Elisa Sainz-García

Universidad de La Rioja (Spain) | UNIRIOJA · Mechanical Engineering

The global needle market is growing due to an increase in the geriatric population, chronic diseases, and the high demand for vaccines. High insertion forces cause unpleasant effects on patients, needle deformation, and tissue displacement, affecting the accuracy of the methods. To reduce insertion forces, atmospheric‐pressure plasma‐polymerized co...

Objective : The mask usage has increased over the last years due to COVID-19 pandemic resulting in a mask shortage. Furthermore, their prolonged use causes skin problems related to bacteria overgrowth. To overcome those problems, atmospheric pressure cold plasma (APCP) was studied as an alternative technology for mask disinfection. Methods : Diffe...

The ability of bacteria to form biofilms that enhance their resistance to disinfectants and antibiotics is a matter of concern in the fields of food processing and healthcare. Since culture conditions in laboratories are not exactly the same as in the real environments where bacterial infection takes place, developing models that rapidly produce bi...

Biofilm-mediated microbial persistence of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria is a serious problem in food industries. Due to the difficulty of removing mature biofilms, great efforts are being made to find new strategies to prevent bacterial adherence to surfaces, the first step for biofilm development. In this study, coatings of (3-aminopropyl)triet...

Biofilm formation on food-contact surfaces is a matter of major concern causing food safety and spoilage issues to this sector. The aim of this study was to assess the durability of the anti-biofilm capacity of a plasma-polymerized coating composed of a base coating of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) and a functional coating of acrylic acid...

Biofilms pose important economic and health risks in biomedical applications and in food industries. In this study, coatings that reduce the biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on polystyrene cell culture plates are deposited by plasma polymerization of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet system at three...

Strong adhesion between the sole and the upper part of shoes is necessary to maintain their integrity and protect the foot from external conditions. Vulcanized rubbers are commonly used for sole manufacturing but, because of their nonpolar nature, they need to be conditioned before bonding. In this work, atmospheric-pressure air plasma treatments o...

Looking for a cleaner alternative to halogenation in the preparation of rubber for bonding with leather in footwear, atmospheric pressure plasma treatments were applied on styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR). Its adhesive capacity was improved and the highest bond strength standards for footwear were met. Two optimal processes were identified: (1) Plasm...

Oak wood barrel sanitization is crucial in terms of food safety, since barrels enrich the wine in aromas and taste sensation and provide physico-chemical stability. The most used method is barrel sulphuring; however, there is a European prohibition (Directive 98/8/CE2) that does not allow the use of this method. For this reason, the aim of the pres...

Recently, medical applications for 3D printing are expanding rapidly and are expected to revolutionize health care, specifically, manufacturing surgical guides and protective face mask against coronavirus (COVID-19). These instruments come in contact with the human tissues, being necessary 3D printed materials free of pathogenic microbes or other c...

Increasing adoption of 3D printing in the daily life and, specifically, the food field (kitchen tools and food contact containers) is associated with potential health risks when printed tools are made by specialized centers and designed for disabled patients, who cannot re-print them with the necessary periodicity. The characteristic pattern of 3D...

The demand for chemical-free beverages is posing a challenge to the wine industry to provide safe and healthy products with low concentrations of chemical preservatives. The development of new technologies, such as Atmospheric Pressure Cold Plasma (APCP), offers the wine industry the opportunity to contribute to this continuous improvement. The pur...

One of the main problems in the food industry is the formation of biofilms on food contact surfaces. These bacterial communities show high resistance against the commonly used disinfectants, which makes them difficult to eradicate causing economic losses and threatening the quality of the products and the health of consumers. Several studies have r...

La persistencia microbiana en las superficies constituye un problema para la salud y la industria alimentaria. Los métodos de desinfección convencionales presentan inconvenientes, como corrosión del material o resistencias microbianas. El plasma atmosférico frío (PAF) es una tecnología emergente que podría ser efectiva en tratamientos de descontami...

Polyoxymethylene (POM), an excellent engineering material, shows drawbacks as a three‐dimensional (3D) printing material: (a) difficulties in the adhesion of the first‐printed layer and (b) thermal contractions during printing. In this study, an atmospheric pressure air plasma treatment is applied on a polycarbonate (PC)‐printing base. The effect o...

La presente comunicación describe los trabajos relativos a la mejora de la adhesión de la primera capa de una pieza de acetal impresa en 3D sobre una cama soporte de policarbonato empleando un equipo APPJ. Algunas de las conclusiones que es posible extraer del presente trabajo han sido:  El tratamiento con plasma ha demostrado ser un método eficaz...

This paper analyses the use of discussion forums by students that work together in the same project, and investigates their relationship with the final success of the project. Furthermore, the application of text mining techniques as a tool for identifying problems in the development of the learning experience is studied. Analyses were carried out...

