Search Results (274)

In response to increasing sustainability demands, the packaging industry is shifting toward paper-based alternatives to replace polymer packaging. However, achieving complex, three-dimensional geometries comparable to plastics remains challenging due to the limited stretchability of paper. This study investigates advanced preconditioning techniques to enhance the formability of paper materials for deep-draw packaging applications. A custom-built test rig was developed at Syntegon Technology GmbH to systematically evaluate the effects of ultrasound-assisted moistening and segmented radiative heating. Under optimized conditions, 2.67 s moistening, 70.00 °C punch temperature, and 2999 W radiation power, maximum stretchability increased from 13.00% to 26.93%. The results confirm the effectiveness of ultrasound in accelerating moisture uptake and radiation heating in achieving uniform thermal distribution across the paper substrate. Although prototype constraints, such as the absence of inline conditioning and real-time measurement, limit process stability and scalability, the findings provide a strong foundation for developing industrial 3D paper forming processes that support sustainable packaging innovation. Full article

The proliferation of electromagnetic wave applications has accentuated electromagnetic pollution concerns, highlighting the critical importance of electromagnetic wave absorbers (EMA). This study proposes innovative I-Wrapped Package Lattice electromagnetic wave absorbers (IWP–EMA) based on the triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) lattice structure. Through a rational design of porous gradient structures, broadband wave absorption was achieved while maintaining lightweight characteristics and mechanical robustness. The optimized three-dimensional configuration features a 20 mm thick gradient structure with a progressive relative density transition from 10% to 30%. Under normal incidence conditions, this gradient IWP–EMA basically achieves broadband absorption with a reflection loss below −10 dB across the 2–40 GHz frequency band, with absorption peaks below −19 dB, demonstrating good impedance-matching characteristics. Additionally, due to the complex interactions of electromagnetic waves within the structure, the proposed IWP–EMA achieves a wide-angle absorption range of 70° under Transverse Electric (TE) polarization and 70° under Transverse Magnetic (TM) polarization. The synergistic integration of the TPMS design and additive manufacturing technology employed in this study significantly expands the design space and application potential of electromagnetic absorption structures. Full article

A Sanskrit manuscript of the Prajñāpāramitā or Perfection of Wisdom in eight thousand verses, now in the Cambridge University Library, Add.1643, is one of the most ambitiously designed South Asian manuscripts from the eleventh century, with the highest number of painted panels known among the dated manuscripts from medieval South Asia until 1400 CE. Thanks to the unique occurrence of a caption written next to each painted panel, it is possible to identify most images in this manuscript as representing those of famous pilgrimage sites or auspicious images of specific locales. The iconographic program transforms Add.1643 into a portable device containing famous pilgrimage sites of the Buddhist world known to the makers and users of the manuscript in eleventh-century Nepal. It is one compact colorful package of a book, which can be opened and experienced in its unfolding three-dimensional space, like a virtual or imagined pilgrimage. Building on the recent research focusing on early medieval Buddhist sites across Monsoon Asia and analyzing the representational potentials and ontological values of painting, this essay demonstrates how this early eleventh-century Nepalese manuscript (Add.1643) and its visual program document and remember the knowledge of maritime travels and the transregional and intraregional activities of people and ideas moving across Monsoon Asia. Despite being made in the Kathmandu Valley with a considerable physical distance from the actual sea routes, the sites remembered in the manuscript open a possibility to connect the dots of human movement beyond the known networks and routes of “world systems”. Full article

With the rapid development of wearable electronics, traditional rigid thermal management materials face limitations in flexibility, conformability, and multi-physics adaptability. Low-dimensional carbon materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes combine ultrahigh thermal conductivity with outstanding mechanical compliance, making them promising building blocks for flexible thermal regulation. This review summarizes recent advances in integrating these materials into textile architectures, mapping the evolution of this emerging field. Key topics include phonon-dominated heat transfer mechanisms, strategies for modulating interfacial thermal resistance, and dimensional effects across scales; beyond these intrinsic factors, hierarchical textile configurations further tailor macroscopic performance. We highlight how one-dimensional fiber bundles, two-dimensional woven fabrics, and three-dimensional porous networks construct multi-directional thermal pathways while enhancing porosity and stress tolerance. As for practical applications, the performance of carbon-based textiles in wearable systems, flexible electronic packaging, and thermal coatings is also critically assessed. Current obstacles—namely limited manufacturing scalability, interfacial mismatches, and thermal performance degradation under repeated deformation—are analyzed. To overcome these challenges, future studies should prioritize the co-design of structural and thermo-mechanical properties, the integration of multiple functionalities, and optimization guided by data-driven approaches. This review thus lays a solid foundation for advancing carbon-based smart textiles toward next-generation flexible thermal management technologies. Full article

