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Post Summary:

Applications are invited for PhD Scholarship (4 Years) to work in the area of metal Additive Manufacturing (AM).

About the project:

Additive Manufacturing is a rapidly expanding, multidisciplinary field that uses various processes and materials to produce structures through layer by layer additive techniques, enabling new component designs and tailored structures. Despite recent progress in AM Material development and characterization, challenges remain, including the limited selection of materials, inconsistent production quality and high costs. In addition, products resulting from state-of-the-art AM systems are most likely to suffer from anisotropic mechanical properties due to interlayer bonding deficiencies. As a result, only a fraction of the materials that are used in conventional manufacturing are compatible with AM. More intensive materials research is required in order to increase the uptake of Metal AM by industries.

The ability to characterize the material before, during, and after manufacture can provide understanding of processing effects on material behaviour and knowledge for material selection criteria. The key objective of this project is thus to develop a clear understanding of the relationship that exists between the microstructures that develop during Laser Sintering and after post processing of 3D metal printed parts to its mechanical properties.

This 4 year research project is a joint venture between an industrial sponsor, Stryker, and an academic partnership led by SEAM Research Centre of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and University of Limerick (UL). Stryker is a medical device company with significant experience and resources within the area of AM in Ireland. The successful candidate will be exposed to and trained on a number of experimental and various analytical and modelling techniques for characterisation and predicting material behaviour.

Standard Duties and Responsibilities of the Scholarship:

• Undertake a programme of research leading to the successful attainment of a PhD.
• Attend generic skills training provided by WIT and other training courses as required.
• Attend and present at agreed conferences, seminars and other relevant sessions.
• Deliver agreed papers in conjunction with the supervisory team.
• Provide project updates as required by WIT and funding organisation.
• Assist SEAM in associated industrial project activities in conjunction with supervisory team.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Essential
• Applicants should hold or expect to attain, as a minimum, a 2.1 Honours degree, or equivalent, in Materials/Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering.

Knowledge and Experience

• Essential
• Some knowledge on Additive Manufacturing Processes and experimental and computational techniques

• Desirable
• Some knowledge on material modelling techniques.

Skills and Competencies

• Essential
• Applicants whose first language is not English must submit evidence of competency in English. Please see WIT's English Language Requirements for details.
• Good IT skills with some evidence of exposure in the use of CAD software packages.
• Ability to use/learn equipment control software, computational modelling software and data analysis software.

Further information

For any informal queries, please contact Dr Ramesh Raghavendra at +353-51-845648 /+353-87-9668547 or email rraghavendra@wit.ie.

For queries relating to the application and admission process please contact the Postgraduate Admissions Office via email pgadmissions@wit.ie or telephone +353 (0)51 302883.

Website: www.wit.ie

Application Procedure

Download the Research Postgraduate Application Form and return completed applications to pgadmissions@wit.ie, quoting WD_2017_42 in the email subject line. Please note that paper submissions will not be accepted.