The year has flown by. After an extremely special period, we as PLOT members were able to meet again. In May we did this at Bosch Security Systems in Eindhoven. This meeting was attended by about 30 members and focused on Weathering Testing. The PLOT anniversary conference was scheduled for mid-October. During this festive day it became Celebrated PLOT's 25th anniversary with an interesting substantive programme.
Looking ahead, the PLOT board is busy filling the 2023 activities calendar. Substantive member meetings will also be held next year. For now, the PLOT board wishes you all happy holidays and a good New Year. See you in 2023!
Climate Working Group
The end of the year is approaching and that is always a good time to look back. The same goes for the Climate working group. This year we again had two meetings, in March we were guests at Accell in Heerenveen and at the end of November at Thales Nederland in Hengelo.
The effect of sunlight on various materials will be tested over a period of two years. This may not be an exceptional test, were it not for the fact that these test setups will be located in three locations (Italy, Malaysia and the United States). We hope to add a location in the Netherlands to this. The aim of the initiative is not just to generate test results, but rather to describe the entire process, so that these experiences can be shared with PLOT members.
The first steps have now been taken. The frames for the test setup are (almost) ready, thanks to the efforts of Accell. Of course, the frames are also subjected to the necessary Reliability expertise. Ultimately, they too must survive the test.
In addition to building the frames, we paid attention to how the samples should be attached. Various options are discussed. A mechanical attachment or gluing. We will discuss this in more detail during a Teams meeting in mid-January 2023. An explanation will also be given by the various participants about the samples that will be tested and how they will be verified before and after the test.
We hope to be able to start field tests for a period of two years next year. In addition, the Climate 2 working group hopes to be able to organize meetings in 2023.
Mechanical Testing Working Group
In September the Mechanical Testing working group attended a demo of the 3D shaker at Inalfa Roof Systems. After not being able to organize a meeting for more than 2 years, there was great enthusiasm and new contacts were made, experiences were shared and knowledge was gained about vibration in 3 axes.
Inalfa has provided insight into the construction/installation of such a shaker and what tests are carried out with it.
Reliability Working Group
On December 14th the reliability working group together at TMC in Eindhoven. This meeting was again well attended with 20 participants. After a round of proposals with room for what we are currently concerned with in the field, an overview of the Physics of Failure work plan and a summary of the results to date followed.
The main program this afternoon was provided by Ansys, world leader in the field of multiphysics modeling and product simulation solutions. Abel Ramon from Ansys started with an introduction to Ansys and FEM (Finite Element Method). After discussing a model structure, the second part discussed cases and concluded with optimization / robust design examples and the current possibilities with regard to Digital Twins. In terms of content and presentation, contributions are of a high level and, given all the interactions and reactions afterwards, they have been very well received.
Ansys has indicated that it wants to collaborate with the working group with support in the field of simulation and optimization, a perfect addition to the test and analysis options available within the working group. In January, the working group will discuss the next step together with Ansys and their Dutch partner Infinite Simulation Systems.
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