight service attributes were significant on flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane due to shorter flight duration but ticket flexibility features were considered significant by business passengers. Self-funded business passengers were more price-sensitive and flight service attributes were considered differently from ticket flexibility attributes by business passengers.

The ever-increasing importance of airport retail has encouraged both industry and academics to look into ways to increase airport retail revenue. Despite the growing interests in this topic, there is a lack of passenger shopping behavioral model. This paper aims to fill this gap and enhance our understanding of how the location of the shop affects passenger decision. This paper first investigates the possible passenger shopping behavioral model through an exploratory Eye-tracking exercise. Data was collected to calibrate and validate the behavioral model through the use of an Agent-Based Simulation Model. Shop locations were shown to have a significant impact on the passenger’s choice and overall retail revenue. The result shows that our proposed passenger shopping behavioral model can be suitably applied in our study context. Our model can assist airport retail planner in testing different scenarios to improve airport retail revenue cost-effectively.

In this study, the polycaprolactone diol (PCL), 4,4’-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and 2,6-Pyridimthanol (2,6-PDM) were reacted in the N,N-dimethyl acetamid (DMAc) solvent to form the polyurethane (PU). Finally, the silver nitrate was added into the polyurethane. The silver ion was reacted with 2,6-Pyridimthanol to form the metal coordinate bond in PU/AgNO3. Various addition ratios of silver nitrate were studied to understand the influence on the properties of polyurethane containing the pyridine ring. The characteristic peak was identified to determine the structure of polyurethane. The residue of thermal decomposition could be used to determine the addition of silver nitrate, and the variation of degradation temperature could be observed. When the content of silver nitrate was increased, the glass transition temperature (Tg) would be increased significantly. The stress-strain test showed that when the content of silver nitrate was increased, the elongation at break of PU/AgNO3 would be reduced significantly. The NaOH aqueous solution was used to decompose PU/AgNO3, and the degradation rate of PU/AgNO3 was observed in a short time. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe the pore and crack of PU/AgNO3 after hydrolytic reaction.

An enhanced Delay Propagation Tree model with Bayesian Network (DPT-BN) is developed to model multi-flight delay propagation and delay interdependencies. Using a set of real airline data, results s...

In this study, 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate and polytetramethylene glycol were used to prepare a prepolymer; N,N′-bis(4-hydroxybenzylidene)-2,6-diaminopyridine (BHBP) was used as a chain extender; and these elements were combined to prepare a novel polyurethane, BHBP/PU. Gel permeation chromatography revealed that the molecular weight of the BHBP/PU samples increased as the BHBP content was increased. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy demonstrated that high BHBP content facilitated strong hydrogen bonding in the samples. Differential thermogravimetry indicated that the initial decomposition temperature of BHBP/PU-3 was approximately 10 °C higher than that of BHBP/PU-1. Differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis revealed that increasing the BHBP content substantially increased both the glass transition and dynamic glass transition temperatures of the BHBP/PU samples. The tensile strengths of BHBP/PU-1, BHBP/PU-2, and BHBP/PU-3 were 7.7, 10.9, and 21.6 MPa, respectively, with corresponding Young’s moduli of 0.7, 1.9, and 3.3 MPa. These results demonstrated that both the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the BHBP/PU samples increased as the BHBP content was increased. Moreover, the BHBP/PU samples exhibited excellent shape recovery of >90%.

In this study, nano silver-doped activated carbon (Ag/C) acted as an inorganic additive and was blended with a polysulfone (PSF) matrix in a tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution, thereby forming nano silver- doped activated carbon/polysulfone (Ag/C/PSF) composites. Subsequently, the silver content and characterization of the Ag/C were identified using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The FTIR, XRD, EDS and SEM were used to characterize the structure and morphology of the Ag/C/PSF composites. The FTIR spectra analysis revealed that adding a small volume of Ag/C in a PSF matrix did not substantially affect the functional groups of the matrix. The XRD results showed that the characteristic crystallization peaks of Ag/C/PSF (2θ = 26°) increased as the Ag/C content increased. The EDS results revealed that silver elements were inlaid into Ag/C/PSF composites, and the SEM results demonstrated strong interfacial interaction between the Ag/C particles and PSF matrix. The results of thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry appeared that adding Ag/C particles increased the thermal decomposition temperature and glass transition temperature of the Ag/C/PSF composites. From a stress–strain analysis, the added Ag/C particles enhanced the tensile strength of the PSF matrix. The results of contact-angle and atomic-force microscopy measuring showed that the hydrophobicity and surface roughness increased when Ag/C content increased. The antibacterial test results revealed that the Ag/C/PSF composites exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. In addition, the electrical conductivity measurements showed that volume resistivity of the Ag/C/PSF composites decreased with the amount of Ag/C increase.