Suppliers nowadays can be directly approached in business-to-business (B2B) E-commerce websites. This makes the product and service information of certain suppliers accessible in online reviews. Therefore, online reviews have become important for B2B supplier evaluation and selection. Recently, the sustainability of food packaging has attracted increasing attention from companies and consumers. This study developed a novel multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method called Percentage Assessment with Synergistic Comparisons And Aggregated Ranks (PASCAAR) to support the selection of sustainable food package suppliers based on online review information in B2B E-commerce websites. Such a method used three different percentage comparisons between alternatives and the minimal options, and then aggregates the comparisons with their ranks. This study confirmed the effectiveness of PASCAAR by applying it to a case study to select the supplier of sustainable food packages (i.e., biodegradable food containers) from six candidates in the B2B E-commerce website by considering multi-dimensional online review information and their own product properties. Using PASCAAR, this study obtained the outcome that the third candidate is the most suitable one, as quantitative results indicate this supplier has the highest PASCAAR score. Based on the results, this study further conducted thorough sensitivity tests to validate the results. It can be found that, compared with the classical MCDM methods in measuring the performance of alternatives and aggregating evaluation scores, the PASCAAR method can have more robust and informative results. This study also developed a PASCAAR Solver to enable easy implementation of this method. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new ranking and aggregation ideas in MCDM and can offer practitioners a more informative and highly actionable method for supplier selection and decision support system development by utilizing online review information. Full article

This paper presents the first demonstration and comparison of two identical oscillator circuits employing piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators, implemented on conventional printed-circuit-board (PCB) and three-dimensional (3D)-printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) substrates. Both oscillators operate simultaneously at dual frequencies (260 MHz and 437 MHz) without the need for additional circuitry. The MEMS resonators, fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, exhibit high-quality factors (Q), ensuring superior phase noise performance. Experimental results indicate that the oscillator packaged using 3D-printed chip-carrier assembly achieves a 2–3 dB improvement in phase noise compared to the PCB-based oscillator, attributed to the ABS substrate’s lower dielectric loss and reduced parasitic effects at radio frequency (RF). Specifically, phase noise values between −84 and −77 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset and a noise floor of −163 dBc/Hz at far-from-carrier offset were achieved. Additionally, the 3D-printed ABS-based oscillator delivers notably higher output power (4.575 dBm at 260 MHz and 0.147 dBm at 437 MHz). To facilitate modular characterization, advanced packaging techniques leveraging precise 3D-printed encapsulation with sub-100 μm lateral interconnects were employed. These ensured robust packaging integrity without compromising oscillator performance. Furthermore, a comparison between two transistor technologies—a silicon germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and an enhancement-mode pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (E-pHEMT)—demonstrated that SiGe HBT transistors provide superior phase noise characteristics at close-to-carrier offset frequencies, with a significant 11 dB improvement observed at 1 kHz offset. These results highlight the promising potential of 3D-printed chip-carrier packaging techniques in high-performance MEMS oscillator applications. Full article

Intricate structures with minimal weight and maximum stiffness are demanded in many practical engineering applications. Topology optimization is a method for designing these structures, and the rise of additive manufacturing technologies has opened the door to their production. In a recently published paper, a novel topology optimization algorithm, named the Updated Properties Model (UPM), was developed with the homogenization of strain level as an objective function and an updating Young modulus as the design variable. The UPM method optimizes mechanical structures without applying any constraints. However, including constraints such as volume, mass, and/or stress in topology optimization is prevalent. This paper uses the density-dependent Young modulus concept to incorporate the volume fraction in the UPM method. We address the critical problem of constraint-aware design without the complexity of constraint-handling formulations. We show the proposed methodology’s success and functionality by plotting the algorithm’s results in two- and three-dimensional benchmark structures. Key results present that adjusting algorithmic parameters can yield both binary (single-material) and graded-material solutions, offering flexibility for different applications. These findings suggest that the UPM can effectively replicate constraint-driven outcomes without explicitly enforcing constraints. The main novelty of this work lies in extending the constraint-free UPM framework to allow for controlled material distribution using a physically meaningful update rule. This extends the applicability of the UPM beyond previous efforts in the literature. We have also created a Julia package for our proposal. Full article

