A self-sensing material can not only carry a load but can also provide data aboutthe load and stress it’s being subjected to. Traditional additive manufacturing haslimited capabilities in producing self-sensing material. Existing 3D printers eitherused in industry or in scientific applications are either limited by closed-off software and planar motion which limits the design freedom, or the type of material orcost often limiting the attainability. Being capable of placing self-sensing materialwith full design freedom means that the sensor structure as well as the load carryingpart of the material can be tailored to the application specific use of the material,making application specific load carrying and sensing capabilities possible. Themanufacturing method produced in this aims to solve these existing limitations. Aliterature review in the topic of additive manufacturing of self-sensing material andcontinuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics (CFRTPs) has been producedas a literature base. The review seeks to educate and inspire the design of an noveladditive manufacturing method and device capable of printing a self-sensing material as well as non-planar motion. A design for extruding self-sensing material andnon-planar motion has been realized through modified Commercial-Off-The-Shelf(COTS) parts and Geometric Code (G-Code). Existing hardware capable of producing this can be priced in the range of 70 000 C, but this result has been achievedwith around 200 C [42]. A software structure capable of manufacturing the selfsensing material has been produced. Real-world testing in terms of extrusion of theself-sensing material and non-planar motion has been tested and proven which arethe main practical outcomes demonstrating the technological feasibility.

Renewable energy production with wind turbines has been rising in the last 30 years and it is a crucial technology, which is necessary for the energy transition. As sustainable as the energy production of wind turbines is, the waste management of the blade material is not. Most of the blades end up on a landfill or get incinerated. There are different types of recycling methods, but the most commonly used is to shred the fibers into little pieces and reusing them for filler material in the concrete industry. This approach does not actually split up the blade material into its components but it is more of a downcycling. In this thesis, a new type of pyrolysis will be looked into, which splits up the blade material into its components namely glass fibers and plastic using molten salt. This process would make the glass fiber industry more sustainable by introducing a recycled glass fiber with minimal loss in quality. In a first step, the blade material will be examined more closely with a thermogravimetric analysis to find out what kind of plastic it is and what temperature would be necessary to pyrolyze it. This information will be used to conduct an experiment in a molten salt solution and determine the necessary reaction time and temperature. This data will be used to compare the costs of this method with shredding the material and the conventional pyrolysis. From the thermogravimetric analysis, it was possible to determine that the type of plastic used in this turbine was made out of epoxy. The maximum degredation of this material occurred at 380 ◦C. Not many experiments could be conducted in order to find the optimal conditions for the pyrolysis process due to difficulties with the furnace. Nevertheless, one sample was successfully pyrolyzed at a temperature of 400 ◦C with a residence time of 15 minutes. With the current market conditions in the recycled glass fibers industry, this product would be too expensive and the demand would be too little. However, the market is expected to grow in the next couple years due to rising interests in circular economy and governments introducing regulations. Nevertheless, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the molten salt pyrolysis in order to be applicable to a bigger scale. More experiments should be conducted with cheaper molten salt in order to sink the costs of the process.