Our study aims to contribute empirical evidence on the capacity of aviation policy to stimulate greater tourism in peripheral destinations. Specifically, we examine the extent to which enhanced air service availability to a peripheral destination will translate into greater number of tourists. By using choice experiments, the research design addresses the generative effect of new air services on tourism demand, as well as the broader tourism context in which the air itinerary choices are made. In the context of Koreans travelling to Australia, the market share effects of the changes in the factors both external and internal to aviation policy are simulated. Although the results suggest that changes in the flight itinerary attributes can generate additional tourists for peripheral destinations, the extent to which the aviation attributes can generate tourism is strongly dependent on the tourists' length of stay in Australia. The key implication is that institutional changes such as the length of leave entitlements or visa arrangements for foreign travellers are important contextual factors that can significantly enhance or depress the effect of the destination’s aviation policy and air service attributes designed for tourism development.

As the backbone of Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM), Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is a surveillance technology and digital-technology enabler relying on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The onboard ADS-B Out system broadcasts the aircraft’s real-time digital information such as position and ground speed periodically (every 0.5–2 s), which is more frequent than the radar system. Taking this advantage, situational awareness and flight efficiency can be highly improved. In this paper, a novel heuristic search method based on ADS-B is proposed for the Aircraft Landing Problem (ALP) with the objective of reducing flight time while maintaining the time separation standards mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The recorded ADS-B data in Shanghai Hongqiao and Pudong international airports are adopted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. Results show that there is an obvious decrease in the total flight time. Besides, the heuristic search method can achieve continuous and real-time ALP updates, satisfying the requirements for air traffic control. While highlighting ADS-B-based applications, this study also provides some basic implications for the updated model in air traffic management.

The repertory grid technique was used in this paper to investigate the decision-making process of travellers. Results showed that both destination physical attributes and the travellers' feelings towards the destination play a significant role in the choice of holiday destinations. Notably, a distinct choice pattern emerged from the analysis, which showed some travellers begin their planning process not based on the destination features but on the availability of air tickets on sale. This observation suggested the potential influence of the “sequence” of receiving or searching for transport and tourism information on the choice of a holiday destination.

“Per-passenger-space” has been used as one of the fundamental units of Level of Service (LOS) measurement to evaluate the capacity of airport terminals for passenger comfort and service satisfaction. This study addresses the questions of how air passengers perceive personal space as an airport service attribute, and how the territoriality of passengers is moderated by their age and cultural background. Participants were grouped depending on their age and nationality for a comparative study. The results from the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and open-ended questions supported the conclusion that passengers of different age and cultural backgrounds perceive personal space differently, and their service satisfaction would be partially affected by the availability of personal space within the airport terminal. These findings suggest a necessity for alternative LOS standards that are cost-effective and able to reflect changing age structure and cultural composition of air passengers.

A poly(lactic acid)/poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PLA/PTT) composite was prepared by melt blending to improve the PTT crystallization rate. Morphology analysis of PLA/PTT fractured surfaces demonstrated the compatibility of its components. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the thermodegradation of a PLA/PTT sample was higher than that of PLA. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to evaluate the crystallization behavior. The Avrami equation described the isothermal crystallization kinetics. The Hoffman–Weeks parameters indicated that the PLA presence increased slightly the PTT nucleation. The tests of PLA, PTT, and PLA/PTT specimens in tension showed that a percent elongation of the PLA/PTT composite was between that of PLA and PTT; however, the tensile strength of the PLA/PTT composite was similar to that of PLA.

This study examines the influence of passengers’ travel-related factors, their intention to shop and the impact of socio-economic factors on their consumption behaviours while at the airport terminal. Three categories of consumption model – shopping,dining and airport entertainment – are developed to analyse different consumption behaviours. The results show that free time is the main factor that influences passengers to choose entertainment while waiting at the terminal, and the use of airline lounges has a negative influence on the extent of engagement in all three types of passenger consumption behaviour, especially dining. Furthermore, passengers’ dining expenditure has a positive effect on the extent of engagement in entertainment, but a negative influence on the extent of engagement in airport shopping. Passengers’ preferences of airport shopping area after they have cleared security is positively associated with the extent of engagement in both shopping and entertainment but negatively associated with the extent of engagement in dining activities. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The notable growth of air transportation in recent years has led to increasingly congested airports and airspace. Working at nearly maximum capacity involves risks that normally translate into operational disruptions, increasing costs, and lower service quality. Airlines also participate in a highly competitive market, where margins are diminished and streamlined operations are key to reducing their corresponding costs. In this chapter, we review several studies and applications aimed at better managing existing infrastructure and operations. Many of these works are focused on efficiently assigning resources to release unused capacity, reduce costs, and increase systems' resilience to unexpected events for sustainable transport infrastructure development. We also explore several initiatives proposed to enhance airspace capacity (e.g., SESAR program), while reducing at the same time operational and environmental costs. Efficient management, together with these initiatives, is key to ensuring sustainable growth of the aviation sector in the next few decades.

