Selective catalyst reduction is one of the most affordable and successful technologies aimed at reducing NOx emissions from diesel engines. However, the reduction process can be achieved if a certain temperature is reached for the ceramic substrate of the catalytic core. The required temperatures for catalytic reaction vary from 2500 C to 4500 C depending on the technology applied in the catalytic processes. This paper aims at presenting preliminary research in microwave cordierite heating, which is a type of magnesium aluminium silicate used as ceramic honeycomb substrate (catalyst monolith) in the after treatment system in the automotive industry. The research focused on testing the Mg2Al4Si5O18 composite material (cordierite) for different microwave heating regimes in order to establish the level of microwave power required for fast heating. This application will be subject for the further development of new MW-SCR after treatment systems in order to reduce the NOx emissions at cold start engine or low operating regimes of non-road mobile machinery engines. The ceramic composite material was heated for 5 levels of microwave power, from 600 W to 1400 W, using a 6 kW microwave generator coupled with a matching load impedance tuner, and the temperatures were recorded using an IR pyrometer.

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The inland navigation sector makes a significant contribution to the growth of the global economy as well as to climate change due to pollutants emitted by diesel engines. NOx emissions are very high in port areas where, due to traffic, the ships run at idling regimes. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) represents one of the most suitable technologies, in terms of cost effectiveness, but does not perform well if the temperature during vessel operation is lower than 180 °C. Microwave technology can support preheating of the ceramic core of SCR in order to increase the temperature towards the optimal interval for the best NOx reduction. Research has focused on coupling a magnetron head to a SCR device in order to evaluate to what extent the technology can meet the requirements of Stage V of the European Directive related to NOx emissions. Measurements of NOx emitted have been performed on engines with 603.5 kW nominal power and 1500 rpm that operate at a lower engine speed (700–1200 rpm) and output power (58–418 kW). The values recorded for emissions using microwave heating of ceramic core of SCR have decreased by 89% for a constant load of engine and idling engine speed.

The paper aimed to reveal, qualitatively and quantitatively, the modifications suffered by the PLA during the complex heating cycle specific to the 3D printing followed by laser marking. The obtained results showed that the melting point of the PLA decreases from 162.2oC (which is specific to PLA filament) to 153.1oC after the 3D printing process and to 149.7oC after the laser heating. The glass transition suffered the same lowering after the printing process but an important increasing after the laser heating. The elastic modulus evolution proved a decreasing of the plasticity and that is hapenning when the material suffers an increasing of its rigidity. The elongation viscosity was analyzed and its values were decreasing with the increasing of the temperature that happened on the material. The decreasing was produced by the reduction of the elasticity, when the chain branches are decreasing their length. The decreasing is more pronounced with the increasing of the temperature. The ratio between the loss modulus to the storage modulus and quantifies the way in which the PLA absorbs and disperses energy moves its peak from 65oC (curve specific to the PLA filament) to 45oC (curve specific to the last layer deposited by 3D printing process and re-heated by laser beam for marking). The peak means the lowest storage modulus, which is a measure of elastic response of a material, so the transition from glass to high elasticity moves to the lower temperatures.

The paper aims to report researches in microbonding process of composite magnetic materials using as thermal source the heat produced in base materials by the conversion of the electromagnetic waves with high frequency into thermal energy. This technology can be applied by targeting the base materials with microwaves and taking into account that composite magnetic materials based on ferrites, present good absorbance and conversion properties of the microwaves into heat. For experimental research, the base materials were sintered sampled of raw products obtained from stoichiometric mixtures of 6Fe2O3 + BaCO3. The raw products were obtained by milling and alloying processes using planetary ball mills. The milling and alloying processes have been perfomed in dry environement for homogeneous mixtures and wet environment for mixtures obtained using mechanical alloying. In terms of eutectic alloys used for microbonding, there have been used lead free Sn96,5%+Ag3%+Cu0,5% with melting point around 2170 C. The microbonding process have been perfomed in two steps: first step was focused on prepairing the base materials by cleaning and deposition of eutectic alloys on their surfaces; the second step was the heating of the base materials in microwave field. A microwave generator with adjustable input power from 0 W to 6000 W with a WR340 waveguide have been used as thermal sources. The researches have shown that the base materials were bonded using less than 10 % of microwave power and the eutectic alloys reached the melting temperature în less than 3 seconds when the magnetron was set to full power. A matching load impedance automatic tuner up to 6000 W have been used for increasing the level of absorbed power from nicrowave generator to samples and decreasing the level of rejected power from composite magnetic material to microwave generator. The temperature have been measured using IR pyrometers with range measurement between 0 and 7000 C. The process can be succesfully applied to a large scale for small parts of electrical engines with permanent cermic magnets.

