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AIM The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the efficacy of denture adhesives (DAs) in completely edentulous denture wearers compared to not using DAs. METHODS AND RESULTS PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE were searched from the database inception up to 6 February 2020 for Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) involving patients with complete dentures in both arches where the use of DAs was compared to no use of DAs. A total of 497 abstracts were reviewed, resulting in inclusion of 10 RCTs. Outcomes reported in the included trials were thoroughly reviewed and tabulated. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used. All 10 studies were assessed at unclear (10%) or high risk of bias (90%). Studies showed DAs improved mainly retention/stability, and masticatory/chewing ability/performance, compared to no adhesives. CONCLUSION Most studies showed favorable results for DAs on retention and stability of complete dentures, masticatory performance, patient's comfort and satisfaction. Due to the heterogeneity of the outcomes, unclear/high risk of bias and small sample sizes, the quality of the evidence was very low. More high-quality research is needed with improved blinding and use of standardized methods to evaluate the efficacy of DAs.

Laser-assisted gas nitriding of selective Ti-6Al-4 V surfaces has been achieved during laser powder bed fusion fabrication by exchanging the argon build gas environment with nitrogen. Systematic variation of processing parameters allowed microdendritic TiN surface coatings to be formed having thicknesses ranging from a few tens of microns to several hundred microns, with TiN dendrite microstructure volume fractions ranging from 0.6 to 0.75; and corresponding Vickers microindentation hardness values ranging from ∼ 7.5 GPa–9.5 GPa. Embedded TiN hard layers ranging from 50 μm to 150 μm thick were also fabricated in the laser-beam additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4 V alloy producing prototype, hybrid, planar composites having alternating, ductile Ti-6Al-4 V layers with a hardness of ∼ 4.5 GPa and a stiff, TiN layer with a hardness of ∼8.5 GPa. The results demonstrate prospects for fabricating novel, additively manufactured components having selective, hard, wear and corrosion resistant coatings along with periodic, planar or complex metal matrix composite regimes exhibiting superior toughness and related mechanical properties.

During solidification of many so-called high-performance engineering alloys, such as 6000 and 7000 series aluminum alloys, which are also unweldable autogenously, volumetric solidification shrinkage and thermal contraction produces voids and cracks. During additive manufacturing processing, these defects can span the length of columnar grains, as well as intergranular regions. In this research, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of aluminum alloy (AA) 6061 used powder bed heating at 500 °C in combination with other experimentally determined processing parameters to produce crack-free components. In addition, melt-pool banding, which is a normal solidification feature in LPBF, was eliminated, illustrating solidification process modification as a consequence of powder bed heating. Corresponding microindentation hardness and tensile testing of the as-fabricated AA6061 components indicated an average Vickers hardness of HV 54, and tensile yield, ultimate strength, and elongation values of 60 MPa, 130 MPa, and 15%, respectively. These mechanical properties and those of heat treated parts showed values comparable to annealed and T6 heat treated wrought products, respectively. X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy revealed columnar grain growth in the build direction with the as-fabricated, powder-bed heated product microstructure characterized by [100] textured, elongated grains (∼ 25 μm wide by 400 μm in length), and both intragranular and intergranular, noncoherent Al-Si-O precipitates which did not contribute significantly to the mechanical properties. The results of this study are indicative that powder bed heating may be used to assist with successful fabrication of AA6061 and other alloy systems susceptible to additive manufacturing solidification cracking.

The article presents an exploration of design and prototyping of oxy-fuel injectors with integrated temperature sensing capabilities using powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. A primary focus of this work was to develop powder removal techniques to completely remove sintered powders from internal cavities, which facilitated the implementation of complex injector geometries as well as sensor placements within the parts. It was found that submerging the part in liquid nitrogen, in combination with exposure to ultrasonic vibration, provided effective powder removal. Mechanical testing of fabricated components and test coupons showed no significant change in the mechanical strength of the part due to the addition of liquid nitrogen which creates a thermal shock. Metallography and powder characterization through the use of SEM and EDS showed no change in metallurgical properties of the parts due to the use of liquid nitrogen and ultrasonic energy. The injectors were then test fired in both atmospheric and high-pressure conditions at different firing inputs (55–275 kW).

Electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing (AM) technology has allowed the layerwise fabrication of parts from metal powder precursor materials that are selectively melted using an electron beam. An advantage of EBM technology over conventional manufacturing processes has been the capability to change processing variables (e.g., beam current, beam speed, and beam focus) throughout part fabrication, enabling the processing of a wide variety of materials. In this research, additional scans were implemented in an attempt to promote grain coarsening through the added thermal energy. It is hypothesized that the additional energy caused coarsening of Ti-6Al-4V microstructure that has been shown to increase mechanical properties of as-fabricated parts as well as improve surface characteristics (e.g., reduced porosity). Fatigue testing was performed on an L-bracket using a loading configuration designed to cause failure at the corner (i.e., intersection of the two members) of the bracket. Results showed 22% fatigue life improvement from L-brackets with as-fabricated conditions to L-brackets with a graded microstructure resulting from the selective addition of thermal energy in the expected failure region. Three L-brackets were fabricated and exposed to a triple melt cycle (compared to the standard single melt cycle) during fabrication, machined to specific dimensions, and tested. Results for fatigue performance were within ∼1% of wrought L-brackets. The work from this research shows that new design procedures can be implemented for AM technologies that involve evaluation of stress concentration sites using finite element analysis and implementation of scanning strategies during fabrication that help improve performance by spatially adjusting thermal energy at potential failure sites or high stress regions.

An advantage of electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing technology is the ability to process high-melting temperature, refractory, and/or reactive materials. This research focused on the processing of high-purity niobium precursor powder using EBM technology primarily for the freeform design and fabrication of next-generation superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities. SRF accelerating cavities have been used in particle accelerators for over 35 years and are used in today’s leading applications in high-energy and nuclear physics. Procedures were developed and employed in this research to successfully fabricate high-density niobium parts (>99 % relative density) with a thermal conductivity of ~50 W/m-K that were evaluated mechanically (140 ± 14 MPa yield strength and 225 ± 11 MPa ultimate tensile strength) and compared to wrought reactor-grade niobium (135 ± 17 MPa yield strength and 205 ± 17 MPa ultimate tensile strength). Re-engineered SRF cavities were successfully fabricated whose complex design was intended to overcome nonuniform Lorentz forces during operation. The fabrication of niobium using EBM suggests that similar procedures from this research can be applied to successfully fabricate other refractory materials such as niobium alloys as well as highly conductive materials such as copper.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have been receiving extensive attention because of the high specific energy density for wide applications such as electronic vehicles, commercial mobile electronics, and military applications. In LIB, graphite is the most commonly used anode material; however, lithium-ion intercalation in graphite is limited, hindering the battery charge rate and capacity. To overcome this obstacle, nanostructured anode assembly has been extensively studied to increase the lithium-ion diffusion rate. Among these approaches, high specific surface area metal oxide nanowires connecting nanostructured carbon materials accumulation have shown propitious results for enhanced lithium intercalation. Recently, nanowire/graphene hybrids were developed for the enhancement of LIB performance; however, almost all previous efforts employed nanowires on graphene in a random fashion, which limited lithium-ion diffusion rate. Therefore, we demonstrate a new approach by hydrothermally growing uniform nanowires on graphene aerogel to further improve the performance. This nanowire/graphene aerogel hybrid not only uses the high surface area of the graphene aerogel but also increases the specific surface area for electrode-electrolyte interaction. Therefore, this new nanowire/graphene aerogel hybrid anode material could enhance the specific capacity and charge-discharge rate. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) are used for materials characterization. Battery analyzer and potentio-galvanostat are used for measuring the electrical performance of the battery. The testing results show that nanowire graphene hybrid anode gives significantly improved performance compared to graphene anode.

