Associate Professor/Undergraduate Coordinator
Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology
Southeastern Louisiana University
Computer Science and Technology Building, Room 3050
(985) 549-2085 - mbahadir@selu.edu
Office hours: M & W 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
T & Th 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
T & Th 9:00 a.m. - -11:00 a.m. online
IT 4070 - Six Sigma Industrial Quality
IT 4020 - Industrial Supervision
IT 2050 - Prev./Pred. Maintenance and Supervision
Monday & Wednesday (9:30 - 10:45)
Monday & Wednesday (12:30 - 1:45)
Monday & Wednesday (3:30 - 4:45)
CSTB 2022
CSTB 2022
CSTB 2025
Kamryn Davis (Mechanical Engineering Technology student) is assembling the 3D printer with the special extruder head designed for pelletized feedstocks.
NASA's extended exploration missions to the Moon and Mars are multifaceted and comprehensive projects. One of the major challenges to be solved is the logistics of necessary equipment and materials. It is impossible to plan and prepare for all changing and uncertain conditions and transport everything in one cargo. These missions will also require replenishment of equipment, tools, and parts as they deteriorate. In this regard, 3D printing technologies would be a feasible in-situ method to manufacture the necessary parts and tools as they are needed. Using 3D printing technologies is a viable way of creating the needed parts and products on target planets or during transportation. However, NASA's "for space" and "in space" manufacturing initiatives require the standardization of manufacturing processes and materials for predictable and dependable product performance. In this study, we are investigating the characteristics of 3D printing technology that uses pellet feedstock for 3D printing purposes. Using pellets as feedstock for a 3D printing system would be more feasible, safer, economical, and predictable compared to other 3D printing methods. For this purpose, a 3D printer that is capable of using pellet feedstock will be analyzed, and the mechanical performance of the products will be investigated for metals.
Mechanical Engineering Technology students Trevor Brooke and Ross Mccaffery, are adjusting extrusion parameters for PLA filament.
Global warming and major human-caused environmental issues have been global challenges for governments, organizations, and researchers. Identification, measurement, and mitigation of harmful human activities are vital for a safe and sustainable life on earth. Manufacturing is known to be a material and energy-intensive human activity that typically requires high amounts of natural resources and energy consumption. Manufacturing processes are also responsible for the production of waste and harmful by-products released into the air, soil, and water. For the continuation of safe and healthy human life on earth, alternative sustainable manufacturing methods and technologies should be investigated. In this regard, recycling is a proven method for conserving natural resources, reducing energy consumption and waste, and reducing manufacturing costs. However, not every material is suitable for recycling and repurposing or is not economically feasible. Composite materials are known to be hard to recycle due to their composition. In this study, we are investigating a feasible composite material recycling method. The reclaimed composite material will be used to fabricate filament feedstock for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing. FDM is a common 3D printing technology that creates parts from a polymer mix layer-by-layer based on a 3D digital model. In order to analyze the material characteristics, test specimens will be created with an FDM 3D printer for mechanical testing. A life-cycle assessment will be performed to evaluate the environmental performance of the recycled material.
This project is funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents Research Competitiveness Subprogram.
The early studies attributed to the production of CCAs were based on ingot metallurgy which employs high-energy arc melting methods. As an alternative to ingot metallurgy, recent studies started using powder metallurgy (PM) techniques that better control the compositional accuracy, prevent segregation, and have precise microstructural control. Aside from traditional manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising method with numerous advantages over traditional manufacturing. Any 3D geometry developed by a 3D modeling software, no matter how complex the shape, can be printed in solid 3D form. AM is also an advantageous method for manufacturing CCAs because it is already adopted for powder metallurgy applications. Most common AM applications use a powder bed with an energy source such as a laser or electron beam to consolidate the pre-alloyed CCA powder. Although these methods are viable, there are significant disadvantages associated with high energy applications. First of all, they have specific facility requirements for the safety of the powder operations. Also, localized melting and rapid solidification cause stress fields within the finished parts. An alternative to powder bed AM applications is extrusion-based metal additive manufacturing, where a melted material is extruded layer by layer. The material is a mixture of metal powder and a polymer binder, which is commonly used in metal injection molding (MIM) systems. The focal point of this study is to develop a filament feedstock with pre-alloyed CCA powder and polymer binder for extrusion-based metal additive manufacturing applications that can be used in common 3D printers.
This project is funded by LA NSF EPSCoR - Louisiana Materials Design Alliance (LAMDA) Seed Funding Track 1 A: Single Investigator Award Program.
Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are materials that respond to external stimuli such as heat, light, and electricity. Upon exposure to the external stimulus, SMPs return to their original shape from a temporary shape. SMPs can be manufactured through traditional polymer manufacturing processes such as molding and extrusion. However, the integration of SMPs into additive manufacturing (AM), which is also known as 3D printing, allows engineers to design products with more complex shapes and functions. Various 3D printing technologies and materials are used in the industry, depending on the required product features, specifications, and functionality. The common principle of AM technologies is to build the objects by adding material layer by layer according to digital model information from computer-aided design (CAD) software. The effects of printing parameters on the mechanical characteristics of 3D printed parts are documented in the literature. This research area is evolving continuously as new materials and technologies are developed. The focus of this study is to investigate the effects of printing parameters on the shape memory recovery properties of 3D printed parts with stereolithography (SLA) vat polymerization process. In this research, a Formlabs SLA 3D printer with FLGPCL04 material will be used. The FLGPCL04 is a commercially available liquid polymer that shows good shape memory characteristics when cured with a laser source. For analysis purposes, effects of print orientation, layer thickness, and print infill percentage on the shape recovery force and shape recovery speed of the 3D printed parts will be investigated.
This project is funded by LA NSF EPSCoR - SURE (Supervised Undergraduate Research Experiences) Program
Mechanical Engineering Technology student, Richard Williams, working in the lab and presenting the research at ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference.
Generative Design (GD) is a new approach to find optimum solutions to engineering design problems. The GD software programs develop 3D design solutions according to the constraints and specifications defined by the design engineer in a similar way that Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation programs do. However, FEA programs start with an initial shape and optimize that shape based on the constraints and specifications. The GD's main advantage is that it starts without an initial recommended shape and finds the best design for a specific manufacturing process selected by the designer. The GD becomes an even more powerful tool when used for 3D printing. GD's design solutions for the 3D printing process are usually organic shapes or extremely complex shapes that would be impossible to produce with other manufacturing methods. Currently, there are commercial GD software programs available with their own material and manufacturing process data libraries. Those data libraries are very limited with a few available materials, and existing material data does not represent the anisotropic characteristic of the materials, which is a very well-known issue with 3D printing processes. This study aims to investigate the applicability of GD to various 3D printing technologies and 3D printing materials through mechanical testing and to identify material characteristics for selected materials. 3D printing is an "Advanced Manufacturing Technology" used at many NASA centers and International Space Station. It is considered a vital technology for the sustainability of space exploration missions by the Space Technology Mission Directorate and Human Exploration Mission Directorate.
This project was funded by NASA EPSCoR - LURA (Louisiana Undergraduate Research Assistantship) Program.
Manufacturing and related activities, such as energy production, transportation, and mining, have been known to be the most harmful human activities in terms of their impact on the environment. The current trend in traditional manufacturing activities is not sustainable. Those activities are harming our planet through global warming, environmental pollution, and natural resource depletion. In this regard, Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has been regarded as a more sustainable manufacturing method compared to traditional manufacturing techniques. So far, most research has been performed on the sustainability of 3D printing of plastic parts. The main reason behind this is the availability of completely developed plastic printing technologies. However, plastic parts have limited application in manufacturing activities, such as new product evaluation and rapid prototyping. Metal printing, on the other hand, has more applicability in the industry from rapid prototyping to rapid manufacturing of actual parts and assemblies; hence, in this study, we concentrated on the sustainability analysis of a promising metal additive technology known as Bound Metal Deposition (BDM). BDM is a proven technology to produce 3D-printed parts from various materials such as stainless steel, tool steel, carbon steel, copper, and titanium. In this first phase of the research, energy consumption characteristics were analyzed. In the next phase, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will be performed according to ISO 14040 and 14044 LCA guidelines. Emissions to air, soil, and water will be analyzed, energy and material consumptions will be calculated, and environmental impacts will be assessed and compared with traditional manufacturing processes.
GenCyber Professional Development 3D Printing Workshop - 2 (02/25/2023)
3D Printing Workshop at Southeastern iHub - open to the public (2/24/2023)
GenCyber Professional Development 3D Printing Workshop - 1 (02/04/2023)
3D Printing Workshop at Southeastern Livingston Center - open to the public (11/18/2022)
3D Modeling and Printing Workshop at Robotics Mentoring Program at NTCC (11/12/22)
3D Printing Workshop at Southeastern iHub - open to the public (9/23/2022)
In the summer of 2022, as a group of faculty from Southeastern and NTCC, we were awarded an outreach grant from the LA EPSCoR LAMDA program to promote awareness of STEM subjects through hands-on projects in the regional high schools. For this purpose, we teamed with Pine High School and St. Helena College and Career Academy to implement a two-week 3D printing workshop to teach fundamental skills in engineering design, 3D modeling, and 3D printing. In the second week of the workshop, students developed and built their own designs to generate electrical energy using renewable resources.
This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant number OIA-1946231 and the Louisiana Board of Regents for the Louisiana Materials Design Alliance (LAMDA).
A completed wind turbine (on the left) and Jared Reno (SLU) at Pine High School
Community STEM Cafes
Community STEM Cafes are fun events for the whole family designed to excite and inspire youth in STEM, to help parents support their child’s development, and to build relationships recognizing and celebrating STEM in our communities.
For more information and the calendar of events, click here.
2022 Back-to-School STEM Fest
This year, the STEM Fest was attended by almost 2,000 adults and youth and almost 50 organizations.
Check out the STEM Fest photo album on Facebook.