Objectives: New generations of annuloplasty rings are designed to combine structural support with enhanced flexibility, allowing for better adaptation to the dynamic nature of the mitral annulus. This study investigated the early clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of minimally invasive mitral valve repair (MI-MVr) with a new semi-rigid open ring (PhysioFlex, annuloplasty ring, Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA, USA). Methods: A total of 150 consecutive patients who underwent MI-MVr for severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR) using the PhysioFlex annuloplasty ring between June 2021 and April 2024 were included in the study. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data were collected for the entire population. A three-dimensional mitral valve reconstruction analysis was performed across the entire cohort using a semi-automated software package (4D Mitral Valve Analysis; Tomtec Imaging Systems, Munich, Germany). Results: The median age was 59 (50–67) years and 25.3% patients were female. The median Euroscore II and left ventricular ejection fraction were 0.72 (0.56–0.99) and 60% (55–65), respectively. The median implanted ring size was 34 mm (32–36). The entire cohort was discharged with no residual mitral regurgitation greater than mild and a median mean transmitral pressure gradient of 2.4 mmHg (2–3). The median hospitalization time was 7 days (6–11) and in-hospital mortality occurred in 1 (0.7%) patient. Conclusions: MI-MVr was safely performed using the novel semi-rigid partial PhysioFlex ring in the DMR patient cohort with favorable early results. The PhysioFlex annuloplasty ring may be used as an alternative to complete rings in MI-MVr. Further research is needed to conduct comparisons with other currently available annuloplasty rings. Full article

Background: Logistics and transport, core of many business processes, are continuously optimized to improve efficiency and market competitiveness. The paper describes a modular coordination of vehicle routing and bin packing problems that enables independent instances of the problems to be joined together, with the aim that the vehicle routing solution satisfies all the constraints from real-world applications. Methods: The vehicle routing algorithm is based on an adaptive memory procedure that also incorporates a simple, one-dimensional bin packing problem. This preliminary packing solution is refined by a complex, three dimensional bin packing for each vehicle to identify the infeasible packages. The method iteratively adjusts virtual volumes until reaching near-optimal routes that respect bin-packing constraints. Results: The coordination enables independent applications of an adaptive memory procedure to vehicle routing and a genetic algorithm approach to bin packing while joining them in a computationally tractable way. Such a coordinated approach is applied to a frequently used public benchmark and proven to provide commensurate costs while significantly lowering algorithm complexity. Conclusions: The proposed method is further validated on a real industrial case study and provided additional savings of 14.48% in average daily distance traveled compared to the current industrial standard. Full article

This study develops highly flexible, biodegradable polymer blends using bio-based polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymers for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing. A Design of Experiment (DoE) approach optimized blend compositions by varying crystallinity levels of three PHAs, processed via twin-screw extrusion. Rheological analysis revealed that PHA blends exhibited 30–50% lower viscosity than PLA at low shear rates, ensuring improved processability. Tensile testing confirmed favorable mechanical properties, with elongation at break exceeding 2000%, significantly surpassing PLA (29%). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated partial miscibility and crystallinity reductions of up to 50%, influencing printability. Optimized 3D printing parameters demonstrated minimal warping for blends with crystallinity below 18%, ensuring high-dimensional stability. During home composting tests, PHA blends showed significant degradation within two months, whereas PLA remained intact. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed microbial degradation. Cytotoxicity tests demonstrated that the blends were non-toxic, supporting applications in tissue engineering. These findings highlight the potential of PHA-based blends as sustainable, high-performance materials for biomedical, packaging, and environmental applications. Full article

Numerical simulation has become a pivotal tool for analyzing airflow dynamics and temperature patterns during the precooling of postharvest horticultural products stacked in vented package. In this study, a three-dimensional mathematical model for iceberg lettuces stacked symmetrically in plastic crate was developed. The influence of the physical model at different gap sizes on the simulation accuracy was studied by assessing wall drag coefficient, airflow distribution, and heat transfer efficiency. The results show a reasonable decrease in the drag coefficient with an increasing gap size to 6 mm in terms of airflow distribution inside the plastic crate; any further increase in gap size and the average airflow velocity in both windward and leeward sides decreases rapidly. Interestingly, the gap size exhibited a limited impact on heat transfer characteristics during the cooling process. Thus, 6 mm was found to be the optimal distance to ensure good accuracy in simulation results and reduce the complexity of grid division. The numerical model was verified by experimental data. Moreover, the validation confirms good consistency between the simulated predictions and experimental measurements. This study provides a theoretical basis for establishing a reliable numerical model for the precooling of agricultural produce stacked symmetrically in a vented package. Full article

