Search results for "Mold"
showing 10 items of 118 documents
Characterization of Self-Growing Biomaterials Made of Fungal Mycelium and Various Lignocellulose-Containing Ingredients
2022
In this study, novel blends of mycelium biocomposites (MB) were developed. Various combinations of birch sawdust and hemp shives with birch bark (BB) and wheat bran (WB) additives were inoculated with basidiomycete Trametes versicolor to produce self-growing biomaterials. MB were characterized according to mycelial biomass increment in final samples, changes in chemical composition, elemental (C, H, N) analyses, granulometry of substrates, water-related and mechanical properties, as well as mold resistance and biodegradability. The mycelial biomass in manufactured MB increased by ~100% and ~50% in hemp and sawdust substrates, respectively. The lignocellulose ingredients during fungal growth…
Frame fungi on insulated windows.
1985
Insulated windows (fixed triple glass window elements), became common in Finland during and after the energy crisis. Moisture tends to condense along the edges causing mold growth on the frames. Nine houses with insulated glass windows and eight with other types of window were studied. Fungus samples were taken from the window edges and from the inside air and cultivated on malt extract agar. In five of the houses with insulated windows there was visible mold growth on the window edges. The predominant fungus was Aureobasidium pullulans. With other types of windows there was only one case of visible mold. The concentrations of fungi were about the same in the air of houses with both types o…
Monoclonal Gammopathies and the Bone Marrow Microenvironment: From Bench to Bedside and Then Back Again
2023
Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematologic malignancy characterized by a multistep evolutionary pathway, with an initial phase called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), potentially evolving into the symptomatic disease, often preceded by an intermediate phase called “smoldering” MM (sMM). From a biological point of view, genomic alterations (translocations/deletions/mutations) are already present at the MGUS phase, thus rendering their role in disease evolution questionable. On the other hand, we currently know that changes in the bone marrow microenvironment (TME) could play a key role in MM evolution through a progressive shift towards a pro-inflammatory and…
Liquid crystal polymer-based blends: “Universal grade” polymers?
1992
Polymeric materials can be easily processed with different processing operations thanks to suitable rheological properties. Melt flow index, or grade, which is a measure of the fluidity of the polymers, is the most commonly parameter used to characterize the polymers from the point of view of their melt viscosity. Injection molding requires high grade materials, whereas low grade values are best suited for extrusion. Of course, it would be no doubt of interest if single “universal grade” materials could be used for all processing operations. In this paper it is demonstrated that the blends of low grade polymers with small amounts of liquid crystal polymers can be conveniently used for all p…
Indentation test as a tool for monitoring the solidification process during injection molding
2003
An inline method for monitoring the solidification process during the injection molding of semicrystalline polymers is demonstrated. The method has been applied to various poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(buthylene terephthalate) (PBT) samples. The technique is based on a simple device by which an additional ejector pin is pushed onto the injection-molded part with a fixed force at different times during the solidification phase while the mold remains closed. The residual deformation (the so-called indentation depth) due to the applied load is measured offline after ejection. By the performance of indentation at different times during the cooling phase, an indentation depth profi…
Characterization of a fiber reinforced semirigid liquid crystalline polymer
1997
In this work, samples of a semirigid Liquid crystalline polymer reinforced with carbon and glass fibers has been characterized. Semirigid liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) show some advantages with respect to rigid LCPs: in particular lower processing temperatures, and better compatibility with flexible thermoplastics, but also some disadvantages: lower mechanical properties and poor thermomechanical resistance. Both properties can be improved by adding inorganic fillers. Although elastic modulus and tensile strength of the glass fiber filled LCP improve remarkably with increasing the filler content, the same properties for the carbon fiber-filled samples do not increase with increasing ti…
Effects of filler type and mixing method on the physical properties of a reinforced semirigid liquid crystal polymer
1996
Semirigid liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) show some advantages with respect to rigid LCP: in particular lower processing temperatures, better compatibility with flexible thermoplastics, but also some disadvantages. Thermal resistance of rigid LCPs is much better and the maximum working temperature is, in general, very high. The thermomechanical properties can be improved by adding inorganic fillers. In this work processing, mechanical and thermomechanical properties of a filled semirigid liquid crystal copolyester are reported. Several inorganic fillers have been used in order to put in evidence the influence of shape and dimensions of the particles on the properties of the filled materi…
Evaluation of interfacial shear strength by tensile tests of impregnated flax fiber yarns
2011
Adhesion of flax fibers and polymer matrix as well as mutual bonding of elementary fibers in a technical fiber are among the principal factors governing the mechanical response of flax fiber-reinforced polymer–matrix composites. A method for evaluation of adhesion is proposed based on tension tests of impregnated fiber yarns, with subsequent characterization by optical microscopy of length distribution of fibers pulled out of the yarn fracture surfaces. An elementary probabilistic model is derived relating aspect ratio distribution of the pulled-out fibers to the fiber tensile strength distribution and the effective interfacial shear strength (IFSS). The method was applied to flax fiber/vi…
No-flow temperature and solidification in injection molding simulation
2011
The no‐flow temperature (NFT) is a parameter representing the rheological solidification temperature of a polymer. A polymer, during injection molding filling stage, can stop its flow because of its high viscosity, although it is not yet fully solidified by means of glass transition or crystallization. The NFT is used in most of injection molding simulation packages: with this simple parameter it is possible to reduce the errors deriving from viscosity extrapolation at relatively low temperatures. The viscosity measurements for polymers are usually carried out at high temperatures, and the viscosity models can fail in prediction at temperatures close to the glass transition or crystallizati…
No-Flow Temperature in Injection Molding Simulation
2010
Most injection molding simulation packages use the no-flow temperature (NFT) as a means of determining whether the polymer flows or is solid. The NFT is not well defined, and a standard method for measuring it does not exist. A sensitivity analysis of the filling stage has been carried out with two different packages [VISI Flow (Vero Software Limited, Gloucestershire, UK) and Moldflow (Autodesk, Inc., San Rafael, CA)] to estimate the influence of the NFT on the main processing parameters. The NFT has a large influence on the thickness of the frozen layer, but it does not appreciably affect the filling pressure. Because the NFT affects the frozen layer, an effect on the estimation of shrinka…