Lithium ion batteries (LIB) have been receiving extensive attention due to the high specific energy density for wide applications such as electronic vehicles, commercial mobile electronics, and military applications. In LIB, graphite is the most commonly used anode material; however, lithium ion intercalation in graphite is limited, hindering the battery charge rate and capacity. To overcome this obstacle, nanostructured anode assembly has been extensively studied to increase the lithium ion diffusion rate. Among these approaches, high specific surface area metal oxide nanowires co nnecting nanostructured carbon materials accumulation have shown propitious results for enhanced lithium intercalation. Recently, nanowire/graphene hybrids were developed for the enhancement of LIB performance; however, almost all previous efforts employe d nanowires on graphene in a random fashion, which limited lithium ion diffusion rate. Therefore, we demonstrate a new approach by hydrothermally growing uniform nanowire s on graphene aerogel to further improve the performance. This nanowire/graphene aer ogel hybrid not only uses the high surface area of the graphene aerogel but also increases the specific surface area for electrode -electrolyte interaction. Therefore, this new nanowire/graphene aerogel hybrid anode material could enhance the specific capa city and charge -discharge rate. Sca nning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X -Ray Diffraction (XRD ) are used for materials characterization. Battery Analyzer and Potentio -galvanostat are used for measuring the electrical performance of the battery. Th e testin g results show that nanowire graphene hybrid anode gives significantly improved performance compared to graphene anode. Keywords: Graphene, lithium ion battery, aerogel, nanowire

Quality assurance is an important topic for additive manufacturing (AM) and often seen as a requirement for the transition and adoption of the technology toward fabrication of end use applications. As AM technologies are used for production, it is necessary to ensure high quality, repeatable, and reproducible components are manufactured. Various nondestructive examination techniques have been used to evaluate AM-fabricated parts to determine part quality post-fabrication (e.g. scanning and/or microstructural characterization). In situ monitoring methods have been developed for AM technologies to enable defect detection and have potential to be used for in situ monitoring and correction of fabrication anomalies (e.g. undesired temperature gradients and porosity). In this research, defects (e.g. pores) were seeded into parts fabricated using the powder bed fusion AM process, electron beam melting, and monitored using in situ infrared (IR) thermography. Results from layerwise thermography were compared with results obtained using computer tomography (CT) scanning techniques. Although the measured geometry of the seeded defects between IR thermography and CT was substantially different (area difference of ~60%), the thermographs did provide a good indication of defects present within a fabricated part. Furthermore, defect correction methods were evaluated including post-processing methods such as hot isostatic pressing as well as in situ correction methods such as layer re-melting. Re-melting a porous layer successfully corrected defects and demonstrates a potential method for in situ defect correction if implemented in future systems equipped with automatic feedback control of powder bed fusion processes.

Conventionally, software tools for the design of bioprocesses have provided only limited business-related information for decision-making. There is an industrial need to investigate manufacturing options and to gauge the impact of various decisions from economic as well as process perspectives. This paper describes the development and use of a tool to provide an assessment of whole flowsheets by capturing both process and business aspects. The tool is demonstrated by considering the issues concerned when making decisions between two potential flowsheets for a common product. A case study approach is used to compare the process and business benefits of a conventional process route employing packed chromatography beds and an alternative that uses expanded bed adsorption (EBA). The tool allows direct evaluation of the benefits of capital cost reduction and increased yield offered by EBA against penalties of using potentially more expensive EBA matrix with lower lifetimes. Furthermore, the tool provides the ability to gauge the process robustness of each flowsheet option.

The study of electrochemical super-capacitors has become one of the most attractive topics in both academia and industry as energy storage devices because of their high power density, long life cycles, and high charge/discharge efficiency. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the development of multifunctional structural energy storage devices such as structural super-capacitors for applications in aerospace, automobiles, and portable electronics. These multifunctional structural super-capacitors provide structures combining energy storage and load bearing functionalities, leading to material systems with reduced volume and/or weight. Due to their superior materials properties, carbon fiber composites have been widely used in structural applications for aerospace and automotive industries. Besides, carbon fiber has good electrical conductivity which will provide lower equivalent series resistance; therefore, it can be an excellent candidate for structural energy storage applications. Hence, this paper is focused on performing a pilot study for using nanowire/carbon fiber hybrids as building materials for structural energy storage materials; aiming at enhancing the charge/discharge rate and energy density. This hybrid material combines the high specific surface area of carbon fiber and pseudo-capacitive effect of metal oxide nanowires, which were grown hydrothermally in an aligned fashion on carbon fibers. The aligned nanowire array could provide a higher specific surface area that leads to high electrode-electrolyte contact area thus fast ion diffusion rates. Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction measurements are used for the initial characterization of this nanowire/carbon fiber hybrid material system. Electrochemical testing is performed using a potentio-galvanostat. The results show that gold sputtered nanowire carbon fiber hybrid provides 65.9% higher energy density than bare carbon fiber cloth as super-capacitor.