Spring is in the air

I have recently returned from a vacation to visit family down in Miami, Florida. Vacations are not only healthy downtime but can be used to open your eyes to different cultures, their influences and to spark some inspiration. During short walks through Miami, I was able to catch a few cars that before I had only read about. For example, this twin-turbo V6 Nissan GT-R and this 5.7L V12 Ferrari 575M Maranello (in a tight parking spot I might add). I must admit, leaving Miami was difficult; however, hacing dinner outside while a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is parked yards away can inspire any gear head.

Returning, I find myself relieved that midterms are finally over and I can begin to gather my focus on my material research. Last week, Professor Powell, Jenna Eason and myself were able to meet with Sean Coleman, an NC State graduate student who was named the winner of the 2010 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas (SEMA) Urban Concept Car Competition. Utilizing Sean's excellent design capabilities, we are looking forward to creating a strong collaboration in order to further his "green" concept. Implementing our resources here at the College of Textiles, we are aiming to aid Sean with any material research and development needed to bring his designs to life.

It's a Printer, in THREE Dimensions

The College of Textiles has recently acquired a 3D printer by Z-Corp (Model 450 to be exact). What is a 3D printer you ask? Well, the process starts off in a three dimensional CAD program,where your design is created or loaded (this is an example of a 3D weave design I created in SolidWorks). The design can be colored and resized to your liking with the Z-Corp editing software. The software takes your design and breaks it down into hundreds (depending on the size) cross sectional images (Imaging taking your design and cutting it into millimeter thick sections). The printer consists of a build bed, which holds the build powder, and a printing head. The printer then starts by laying down a single layer of powder and prints a cross section, then repeats the process until the build is complete. The printer speed is approximately 0.9 inches per hour and has the capabilities to print in color. When the build is complete, the build bed recycles any unused powder for future use, the user takes the build out of the bed and into the right section for depowdering (using compressed air to remove any excess powder). Finally, the product is dipped in or covered with a binder,making the final product stronger and brightens the colors.

The capabilities of this printer seem endless and I am very excited to work with this more in the future. For more information about the Z-Corp 450 or to see more designs click here.

My Committee

I have finally created my committee for my thesis support. This committee consists of three professors here at the College of Textiles, each brings a very strong angle to my thesis direction.
Professor Nancy Powell has over 27 years of experience in the automotive textile industry, has a strong management background as well as interests in automotive textiles as well as new product development and currently teaches courses in Textile and Apparel Management. Professor Powell offers experience and knowledge of the automotive industry with a management focus.
Dr. Pam Banks-Lee received her B.S. in Textile Technology and Applied Mathematics, along with her PhD in Fiber and Polymer Science, Dr. Banks-Lee currently teaches courses in Textile Technology with a focus in nonwovens. Dr. Banks-Lee brings a technical view to this committee, be a support in the testing phases of the research.
Dr. Hoon Joo Lee holds a B.S. in Textile Engineering and received her PhD in 2007 in Textile Technology Management, Dr. Lee's research interest is in product development and computer-based design. Dr. Lee offers a strong product development aspect to my committee, being able to help from concept to product.

I am very excited to have my committee finalized and look forward to the next few semesters.

Inspiration

The past few weeks have been a bit hectic, classes have begun and I am finally in classes that I believe can offer the most towards my research. Also, I have finally come to a decision on my thesis topic. I will be focusing my research on using nonwoven technology to design rigid three dimensional structures with a rapid prototyping approach. Basically, I intend to investigate the ability to create a nonwoven, economical alternative to the current woven carbon fiber.

Today i participated in a web seminar that promoted a new, very innovative software for virtual design. The company is Realtime Technology AG (RTT, USA) and they offer a 3D visualization software which enable the user to create a virtual prototype utilizing any physical material in realtime. Basically, any material can be scanned into the software's library or a material can be created virtually and scaled to build a virtual model. The user can view the model in any virtual environment and can even test the fluid flow of a model. Using this software can significantly lower the cost and time of design and product development. I thought this was a very novel software, if you would like to know more, check out the website at http://www.rttusa.com/.

