Electroplated nickel coating on cemented carbide is a potential pretreatment technique for providing an interlayer prior to diamond deposition on the hard metal substrate. The electroplated nickel coating is expected to be of high quality, for example, indicated by having adequate thickness and uniformity. Electroplating parameters should be set accordingly for this purpose. In this study, the gap distances between the electrodes and duration of electroplating process are the investigated variables. Their effect on the coating thickness and uniformity was analyzed and quantified using design of experiment. The nickel deposition was carried out by electroplating in a standard Watt's solution keeping other plating parameters (current: 0.1 Amp, electric potential: 1.0 V, and pH: 3.5) constant. The gap distance between anode and cathode varied at 5, 10, and 15 mm, while the plating time was 10, 20, and 30 minutes. Coating thickness was found to be proportional to the plating time and inversely proportional to the electrode gap distance, while the uniformity tends to improve at a large electrode gap. Empirical models of both coating thickness and uniformity were developed within the ranges of the gap distance and plating time settings, and an optimized solution was determined using these models.
There are millions of orthopedic surgeries and dental implantation procedures performed every year globally. Most of them involve machining of bones and cartilage. However, theoretical and analytical study on bone machining is lagging behind its practice and implementation. This study views bone machining as a machining process with bovine bone as the workpiece material. Turning process which makes the basis of the actually used drilling process was experimented. The focus is on evaluating the effects of three machining parameters, that is, cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut, to machining responses, that is, cutting forces and surface roughness resulted by the turning process. Response surface methodology was used to quantify the relation between the machining parameters and the machining responses. The turning process was done at various cutting speeds (29-156 m/min), depths of cut (0.03 -0.37 mm), and feeds (0.023-0.11 mm/rev). Empirical models of the resulted cutting force and surface roughness as the functions of cutting speed, depth of cut, and feed were developed. Observation using the developed empirical models found that within the range of machining parameters evaluated, the most influential machining parameter to the cutting force is depth of cut, followed by feed and cutting speed. The lowest cutting force was obtained at the lowest cutting speed, lowest depth of cut, and highest feed setting. For surface roughness, feed is the most significant machining condition, followed by cutting speed, and with depth of cut showed no effect. The finest surface finish was obtained at the lowest cutting speed and feed setting.
The potential of electrospinning process to fabricate ultrafine fibers as building blocks for tissue engineering scaffolds is well recognized. The scaffold construct produced by electrospinning process depends on the quality of the fibers. In electrospinning, material selection and parameter setting are among many factors that contribute to the quality of the ultrafine fibers, which eventually determine the performance of the tissue engineering scaffolds. The major challenge of conventional electrospun scaffolds is the nature of electrospinning process which can only produce two-dimensional electrospun mats, hence limiting their applications. Researchers have started to focus on overcoming this limitation by combining electrospinning with other techniques to fabricate three-dimensional scaffold constructs. This article reviews various polymeric materials and their composites/blends that have been successfully electrospun for tissue engineering scaffolds, their mechanical properties, and the various parameters settings that influence the fiber morphology. This review also highlights the secondary processes to electrospinning that have been used to develop three-dimensional tissue engineering scaffolds as well as the steps undertaken to overcome electrospinning limitations.