The growing complexities, power densities, and cooling demands of modern electronic systems and batteries—such as three-dimensional integrated circuit chip packaging, printed circuit board assemblies, and electronics enclosures—have pushed the urgency for efficient and dynamic thermal management strategies. Traditional numerical methods like computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the finite element method (FEM) are computationally impractical for large-scale or real-time thermal analysis, especially when dealing with complex geometries, temperature-dependent material properties, and rapidly changing boundary conditions. These approaches typically require extensive meshing and repeated simulations for each new scenario, making them inefficient for design exploration or optimization tasks. Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) emerge as a powerful alternative approach that incorporates physical principles such as mass and energy conservation equations into deep learning models. This approach delivers rapid and adaptable resolutions to the partial differential equations that govern heat transfer and fluid dynamics. This review examines the basic principle of PINN and its role in thermal management for electronics and batteries, from the small unit scale to the system scale. We highlight recent advancements in PINNs, particularly their superior performance compared to traditional CFD methods. For example, studies have shown that PINNs can be up to 300,000 times faster than conventional CFD solvers, with temperature prediction differences of less than 0.1 K in chip thermal models. Beyond speed, we explore the potential of PINNs in enabling efficient design space exploration and predicting outcomes for previously unseen scenarios. However, challenges such as training convergence in fine-grained or large-scale applications remain. Notably, research combining PINNs with LSTM networks for battery thermal management at a 2.0 C charging rate has achieved impressive results—an R² of 0.9863, a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.2875 °C, and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.3306 °C—demonstrating high predictive accuracy. Finally, we propose future research directions that emphasize the integration of PINNs with advanced hardware and hybrid modeling techniques to advance thermal management solutions for next-generation electronics and battery systems. Full article

Advanced packaging represents a crucial technological evolution aimed at overcoming limitations posed by Moore’s Law, driving the semiconductor industry from two-dimensional toward three-dimensional integrated structures. The increasing complexity and miniaturization of electronic devices have significantly heightened the challenges associated with failure analysis during process development. The focused ion beam–scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM), characterized by its high processing precision and exceptional imaging resolution, has emerged as a powerful solution for the fabrication, defect localization, and failure analysis of micro- and nano-scale devices. This paper systematically reviews the innovative applications of FIB-SEM in the research of core issues, such as through-silicon-via (TSV) defects, bond interfacial failures, and redistribution layer (RDL) electromigration. Additionally, the paper discusses multimodal integration strategies combining FIB-SEM with advanced analytical techniques, such as high-resolution three-dimensional X-ray microscopy (XRM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and spectroscopy. Finally, it provides a perspective on the emerging applications and potential of frontier technologies, such as femtosecond-laser-assisted FIB, in the field of advanced packaging analysis. Full article

W-Cu composites are widely used in the fields of switch contact materials and electronic packages because of their high hardness, high plasticity, and excellent thermal conductivity, while the traditional W-Cu composite preparation process is often accompanied by problems such as a long production cycle, difficulties in the processing of shaped parts, and difficulties in guaranteeing the uniformity. Therefore, this work developed a chemical plating technique to prepare W-20 wt.% Cu composite powder with a core–shell structure and used this powder as a raw material for powder metallurgy to solve the problem of inhomogeneity in the production of W-Cu composite by the conventional solution infiltration method. Moreover, the work also developed a high-temperature-resistant photosensitive resin, which was used as a raw material to prepare injection molds using photocuring to replace traditional steel molds. Compared to steel molds, which take about a month to prepare, 3D printed plastic molds take only a few hours, greatly reducing the production cycle. At the same time, 3D printing also provides the feasibility of the production of shaped parts. The injection molded blanks were degreased and sintered under different sintering conditions. The results show that the resultant chemically plated W-Cu composite powder has a uniform Cu coating on the surface, and the Cu forms a dense and uniform three-dimensional network in the scanning electron microscope images of each subsequent sintered specimen, while the photocuring-prepared molds were used to prepare the W-Cu shaped parts, which greatly shortened the production cycle. This preparation method enables rapid preparation of tungsten–copper composite-shaped parts with good homogeneity. Full article

Precise segmental spinal analysis during gait has various implications for clinical use and basic research. Here, we report the use of Surface Topography (ST) to analyze three-dimensional spinal segment movements, in combination with foot pressure measuring, to describe individual vertebral bodies’ motion relative to specific phases of gait. Using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) scripts, single files were merged into one raw data table and were used to generate a standardized gait cycle (SGC) for each measurement, including all measured gait cycles for each individual patient, with a spline function to obtain smooth curve progressions. Graph templates from Statistical Package for the Social Sciences create detailed visualizations of the SGCs. Previously obtained measurements from healthy participants were used to demonstrate possible applications of our method. An impressive inter-individual variability as well as intra-individual consistency of spinal motion is shown. The transformation into an SGC facilitates intra- and inter-individual comparisons for qualitative and quantitative analyses. In future studies, we want to use this method to distinguish between physiologic and pathologic spinal motion. Artificial intelligence-based analysis can facilitate this process. All tools and visualizations used are freely available in repositories to enable the replication and validation of our findings. Full article