The focus of the project is recycling of the insulation material mineral wool. The aim is to investigate the potential of using post-consumer wool from landfill as fiber reinforcement in a polymer matrix. Information gathering is conducted by a literature study on previous research, with focus on sustainability, circular economy and waste management. Potential is evaluated by producing test specimens, test mechanical properties with tensile and flexural tests, and conducting a life cycle assessment and economic analysis of the material. Mechanical properties of interest in this study are maximum stress and stiffness. The conclusion is that the manufacturing methods selected in the project do not achieve sufficient quality in the material to determine whether the fibers have the desired effect. Rock wool fibers do blend well with both polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE), but polymer composites with short fibers require control of fiber length, dispersion and direction, and the material needs to be free of pores which has not been achieved at this stage. As a result, unreinforced HDPE performs best in tensile tests (19,4 MPa in stress and 1,22 GPa Young’s modulus), in bending reinforced PP of virgin plastic achieves the highest stress and unreinforced PP the highest flexural modulus (74,1 MPa and 0,74 GPa respectively). The life cycle assessment shows that recycled rock wool fibers have potential to produce 60% less CO2 emissions than the equivalent glass fiber composite. In addition, stone wool fibers show the potential to save 30 000 SEK/ton compared to glass fiber, which corresponds to a 75% lower price. / Projektets fokus är återvinning av isoleringsmaterialet mineralull. Målet är att undersöka potentialen i att använda avfallet efter rivning eller renovering som fiberförstärkning i en polymermatris. Insamling av information sker genom att utföra en litteraturstudie på forskning, med fokus på hållbarhet, cirkulär ekonomi och avfallshantering. Materialets potential utvärderas genom att tillverka provstavar, testa mekaniska egenskaper med dragprov och böjprov, samt utföra livscykelanalys och ekonomisk analys av materialet. Mekaniska egenskaper av intresse i denna studie är maximal spänning och styvhet. Slutsatsen är att de valda tillverkningsmetoderna i projektet inte åstadkommer tillräcklig kvalitet i materialet för att kunna avgöra om fibrerna har önskad effekt. Fiber och matris blandar sig bra både i fallet med polypropen (PP) och hög-densitet polyeten (HDPE), men polymerkompositer med korta fibrer kräver kontroll av fiberlängd, spridning och riktning, och materialet behöver vara fritt från porer, vilket inte uppnåtts i detta stadie. Resultatet är att oförstärkt HDPE presterar bäst i dragprov (19,4 MPa i spänning och 1,22 GPa i E-modul), i böjning uppnår förstärkt PP av nyproducerad plast högst spänning och oförstärkt PP högst E-modul (74,1 MPa respektive 0,74 GPa). Livscykelanalysen visar att fibrer av återvunnen stenull har potential att bidra med 60% CO2-utsläpp än motsvarande komposit med glasfiber. Stenullsfibrer visar dessutom potential att spara 30 000 kr/ton jämfört med glasfiber, vilket motsvarar 75% lägre pris.

This thesis investigates the challenges and opportunities of recycling PA6-GF30, a glass-filled polyamide, to address the pressing environmental concerns surrounding polymer waste. Through a collaboration between Thule Group and Jönköping University, it aims to understand how the properties of recycled materials evolve over time and reprocessing cycles, proposing practical methods for their utilization in sustainable manufacturing practices. Thule Group's commitment to reducing emissions entails transitioning to sustainable materials, particularly through increased use of recycled engineering materials like PA6-GF30, to lower the carbon footprint of products, emphasizing the importance of maintaining product quality and safety while exploring the effects of recycled materials on mechanical properties. Through producing and testing post-industrial and post-consumer samples added to virgin PA6-GF30 with varying ratios, comparison with the commercially available polymers was conducted. In total, 15 different mixtures of pellets of different quantity and quality of recycled composites were investigated with tensile test and impact test, moreover the fibers of some batches were filtrated from the matrix and the fiber aspect ratio was examined with the help of an optical microscope. Results illustrated that recycled polymers generally showed more mechanical property degradation as the ratio of recycled polymers were increased. Furthermore, adding the same amount of post-consumer regrinds as opposed to post-industrial was more detrimental to the overall mechanical performance. Post-industrial composite regrinds performed 11,3% worse in UTS, meanwhile post-consumer regrinds dropped by 25,5% in the same characteristic when the samples made of 100% recycled materials were compared to the virgin composite.  The reason behind this phenomenon was investigated and supported by microscopy. One of them is the natural aging of the material that operates through chain scission, that slowly makes that polymer stiffer and weaker. The other and more dominant reason is the damage taken by the fibers, that create numerous stress concentration sites at fiber ends, within the structure, ultimately damaging the fiber-matrix interface.

