Experiment § Weight glue for baseball bats
There are many types of baseball bats. Wooden bats are used in professional games. Strong hitters are often seen breaking the bat. The aluminum rod has a clear and exciting sound when it hits, but it will still be denied or interrupted. The durable one is a composite bat made of carbon fiber (Figure 1). The rigidity and elasticity of different parts are designed according to the fiber laminate. Although there is only a "pop" sound when hitting the ball, the ball still flies high and far, which is the right choice for practice in many schools. The composite bat's weight is relatively light, so it is necessary to put a metal block in the appropriate place to balance the weight to meet the standard. Figure 2 shows the weight structure at the top of the bat, which uses resin to embed metal blocks. A customer found that the bat was used for a long time, and the weight resin cracked, causing strange things to roll inside the bat when it was swung. We made the resin into a Washer disc test piece (refer to the 35th bi-weekly report) and used the thermal shock test to evaluate the crack resistance. If the resin with good anti-cracking ability is used in weight glue, there will be no abnormal noise.
─ Author: Mr. Yun-xian, Liu
Activity § Special work health check
We arrange employee health checks every year. In addition to blood and urine tests for items prescribed by laws and regulations, abdominal ultrasound examinations are also added. Some colleagues will arrange special job health checks, such as toluene diisocyanate job checks, due to different job attributes. Such inspection items include (1) investigation of work experience, living habits, and symptoms; (2) investigation of past medical history such as asthma; (3) physical examination of the respiratory system and skin; (4) chest X-ray (large film) photography examination; (5) Pulmonary function examination (including FVC, FEV 1.0 and FEV1.0/ FVC). The inspection can confirm whether chemicals harm respiratory function. Of course, the most important thing is the usual concept of protection. After all, health is irreplaceable.
Knowledge § During the process of weathering experiment, What effect does moisture have on the test piece?
In the weather resistance experiment, moisture sometimes appears in water vapor and sometimes in liquid water. The material's possible effects are as follows: (1) Plasticization: The material will soften after absorbing moisture, and the modulus, Heat resistance is reduced. (2) Subsequent decline: Moisture appears between the interface, destroying the bond between the material and the substrate, resulting in a decrease in adhesion. (3) Swelling: The volume (weight) of the material increases after absorbing water, and the size changes, so different stresses are induced everywhere. (4) Hydrolysis: If there is an ester structure in the polymer chain, it may be broken by hydrolysis reaction. (5) Blistering: When the coating is partially swollen, the coating film will be damaged, and the bottom will be delaminated. (6) Mass movement: Small molecules in the material will move due to moisture and often diffuse to the surface. (7) Loss of quality: the product of material corrosion and aging is carried away from the surface by moisture. Among these effects, only the plasticization behavior is reversible. The original performance will be restored due to water diffusion out of the material, and all others are irreversible. Therefore, the influence of moisture on the material could not be inadvertent.
Living § R&D training this year
For newcomers, what they need to learn and do in R&D is relatively unfamiliar. After participating in R&D training, they formally step into R&D and realize that the training process is more important than the training result. At the beginning of the training, we weren't crazy about reading to acquire professional knowledge but to understand the entire company's operation process in various departments. First went to the production department to understand the production process and then to the warehouse management department to learn shipping and raw material acquisition. Next is to learn instrument operation and inspection methods in the quality control department and enrich professional knowledge. Some people may question, does R&D need to know these processes? Professional learning is essential, but you can understand the operation of the entire company. You can experience each person's hard work, understand the on-site production, package, and shipping process, and know these to adjust the product's quality. After a business trip, I realized that it is essential to understand the customer production process to communicate with the customer and adjust the most suitable method of the product. These are the training process, although the nature of "R&D" is different. But in fact, it teaches us how to take the first step and teaches us to use a different perspective to think about the problems we face in the future. ─ Author: Mr. Kai-chyuan, Guo