The paper aims to report preliminary researches towards to development of new hybrid welding system by coupling a microwave beam with a TIG torch. The main research was focused on the designing of hybrid system as well as to establish the heating/welding mechanism by coupling two different thermal sources. Therefore, a specific welding chamber was designed taking into consideration the limitations provided by microwave waveguide technical specs, geometrical shape and dimensions of the TIG torch as well as the temperature monitoring during welding process and video surveillance for data recording. A microwave generator with adjustable power from 0 to 1250 W was coupled with a TIG torch and welding power source in order to establish the main parameters for hybrid system. The preliminary researches reported that the MW-TIG hybrid welding could be applied to eutectic joining of materials using low power (up to 600 W) injected from microwave generator as well as low welding current (up to 20 A). The flow of shielding gas have been established initially to 2 l/m. The research related to stabilization of MW-WIG plasma arc have been studied by increasing the flow of shielding gas up to 10 l/m. The results have shown that the microwave generator and TIG torch can be coupled to obtain hybrid-welding process without any matching tuning devices but with risks for damaging the microwave generator. Further researches will be done in order to design auxiliary devices to optimize the hybrid-welding process and to avoid any unwanted plasma arc discharge from welded base materials to microwave generator. In terms of temperature monitoring, an infrared pyrometer has been used. The IR pyrometer was targeted to the base materials in order to be able to measure their temperature without any influences from plasma arc. The results obtained have shown a stable plasma at average microwave power around 400 W even without any TIG current.

Sustainable development requires green energy and low carbon footprint in manufacturing sector of photovoltaic systems. The electrical connections of photovoltaic cells need to have low electrical resistance in order to reduce the electrical losses and therefore to improve the performance of the photovoltaic panels. This paper aims to present researches related to bonding of wires that connect solar cells by using microwave technology. The microwave bonding has the main advantage that offers fast bonding but, in the same time, this technology does not offer stability of the thermal heating. Two different unwanted phenomena like thermal runaway and plasma arc discharge often lead to the damaging of copper and aluminum wires used in electrical connection. The study presented in this paper is focused on simulation of the thermal field developed in copper wires in order to optimize the bonding process and increase the quality of products. The simulation of the thermal field has been done using Fourier equations for conducting heating in copper materials and eutectic alloys. The simulation model has been validated through experimental heating using a 6 kW water-cooled microwave generator controlled by a matching load auto-tuner for best transfer of the power from generator to copper wires. The temperature has been measured in real time using an infrared pyrometer for metals with 2.3 μm spectral range and measurement range between 0o C and 7000 C. The study is finalized with elaboration of mathematical model for microwave-injected power as function for temperature developed in copper wires that can be applied with success in further microwave bonding applications of copper wires. In addition, the electrical resistance of bonded wires was measured in order to collect feedback for improving the microwave bonding process.

This paper aims to present preliminary researches on the influence of the shape and dimensions of composites materials on the stability of microwave heating. The research was focused on cordierite composite material, which is used as ceramic substrate in selective catalytic reaction for reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions from combustion engines. For experimental program were used different shapes for cordierite material, such as cubic, cylindrical, sphere and rectangular. Based on previous researches where it was demonstrated that an injected microwave power between 600 W and 1200 W, the samples were heated in order to establish which shape is more suitable for fast heating, thermal stability in terms of thermal runaway as well as for avoiding the unwanted microwave plasma initiation.