Nanokompositfilmer med fem olika sammansättningar av hexagonala bornitrid nanosheet och TEMPO-CNF tillverkades med hjälp av vakuumassisterad filtreringsteknik. sond-ultraljudsteknik användes som en grön väg för exfoliering av bornitridpulver i vattenhaltigt medium. TEMPO-CNF spelade nyckelroller som både matris och dispergeringsmedel för stabilisering av bornitrid nanosheets i kompositen. Nanokompositfilmerna var flexibla och formbara och de visade höga mekaniska egenskaper inklusive hög draghållfasthet och god brottöjning. / Nanocomposite films with five different compositions of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets and TEMPO-CNF were fabricated using vacuum-assisted filtration technique. probe-ultrasonication technique was applied as a green route for exfoliation of boron nitride powder in aqueous medium. TEMPO-CNF played key roles as both matrix and dispersant agent for stabilization of the boron nitride nanosheets in the composite. The nanocomposite films were flexible and ductile, and they showed high mechanical properties including high tensile strength and good elongation at break.

Abstract The wood industries to this day use almost exclusively petroleum derived adhesives that are based mainly on the reaction of formaldehyde with urea, melamine or phenol. These adhesives have low cost and good adjustable properties which makes it hard for bio-based alternatives to compete. Phenol formaldehyde (PF), as an example of a synthetic adhesive, has been in use for over 100 years. In some parts of the world, legislation around formaldehyde is changing, and there is an increasingly voluntary awareness about the toxicity and unsustainability of formaldehyde. Industries realize that raw materials from oil is unstainable. The latter is currently a driving factor behind research on alternatives to amino based adhesives. Also, consumer interest in healthy and sustainable products, such as emitting less formaldehyde indoors, increases the need for bio based adhesives. Cellulose contained in plant cell walls is a renewable, abundant and nontoxic resource. During the last decades, many innovations have been achieved around cellulose and this trend does not seem to be slowing down. Cellulose shows excellent mechanical properties, high strength, high elastic modulus as well as having a low density. Research about cellulose reinforced adhesives has been increased the last years. This thesis studied the enhancement of phenol formaldehyde adhesive with Crystalline Nano Cellulose (CNC) at 5wt% and 10wt% loading levels for producing plywood boards. Indecisive results when using CNC higher than 3wt%, especially with PF resin, have been reported by other authors. In this thesis, European standards were applied. EN 314 was applied to test the panels shear strength. Three (3) treatment classes were selected, indoor room condition as well as pre-treatments 5.1.1 and 5.1.3. Other properties measured were modulus of elasticity, thickness swelling, formaldehyde emissions. Results showed a shear strength increase for all pre-treatment classes. 10wt% CNC mixture with phenol formaldehyde in water bath, pre-treatment (5.1.1) for 24h showed the highest increase in shear strength (+73,9%). The 10 wt% CNC mixture panels also showed the highest wood fibre failure of all panel types produced. A decrease in MOE has been observed with 10 wt% CNC compared to the 5 wt% CNC panels. Formaldehyde emissions tests were inconclusive, but since less PF was used, there was a general reduction in emissions. The 5 wt% CNC panels were superior in terms of modulus of elasticity and swelling and also showed improved shear strength.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) for metals includes is a group of production methodst hat use a layer-by-layer approach to directly manufacture final parts. In recent years, the production rate and material quality of additive manufactured materials have improved rapidly which has gained increased interest from the industry to use AM not only for prototyping, but for serial production. AM offers a greater design freedom, compared to conventional production methods, which allows for parts with new innovative design. This is very attractive to the aerospace industry, in which parts could be designed to have reduced weight and improved performance contributing to reduced fuel consumption, increased payload and extended flight range. There are, however, challenges yet to solve before the potential of AM could be fully utilized in aerospace applications. One of the major challenges is how to deal with the poor fatigue behaviour of AM material with rough as-built surface. The aim of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of how AM can be used for high performance industrial parts by investigating the fatigue behaviour of the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V produced with different AM processes. Foremost, the intention is to improve the understanding of how rough as-built AM surfaces in combination with AM built geometrical notches affects the fatigue properties.This was done by performing constant amplitude fatigue testing to compare different combinations of AM material produced by Electron Beam Melting(EBM) and Laser Sintering (LS) with machined or rough as-built surfaces with or without geometrical notches and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) treatment. Furthermore, the material response can be different between constant amplitude and variable amplitude fatigue loading due to effects of overloads and local plastic deformations. The results from constant amplitude testing were used to predict the fatigue life for variable amplitude loading by cumulative damage approach and these predictions were then verified by experimental variable amplitude testing. The constant amplitude fatigue strength of material with rough as-built surfaces was found to be 65-75 % lower, compared to conventional wrought bar, in which HIP treatments had neglectable influence on the fatigue strength. Furthermore, the fatigue life predictions with cumulative damage calculations showed good agreement with the experimental results which indicates that a cumulative damage approach can be used, at least for a tensile dominated load sequences, to predict the fatigue behaviour of additive manufactured Ti6Al4V.

