Ramesh Rudrapati

By Ramesh Rudrapati

Stainless steels and alloys are characterized primarily by their corrosion resistance, high strength, ductility, etc. used for various advanced applications like automotive and aerospace, sugar refineries, construction materials, etc. Many advanced high-speed machineries /systems need fine quality of parts to provide good performance in its working conditions. The machining of stainless steel and its alloys is of interest, because, of its excellent mechanical properties. Stainless steels and alloys are machined generally by traditional machining processes. But complex shapes and features on products are difficult task with the use of traditional metal cutting techniques. To machine the advanced materials to produce high dimensional accuracy and generation of intricate shapes in difficult-to-machine materials like stainless steels and alloys, nontraditional machining (NTM) techniques are now attractive the viable choices. To attain improved machining performance of the NTM processes, it is always necessary to find the optimal combinations of various process input parameters of those processes. In the present chapter, some aspects of machining of stainless steel and alloys using NTM processes such as electric discharge machining (EDM) and wire EDM, are discussed and some concluding remarks have been drawn from the study.

Part of the book: Stainless Steels and Alloys

By Ramesh Rudrapati

Due to limitations of injection molding of polymer/plastic materials, complex plastic parts are often assembled from two or more injection-molded components. Joining of polymers can be achieved by chemical-based technologies and thermal methods such as welding. Welding technique is one of the important manufacturing routes that can be used to refine product design and reduce production cost. Plastic welding processes typically involve heating the joining faces to induce localized melting and subsequently applying pressure to cause molecular diffusion at the molten interface, which produces a solid weld upon cooling. The need for an effective welding process that is fast, accurate, and with no relative part movement has fueled the development of laser-transmission welding (LTW) technology. LTW is an innovative joining process for acrylate materials. The quality of weld highly depends on correct selection of process parameters in LTW. The systematic study and analysis are required to conduct LTE process economically and efficiently. In the present chapter, current prospects of applications of acrylates and joining of them using LTW has been analyzed. The main emphasis has been given to analyze the variations of quality performance characteristics with varying input welding factors and concluding remarks has been drawn from present work. From this study, it is observed that acrylics are future innovative industrial materials, which need to be joined to create complex features on them. Welding of acrylics using LTW to achieve better and more economical weld performance is still under continuous research by scientists/industrialists.

Part of the book: Acrylate Polymers for Advanced Applications

By Ramesh Rudrapati

Aluminum and its alloys have gained much interest in advanced industrial applications due to its excellent mechanical properties. Welding is one of prominent fabrication technique which has to be performed to make assembling of different parts to create one complete product. Welding of aluminum alloys (al) using traditional welding methods is difficult task due to un-weldability of aluminum alloys, more defects in weldment, presence of aluminum oxide film, etc. Friction stir welding (FSW) is a novel welding technique which was developed specially to join the aluminum alloys without melting of materials to be joined. Achieving the good qualities of welded joint with enhanced efficiency of the FSW process needs, proper understanding of principles of FSW. In the present chapter, various aspects of FSW of aluminum alloys related to effects of process welding parameters and temperature distribution during welding on mechanical and metallurgical properties of weldment has been presented. Extending applications of FSW in joining of dissimilar aluminum alloys and welding of al alloys with other materials has also been discussed. Concluding remarks are drawn from the study. From the study, it is stated that FSW is suitable for mass production welding method for joining of similar/dissimilar aluminum alloy materials in large quantity of similar products.

Part of the book: Mass Production Processes

By Ramesh Rudrapati

Graphene research has fast-tracked exponentially since 2004 when graphene was isolated and characterized by Scotch Tape method by Geim and Novoselov and found unique electronic properties in it. Graphene is considered a promising material for industrial application based on the intensive laboratory-scale research in the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, and engineering, over the last decade. The number of academic research publications related to various aspects of production, material properties, and applications of graphene has got increased substantially. With such a massive curiosity in graphene, it is imperious for both experts and the layman to keep up with both current graphene technology and the history of graphene technology. In the present study, focus has been given to addresses the disseminating graphene research with production, properties, and applicatory approach. The concluding remarks have been drawn from the present work.

Part of the book: Graphene Production and Application