According to the situated learning theory, meaningful learning cannot be considered outside an authentic context in which it normally occurs. Thus, this work presents a virtual learning environment that seeks to improve the quality of teaching and learning processes in higher education in the field of project management. To achieve these goals, we...

A wide variety of industries that use granular materials in their processes (mineral industry, food industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc.) are affected by the segregation of the materials. Segregation is a phenomenon in which a homogenous mixture of granular materials whose particles have different properties (size, density, shape, etc.) tends to...

3D printing consists in the manufacture of three-dimensional objects from a digital model. 3D printing is a relatively recent technique for part manufacturing. It started in the 80s with commercial machines of high cost, but in the last decade it has had a very dynamic evolution thanks to the proliferation of domestic 3D printers. The most commonly...

Atmospheric pressure air plasma treatment was applied to glass substrates to improve the adhesion of the reflective silver layer of mirrors used in solar power systems. This treatment attempts to prevent problems related to the detachment of this layer that affect its energy performance. Untreated and plasma treated glass substrates were subjected...

The friction between glass and elastomeric parts in vehicles can cause problems like uncomfortable noises, vibrations and damage to the sliding surfaces that have a negative impact on the quality of the product. These problems are usually addressed by modifying the elastomeric surfaces in order to reduce friction. However, the recent development of...

The study of friction coefficients has long been of great importance in the automotive industry where some areas of the vehicle are subject to slippage. One example is the space between the window channels and the glass. The polymeric materials that are used in these areas, like thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), involve a high degree of friction. So,...

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) are used in the automotive sealing industry with the objective of producing anti-friction and hydrophobic components. At present, the anti-friction property is achieved by the electrostatic flocking, which sometimes produces an irregular coating. Therefore, this paper’s objective is the promotion of adhesion of an ant...

Front Cover: COMSOL® Flow dynamic simulations for different parallel-plate DBD inlet configurations are a close match to the observed real-life deposition patterns of plasma polymerized acrylic acid coatings at medium pressure (A-a-α. traditional sideway inlet; B-b-β. ring inlet; C-c-χ. porous glass inlet; D-d-δ. microplasma-electrode). Further det...

Mixtures of different proportions of two liquid precursors were subjected to plasma-polymerization by a non-thermal atmospheric jet plasma system in a search for a coating that achieves a hydrophobic character on a glass substrate and enhances its wear resistance. 1-perfluorohexene (PFH) was chosen as a low-surface-energy precursor to promote a hyd...

Multiple vapor inlet systems have been developed to enhance the homogeneity of deposited polyacrylic acid films via medium and atmospheric pressure plasma technology. Different inlet systems were experimentally tested and optical reflectance spectrometry (OPS) was used to measure the differences in thickness of the films along the exposed surface....

An APPJ system was used to deposit a coating that combines a low friction coefficient with a high water contact angle (WCA) on a thermoplastic elastomer substrate (TPE) that is used in automotive profiling. The main drawback of this research is that groups that improve the hydrophobicity of the surface worsen its tribological properties. To overcom...

In order to find a coating that promotes both the wear resistance and the hydrophobicity of glass, a non-thermal atmospheric jet plasma-polymerization system with mixtures of two precursors at different proportions were used. (Heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)trimethoxysilane (FLUSI) was used to promote the hydrophobicity, due to its fluoroc...

This work analyzes the segregation phenomena during the die filling of a binary granular mixture in the feed hopper of a tablet compression machine. These phenomena, which are caused by an alternative movement of the feed hopper, are investigated using DEM simulations and empirical tests. The optimal values of the model parameters were adjusted aft...

This work analyzes the segregation phenomena during the die filling of a binary granular mixture in a feed hopper of a tablet compression machine. These phenomena, which are due to the alternative movement of the feed hopper, are investigated using DEM simulations and empirical tests. The optimal values of the model parameters were adjusted by comp...

This work analyzes the characteristics of coating films that are based on aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) over a thermplastic elastomer (TPE) substrate with an objective of reducing the superficial friction coefficient of TPE. An atmospheric-pressure plasma jet system (APPJ) with a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was used in this study. The c...

The invention relates to a device (100, 101, 102, 103) for improving the bending of tubes (3, 13, 16), comprising: a plurality of interconnected hydraulic modules (6); and a plurality of pairs of contact elements (7, 7') connected to said hydraulic modules (6). Said device (100, 101, 102, 103) also comprises: hydraulic means designed to generate th...

Main goal of this work is to present the application of discrete element method (DEM) to study the segregation phenomena that occur in the feed hopper of a tablet compression machine ('single punch' eccentric press). The discrete element method, which is classified in the family of numerical methods, allows simulating parameterized models of granul...

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) are relatively easy to use in manufacturing by extrusion and injection molding due to its characteristics, such as mechanical resistance, elasticity, fabricability, thermal stability, low weight and low cost. The objective of the present study is to explore the characteristics of coating films that are based on 3-amin...