The University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering recently contracted Intelicare to install a P.E.I Pinette heated platen press and a Frigosystem chiller, for use in research and teaching in the field of thermoplastic composites.
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, the eighth-largest university in the United Kingdom and an internationally renowned centre of academic excellence, has installed a P.E.I. Pinette heated platen press and a Frigosystem chiller in its Processing Laboratory in the School of Engineering.
The equipment has been added to the Institute for Materials and Processes as part of equipment run by Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh and is to be used in research and teaching where individuals wish to manufacture composite laminates or polymer plaques by compression moulding techniques. In particular, high-temperature thermoplastic composites such as polyether ether ketone/carbon fibre (PEEK/CF) or polyaryl ether ketone/CF (PAEK/CF) composites will be developed and manufactured.
Dr. Dipa Roy, Senior Lecturer in composite materials and processing, commented:
“The Composites Group at the University of Edinburgh is very active in advanced thermoplastic composites research. We expect this technically advanced press, together with the high capacity chiller for controlled cooling, essential for developing the desired level of crystallinity in the material during thermoplastic processing, to not only enhance the high-temperature thermoplastic composite research activity but to play a major role in the development of our students. The students from the Composites Group have produced the first advanced thermoplastic composite samples on the press, and the results are very impressive.”
The first composite sample produced on the press is proudly displayed by Helena Pérez Martin, Sean Martin-Beattie and Eva Pappa from the University of Edinburgh, pictured above.
Intelicare undertook the installation and commissioning of the press and chiller, with P.E.I. completing the training of the Composites Processing Laboratory staff in October 2019.