Due to the fact that my last few weeks have been so very busy with getting things in order, I thought that I would get my mind off of things and shed light on an extreme in the automotive community. I wanted to highlight the Splinter car, that's right the wooden supercar. A few years ago, NCSU graduate student in industrial design, Joe Harmon designed and built a 2500 lbs. two-seater with around 600 horsepower. The body was made by weaving wooden strips into sheets, molding the sheets into the desired shape and vacuum sealing it with resin. Not only was the body made from wood, the frame, interior (woven wooden seats, wooden steering wheel), suspension (wooden leaf springs) and even the wheels. Joe event went as far as to track down a type of wood known as osage orange (the strongest wood found in North America) in Kentucky to build the leaf springs. Joe's intention wasn't to put it into production but to show the diversity of a material and to push the limits. To see more on the Splinter including detailed video and visual documentation through the entire build process, check out the website at http://www.joeharmondesign.com/. I wanted to highlight this project because it has been personally inspiring and I believe it offers an amazing insight to the world of materials and their capabilities.

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." -Leonardo da Vinci

Experience

First, I hope everyone had wonderful and safe holidays, it was nice to have a relaxing break but I am looking forward to hitting the ground running. I wanted to start this post with a quick overview of my previous related work experience before I start getting too in depth with my research plans.

I was accepted into NCSU in the biomedical engineering field, for which I was very excited. However, the first semester, I took the elective T101 and my mind was opened to an entirely different world, a new, revolutionary world of textiles. I was blown away, and I had to be part of it. In my undergraduate studies, I was able to hone my research and experimentation abilities.

During the summer of 2008, I had the opportunity to intern with Guilford Performance Textiles, who are leaders in automotive textile production (seat cloth, headliners, etc.). I was very fortunate to be able to work with such a strong company, I was able to see manufacturing first hand and actually be a part of something global. My project there was to investigate a new camera-based quality inspection system. I had to research the parts and present my final recommendation for what to use for the system and how to implement it. This was a great experience and I am very thankful to have been able to do that.

Very soon before my undergraduate graduation in December of 2008, Nancy Powell contacted me about a possible job opportunity with a very innovative company called the Advanced Vehicle Research Center (AVRC). At this time, the company was very strong with their DoE (Department of Energy) contracts, PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) upgrades to the Toyota Prius and they were expanding into PHEV charging stations, CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) up fitments, and much more. I have always loved to be on the cutting edge of technology, especially technology that is helpful to society and the environment, so needless to say that I was very excited to begin working with them. My time at AVRC was never dull, there was always something going on, one day I was writing website code, the next day I would be traveling to Ashville to help with a PHEV installation. During the year that I was able to work with them, AVRC opened an amazing headquarters in Danville, Virginia in the up and coming "Cyber Park", equipped with an off road testing track and 16,000 sq.ft. of office and garage space. I hope to be able to work with AVRC again in the future.

While I was with AVRC, I attended an open house at NCSU and missed it too much to stay away. So, I studied, took my GRE and came back to graduate school in the Fall of 2009. My experience in the automotive field has brought me through the manufacturing aspects of it as well as the customer-interaction and development stages. Over my time in "real-world" experience, I have been able to see what works, what doesn't, what people want and things that people would love but know about yet.

As for my research towards my thesis, I believe I will be locking myself in the library for quite awhile in order to do some literature research to see what is out there. As I have stated before, I am interested in this nonwoven preform process. Professor Powell thought it was a great idea and suggested that I somehow incorporate a way to create the molds quickly in order to create a rapid prototype of the nonwoven parts...

This part of my life is called "investigation"

I have successfully made it through my first semester in graduate school here at NCSU. My courses included a digital design course, medical polymers course, and a composites course. Since it was my first semester, I wanted to branch out a bit and take classes that I wouldn't normally take to see what I am most interested in. All semester I have been racking my brain to figure out what I should focus on for my thesis. Ever since I took my initial textiles class (T101) my first semester of undergraduate, my view on the applications of textiles has changed dramatically. Using the knowledge I have gained over the past years studying textiles and my passion for automobiles, I am sure to find something to focus.

I have always been the type of person that questions, not because I doubt, but because I am interested, I want to learn, I want to understand how and why things work. When I feel as though I understand a system, i begin to ask,"why not this way?" trying to figure ways to make it efficient or different. In my undergraduate studies, I have learned so much pertaining to knits, wovens and nonwovens. After several meetings with my advisor, Professor Powell, I have concluded that minimal automotive research has been accomplished here at the College of Textiles dealing with nonwoven automotive textiles. After some internet research, I have determined that the large amount of research done with nonwovens is focused on sound absorption, interior cloth, and filtration.

When using the term "nonwoven" the overall consensus is that they have low strength and are cheap. I would like to utilize my thesis to change the perception people have about nonwovens. I would like to focus on how to strengthen them in a easily manufactured three-dimensional form for structural applications. This is all still just a thought, I am still trying to find my edge...