PhD student in Production Technology – specializing in material circularity in Additive Manufacturing processes

University West (Högskolan Väst) is a modern university located in Trollhättan (Sweden) with more than 15 000 students and about 700 employees. Through our education and research, we want to contribute to innovation, social development, and a sustainable world. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is our overarching profile, and we apply it in education and research developed in close collaboration with industry. Collaboration with the outside world is a priority for us, and it results in a high entry rate for our students on the labor market and in more than 80 research projects per year in partnership with companies.

Within the Department of Engineering Science, University West has a specific research environment in Production Technologies which includes research portfolios in Industrial Automation, Thermal Spraying, Additive Manufacturing, and Welding. The largest research area today is additive manufacturing (AM) including both powder bed fusion (PBF) AM as well as directed energy deposition (DED) AM. It involves a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from three different divisions within the department, including modelling, simulation, process control, metallurgy, mechanical characterization, and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT).

The Department of Engineering strives for equality and diversity within all professional groups. We welcome applicants from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. For us, it goes without saying that we have an inclusive working climate and that our employees can combine work with active parenting.

The scientific part of the project

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques involving both directed energy deposition (DED) and powder-bed fusion (PBF) are attracting increasing attention for fabrication of complex structures not possible via traditional machining, and with minimal material wastage. Considerable research effort has been devoted worldwide towards investigation of the above AM routes for building of metallic parts. At University West, a strong research environment in AM has been established with the aid of numerous funded projects implemented in close co-operation with industry. Aligned with the global sustainability goals, recycling and reuse of material becomes more relevant. Therefore, University West has the goal to increase material usage and process efficiency in manufacturing.

The PhD project will focus on the development of monitoring possibilities of additive processes to enable sustainable processing. Within the material cycle, waste material will be analyzed and qualified for potential re-use at different process chain stages. This will demand exploration of monitoring possibilities and systematic experimental studies to evaluate process characteristics based on the feedstock material stage. This may include emissivity-based measurements, e.g. spectral and hyperspectral imaging to characterize the powder/wire surface conditions before processing.

Potential research questions include:

• How can the powder and wire surface conditions from re-used/recycled material be characterized?
• What are the impacts on remanufactured tracks and structures regarding material surface conditions?
• How do material coatings and oxide layers on feedstock material affect the processing with re-used/recycled materials?
• How does evaporation of single elements on the material surface affect the melt pool movement and dynamics?
• How can the process parameters be adapted according to feedstock material properties and in-process variations to produce new parts and structures from recycled material?
• How can the AM processes contribute to circular material usage?

Doctoral degree program: Production Technology

Research center:

Doctoral students in Production Technology become members of the research group PTW (Production Technology West). The group collaborates with the engineering industry in the region at the Production Technology Centre, which houses an advanced research laboratory. Click here for more information about our research center.

Job description:

The research program includes, in addition to participation in third-cycle courses and other activities, the implementation of independent thesis work. Doctoral students shall primarily devote themselves to their own education. A doctoral student may, however, be engaged to a limited extent in education, research, and administration, mainly within Production Technology. Such duties, before a doctorate has been conferred, may not occupy more than 20 percent of full-time working hours. (Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100) Chapter 5 section 2).

Qualification requirements:

To qualify for appointment as a PhD, two eligibility requirements must be met: 1) basic eligibility and 2) special eligibility.

The basic eligibility requirements for doctoral programs as set out in the Higher Education Ordinance are as follows:

• Passed a degree at master’s level,
• Completed courses totaling at least 240 university credits of which a minimum of 60 at master’s level,
• Or substantially equivalent knowledge gained in some other way whether in Sweden or abroad.

To fulfil the special eligibility requirements for a doctoral degree in Production Technology, a student must:

• Hold a degree at master’s level in a subject relevant to the doctoral degree subject.
• Have finalized a thesis project corresponding to 15 HP at advanced level or another written work of comparable character. The eligibility requirements may be fulfilled by studies in Sweden or abroad.

Additional Qualifications:

Mandatory:

• A degree at master’s level in mechanical engineering/ production engineering or equivalent,
• Documented knowledge of materials processing (welding, cladding, Additive Manufacturing) or layer-by-layer deposition (such as wire-arc AM, thermal spray),
• Documented knowledge of process monitoring,
• Documented experience in robot/CNC control,
• Documented ability in oral and written English communication.

Other relevant but not mandatory qualifications:

1. Knowledge of laser directed energy deposition and powder bed fusion
2. Experience in sensor data analysis
3. Experience in materials modelling and thermodynamics
4. Demonstrated research experience and scientific writing skill in the form of prior publication
5. Willingness to travel and perform experiments outside of University West if needed
6. Ability to communicate in Swedish

Among the non-mandatory qualifications, qualifications 1, 2 and 3 are most important.

Selection:

The basic factor for selection among qualified applicants is the ability to profit from such a program. For more information, please read 3.3 in General syllabus for the third-cycle programme in Production Technology, Ref. No U 2021/160. 

In the appointment, the applicant's ability to assimilate the research training will be given special importance, which refers to the scientific quality of previous work as well as proposals for the dissertation focus, the subject's relevance and feasibility in relation to production technology.

Duration and terms of employment:

Employment as a doctoral student shall be on an open-ended basis but not for longer than to a specific point in time and never for a period extending more than one year after receiving the doctoral degree. The initial appointment must not be for more than one year. The appointment may be renewed for no more than two years at a time. A person may be employed as a research student for a total of not more than eight years. The total period of employment, however, may not exceed the equivalent of four years of full-time study at the third level of higher education. (Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100) Chapter 5 section 7). If 20% of the working hours are dedicated to education and administration, this normally means an employment of 5 years.

Application

Applications are to be submitted electronically through the University West web-based recruitment tool, Varbi.

The application must include:

• CV/Personal qualifications
• Personal letter containing:
  • Interest in the research topic.
  • Previous experience regarding the proposed research topic and its research methods and scientific theories.
  • Motive to pursue doctoral studies
  • Degree certificate of first and second level of higher education in the original language and in translation
  • Degree project of second level of higher education
  • Course list and transcript of all semesters for bachelor's and master's degrees in original language and in translation
  • Other documents which the applicant wishes to invoke

Approved written languages regarding papers, diplomas, grades and other relevant documents are the Scandinavian languages and English, or translations into those languages. Attach the original when submitting translated documents.

If your degree is from a university outside of Sweden, make sure that you attach a diploma and full transcripts that makes assessing your degree easier. If your degree has not been verified by a Swedish authority you need to provide contact details to the issuing university, registrar or similar, that can verify the degree at our request.

If you are currently studying at an advanced level, you can apply and then supplement your application with an approved thesis, a valid degree certificate and other eligibility documents by the last day of application.

The application should reach University West no later than 2024-11-17. Mark the application with ref.no: R 2024/211.

Documents that cannot be sent digitally, should be marked with ref.no R 2024/211 sent to:

University West
HR
461 86 Trollhättan
Sweden

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