The increasing worldwide demand for more eco-friendly materials with improved tribo- logical properties has expanded the interest in research on polymer as an alternative for conventional metal/metal contacts under dry lubrication. Specifically, UHMWPE, a semi-crystalline polymer, has shown interesting tribological properties for low demanding applications, allied with excellent recyclability, manufacturability and low cost. Though, its limited working temperature range and wear resistance claims reinforcements to modulate these drawbacks. Metal sulfides, such as MoS2 and SnS2 are well-known 2D materials with outstanding thermal, mechanical and tribological properties which have the potential to increase the range of applicability of UHMWPE. Therefore, this work aims to investigate the influence of metal sulfide-based micro-particles on UHMWPE-based composites properties under reciprocating movement and to determine further acknowledgements about the mechanisms involved. The results showed that the incorporation of fillers im- proved in hardness and wettability, whereas thermal properties were conserved. Though, it is noted that chemical degradation processes (oxidation and un-saturation reactions) that occurred during the manufacturing negatively influenced the composite’s tribological response. Higher reinforcement weight percentages (10%) promoted metal-sulfides agglomeration, increased degradation and ultimately diminished wear resistance. Overall, optimizing the amount of filler in the matrix at 5 wt% provided its homogeneous dispersion and a good interface with the matrix, leading to enhancement in wear resistance up to 62%. Indeed, the incorporation of metal-sulfide based materials in the UHMWPE matrix revealed an excellent solution where wear resistance improvements are needed.

This thesis was made in cooperation with Roxtec. Roxtec specialises in cable sealingsolutions and are world leading in their area. In many of Roxtec’s products steel isused in the frame holding the sealing rubber. To lower Roxtec’s environmental foot-print plastic would be used instead in the frames if possible, more specific polyamide6.6 with 25% glass fiber reinforcement (PA66GF25). Polyamide is affected to agreater extent by temperature and humidity than steel and therefore poses a greaterrisk when considering the sealing capability in harsh conditions. The purpose of thisthesis is therefore to investigate the effects on the Young’s modulus by temperatureand relative humidity, which both correlate to moisture content in the plastic. Theintended temperature and moisture saturation interval are -40◦C to 80◦C and 0% to100% moisture saturation respectively. Tensile test samples were made through machining samples from existing productsand conditioning them to desired moisture content. With the use of tensile testingthe Young’s modulus could be determined for a number of combinations of temper-ature and moisture content. From this data an approximated polynomial surfaceof the Young’s modulus could be produced. The conditioning of the test piecescould be accelerated by submersion in heated water, decreasing conditioning timeto less than two days. The approximation of the Young’s modulus function couldbe done using polynomial approximation. The resulting polynomial for the positivetemperatures was of the third order dependant of the two variables moisture con-tent and temperature. For the negative temperatures a single variable polynomialwas approximated due to only one moisture content being tested for. To ensure thevalidity of the model each test combination consisted of three individual tensile testof which an average was calculated. The approximated function was then comparedto a data sheet value for a certain moisture content and temperature. From theresulting surface approximation of the Young’s modulus in positive temperatures itcan be deduced that PA66GF25 is more greatly affected by moisture content thantemperature. Especially at low levels of moisture content where the rise in Young’smodulus is exponential while more linear at higher moisture contents. The maximumand minimum Young’s modulus was found to be 8 GPa and 2.7 GPa respectively.The negative temperature approximation was restricted to one moisture content andtherefore resulted in a graph. The behaviour of this graph was likely a result of icein the material as similarities to a study regarding the mechanical properties of icewas found. / Detta