Master's Theses in progress...
Katarzyna Pawlus - Granules from an analogue of Martian regolith as a material for thermal insulation (W. Pichor)
Marzena Pawlik - Granules from an analogue of Martian regolith as a substrate for growing plants in space bases (W. Pichór)
Engineering work in progress...
Szymon Fluder - Conductive cement composites formed using 3D printing method (W. Pichor)
Graduated Master's Theses...
Student's laboratory of the Future project
The Student's laboratory of the future is a project for students at any year and stage of study, regardless of their engineering projects, diploma theses and research groups. The main goal is the participation of students of our Faculty in innovative technological projects, in a open formula to ideas and ways of working. We work independently and in groups, from idea to the implementation.
We propose the main lines of research, but new ones may appear at any time. We count on it. Working with us also allows you to develop soft skills. Come and see what we do ...
Julia Siwiec -3D printing from mineral masses (2023, W. Pichor)
Mateusz Bryła - Slag as a raw material for clinker production in the context of sustainable development of the cement industry (2023, S. Kucharczyk)
Patrycja Kolbusz - Wpływ produktów ubocznych z przemysłu cukrowego na właściwości mas i tworzyw ceramicznych (2023, E. Kłosek-Wawrzyn)
Piotr Gasiński - Modification of the composition of ceramic mass towards widening the sintering interval (2023, E. Kłosek-Wawrzyn)
Anita Czechowicz - Anhydrite screeds with conductive additives for underfloor heating (2022, W. Pichór)
Kornelia Zawada - Air-purifying plasters with the addition of TiO2. The influence of solar radiation intensity on the efficiency of pollutant decomposition (2022, W. Pichór)
Martyna Białorudzka - Cement plasters with the addition of phase-change material on a porous carrier (2022, W. Pichór)
Karolina Kilian - Testing the activity of thermally modified fluidized ashes (2022, S. Kucharczyk)
Graduated Engineering Works...
Brygida Kuraś - The influence of the amount and type of plasticizer for concrete on the surface tension of water (supervisor W. Pichór)
Our lectures (in Polish):
As part of the Seminar, students implement the STUDENT CAMPUS OF THE FUTURE project, using advanced and unprecedented material solutions. The project implements the solutions such as: catching and using microplastics, 3D printing techniques from local materials, autonomous roads, non-standard ways of obtaining energy, biomimetic materials, and others. The project is created in the Problem Base Learning formula. See here.
Concrete 3D printer
The technique of 3D concrete printing is the latest, dynamically developing technique of incremental forming of structural building materials. In 2020, the first building in Germany was completely printed by a commercial company (it used the BOD2 printer by COBOD). Outside Europe, this molding method is also developing intensively, and so far it does not replace traditional bricklaying, but in some applications it starts the advantage of printing is evident.
Photos from the construction site of the first building printed in Germany
This is certainly a future direction, and in my opinion this forming technique should be included in the teaching process at technical Universities teaching in concrete technology. In Poland, so far, only at the Department of Reinforced Concrete Structures and Concrete Technology of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, a 3D printer for concrete is available for students. AGH-UST is the second university in Poland and one of the few universities in Europe with such equipment, available for students as part of laboratory excercises, engineering projects and master's theses.
Construction and technical details
The 3D printer for concrete is located in A3 pavilion in the 016 room - student laboratory.
This device differs significantly from the commonly known plastic printers, not only because of the scale (several hundred times bigger, other problems to be solved), but also because of the structure of the transmission of the drive itself. It is a solution that brings it closer to commercial solutions used at full scale (for printing houses) than to laboratory ones. The printer's working area is 1.0 × 1.0 × 1.5 m, which, as you can guess, requires a high-performance system for feeding the printed material. The solution is a modified plastering unit with an adjustable capacity screw feeder, enabling the material to be fed in a continuous stream of up to 10 dm3 / min.
The printer was built in stages. It all started with a design and the concept of drive transmission to the X, Y, Z axes. Stepper motors were used, while the X axis is driven by a linear toothed gear, which is moved by a stepper motor with a through shaft. Thanks to this solution, there is no problem with the X travel synchronization (along the 1.5 m path) as it is the case with, for example, a V-belt driving gear wheels. It also eliminates the use of a very long propeller. The Y and Z axes are driven by classic trapezoidal screws to drive the table of CNC machine tools.
The maximum printing speed with the currently installed drive motors does not exceed 1.0 m / min in the stream with the exit cross-section from the nozzle up to 10 cm2. The printing speed was deliberately limited due to the amount of material needed to power the feeding unit screw pump (however, we are still in the laboratory at the University, and we are talking about dozens of kg of material). Nevertheless, printing with this printer allows you to experience the challenges and problems of full-scale printing.
As you can see, the printer has successfully passed load tests :) at the stage of building the drive. A solution known from the drive of CNC machine tools with a control module was used. The only problem was adjusting the software from cutting mode to incremental mode. The printer is controlled from the level of the g-code language with direct programming or with the use of a (also adapted) slicer.
The method of feeding the printing nozzle with mass is also important. As is known, the mass for printing must have thixotropic properties, therefore it is necessary to provide shear forces along the entire length of the feed hose. in contrast to the experience of printing from plastic, where apart from selecting the melt viscosity (temperature) and printing speed (change in viscosity over time, stream diameter), in the case of mass printing, there are problems with the separation of components during mass transport through a hose, gradual filtration of the filler (aggregate) in front of the nozzle, screw movement of the mixture after it flows out of the nozzle, etc. These problems have been solved successively, but the prototype is still being improved.
The printer is also adapted to printing from ceramic mass.
As part of the work, the topic of 3D printing of buildings on Mars and the Moon is also being developed. But more about it soon, in a separate place ...
Students have the opportunity to participate in the search for engineering solutions at the intersection of several fields, verify them and, probably, overcome frustration with unsuccessful solutions. It turns out to the surprise of some that the classes in PKM, computer science, rheology and cement hydration have a PRACTICAL application.
Therefore, it is also an opportunity to work within the implemented modern and very effective education system in the Base Learning problem formula.
We invite students to participate in the 3D Printer project. Contact via the form on the team's website, during classes or just directly with me or any team member.