Labour conditions in enterprise agreements dictate airline worker rostering and affect operating costs. By using an airline ground crew shift optimisation model in the context of Australian labour regulations, this paper explores how labour agreements could affect costs and potential options to improve labour conditions for mutual benefits. Results found that a reduction of shift length could save 30 percent of airline employee costs. The ratio of full-time and part-time staff could significantly affect staffing costs. A portion of staff cost savings could be redirected to employees as wage rises, while maintaining job security and benefiting both parties.

In this study, we used 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), polycaprolactone diol (PCL), and 4-(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propan-2-yl)phenol (HFP) to synthesize novel biodegradable F-containing polyurethanes (HFP/PUs). Among which PCL is a biodegradable soft segment and HFP is a fluoro chain extender. According to FT-IR and XPS spectroscopies, there is a strong hydrogen bonding interaction between F- (in CF3) and –NH groups in the HFP/PUs. For the HFP/PUs, the initial decomposition temperature, glass transition temperature (Tg), dynamic Tg, tensile strength, Young's modulus, and chemical resistance increase with the content of HFP unit or hard segment. This behavior is due to the increase of rigid hard segment and the interaction between CF3 and -NH groups in the HFP/PUs. On the contrary, HFP/PU containing more HFP has lower value of elongation at break. In addition, the AFM images show that the HFP/PU containing higher HFP content exhibits more humpy protrusions and is more rugged. The results of in vitro erythrocyte adhesion tests indicate that the average quantity of erythrocytes adhered on HFP/PU surface decreases with increasing HFP or fluorine content. So fluorine element with low surface free energy is helpful for HFP/PUs to be used as biomedical materials.

Purpose Stereolithography is a well-established technique for producing complex part for rapid prototyping purpose by using UV or laser as a source for curing process. This technique has been implemented in a lot of industrial sectors. However, the parts fabricated by this technique exhibit low mechanical and thermal properties hindering a fast-growing application. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new method of digital light rapid prototyping (DLRP) system and investigate the effect of the addition of bamboo fiber with surface modification on improvement of mechanical properties of urethane diacrylate/bamboo composite. Design/methodology/approach Test specimens were fabricated using aliphatic urethane diacrylate photopolymer as matrix material and bamboo fiber as reinforce material. Adhesion between matrix and reinforce materials is a big issue in compositing, especially when handling bamboo as hydrophilic material and urethane diacrylate as hydrophobic material. To overcome this problem, two surface modifications of bamboo fiber, alkali treatment and silane treatment, were implemented. Findings As a result, bamboo fiber can increase mechanical properties of urethane diacrylate photopolymer fabricated by rapid prototyping system. Originality/value In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of the addition of bamboo powder with surface modification on mechanical properties. Test specimens were fabricated using aliphatic urethane diacrylate photopolymer as matrix material and bamboo powder as reinforce material.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to increase the thermal and mechanical properties of the photopolymer by filling with the copper powder for the application of rapid tooling. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the photopolymer is filled with the different loading of copper powder for investigating the thermal and mechanical properties of the copper/photopolymer composite. The thermal properties of the copper/photopolymer composite are characterized with the degradation temperature and with the thermal conductivity. The mechanical properties of copper/photopolymer composite are performed with the tensile strength and hardness testing. Moreover, the copper/photopolymer composite is imaged by using a scanning electron microscopic with energy dispersive spectroscopy. Findings The tensile strength of the copper/photopolymer composite is increased over 45 per cent at 20 phr copper loading. The hardness of the photopolymer has a negative correlation with the increasing copper loading and is decreased about 28.5 per cent at 100 phr copper loading. The degradation temperature of the copper/photopolymer composite is increased about 7.2 per cent at 70 phr copper loading. The thermal conductivity of the copper/photopolymer composite is increased over 65 per cent at 100 phr copper loading. Originality/value The photopolymer used in rapid prototyping system is generally fragile and has poor thermal properties. This study improves the thermal and mechanical properties of the photopolymer with the copper filling which has been never investigated in the field of rapid prototyping applications.