examensarbete gjordes i sammarbete med Roxtec. Roxtec specialialiserar sig ikabeltätningslösningar och är världsledande i området. I många av Roxtecs produk-ter så används stål till att försegla gummi. För att minska Roxtecs miljöpåverkan såskulle plast användas till tätningarnas ramar om möjligt, speficikt polyamid 6.6 med25% glasfiberförstärkning (PA66GF25). Polyamid påverkas till större andel av tem-peratur och luftfuktighet än stål och utsätts därmed för en större risk med avseendepå tätnings kapabiliteten i tuffa miljöer. Syftet med detta arbete är därmed attundersöka effekterna på Elasticitetsmodul från temperatur och luftfuktighet, vilkakorrelerar mot fuktmättnadsgraden i plasten. Det avsedda temperaturintervallet är-40◦C till 80◦C och 0% till 100% fuktmättnadsgrad. Dragprovstesterna gjordes genom bearbetning av existerande produkter följt av kon-ditionering till önskad fuktmättnadsgrad. Genom genomförandet av dragprov, såkunde Youngs modul bestämmas för ett antal kombinationer av temperaturer ochfukterhalter. Från denna data så kunde en polynomyta för Youngs modul approx-imeras. Konditioneringen av dragprovsbitarna kunde accelereras genom nedsänkningi upphettat vatten, vilket minskade konditioneringstiden till mindre än två dygn. Ap-proximeringen av funktionen för Youngs modul kunde göras genom polynomapprox-imering, vilket resulterade i en tredje ordnings polynom beroende på två variablernafuktmättnadsgrad och temperatur. En annan approximation gjordes för de nega-tiva temperaturerna, då enbart temperaturberoende beteende undersöktes med enkonstant fuktmättnadsgrad. För att säkerställa validiteten av modellen så gjordestre mätningar på varje testkombination ifrån vilket ett medel kalkylerades. Den ap-proximerade funktionen jämfördes sedan med värdena från datablad för en viss fukt-mättnadsgrad och temperatur. Från den resulterande ytapproximationen av Youngsmodul för de positiva temperaturerna, så kan slutsatsen att PA66GF25 är avsevärtmycket mer påverkad av fukt än temperatur dras. Detta är tydligare för de testernamed låga fuktmättnadsgrader då ökningen av Youngs modul är exponentiell medanden är mer linjär för högre fuktmättnadsgrad. Den maximala och minimala Youngsmodul visade sig vara 8 GPa och 2.7 GPa respektive. De negativa temperaturernasapproximation var begränsad till en fuktmättnadsgrad och därmed resulterade i engraf kring 5 GPa. Beteendet hos denna graf var troligtvis ett resultat från isen imaterialet vars beteende är snarlikt en studie på isens mekaniska egenskaper visadepå.

This thesis work is carried out in Cargotec Sweden AB, Bromma Conquip to study the behavior of load carrying welded joints in different weld metal strength mismatch conditions and various penetration ratios. Static and fatigue strength calculations have been made using FEA and experimentation. The joint in the Telescopic beam of the spreader STS45 has been analyzed. Telescopic beam is one of the critical and main parts in the spreader, which is directly subjected to the load of containers at various ports. Previous studies show that this joint limits the strength of the spreader, it has thus been analyzed. To check the effect of different strength mismatch conditions in the weld metal, static strength calculations have been carried out. The effect of different penetration ratios on static and fatigue strength has also been studied. A cruciform test specimen is designed according to the joint configuration and the capacity of testing machine. Criteria for the selection of consumables has also been developed and following standards: Eurocode 3, AWS D1.1 and BSK07, have been compared for static joint design. Sub modelling, effective notch stress and beam theory techniques have been used to study the effect of weld metal penetration and size of weld throat on the fatigue strength of the welded joint in the Telescopic beam. The study show that matching or slight under matching in the filler material along with full penetration increases the ultimate strength capacity as well as the ductility in the joint. Results of Eurocode 3, AWS D1.1 and BSK 07 are close to each other. Apart from strength mismatch and penetration ratios, it is observed that the weld geometry and joint preparation has also effect on the strength of the joint. Fatigue analysis of the weld in the Telescopic beam using 3D Finite element analysis show that effective notch concept is not applicable to this part of the spreader.