Abstract

Pulsed photonic sintering/curing of materials has significant potential to change the way we process thin films. The pulsed light technology has tremendous benefits with processing time lying in the order of milliseconds. This process can be used to thermally process printed films and has huge energy saving potential when compared to conventional thermal processes. This research specifically aims at fabrication of low adhesion polymer film coatings, such as Teflon, using an energy efficient photonic sintering technique. Teflon, due to its non-stick properties, is widely used in printing processes, cooking accessories, antireflection windows and in several other applications. Sintering of Teflon through pulsed light technology has not been studied, hence this research has tremendous potential to revolutionize the way the Teflon films are processed. This research studies the conditions for sintering PTFE, PFA and FEP nanoparticle films on platinum-coated silicone rubber. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the sintered samples to reveal the magnitude of particle consolidation on the samples. A Fluke Energy Meter was used to study the energy consumption for both photonic sintering and conventional oven sintering. The results from the studies show substantially energy savings for photonic sintering. The research discusses the conditions under which the best particle sintering was obtained for the PTFE and PFA.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Thin films--Design and construction; Sintering; Polytef

Publication Date

2-24-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Industrial and Systems Engineering (KGCOE)

Advisor

Denis Cormier

Advisor/Committee Member

Ronald Aman

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at TP811.5 .D82 2017

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

ISEE-MS

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