Ernesto Di Maio

Thermoplastic Foaming, Remotely

Abstract: We designed an experimental facility to perform remotely plastic foaming experiments. Although restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic locked lab doors to students and guest colleagues, on December 16th, 2020 an entire class of grad students was allowed to virtually enter the Foamlab to foam remotely samples of poly--caprolactone with supercritical carbon dioxide. The autoclave and its closure design, the plastic granules-handling robot, the process control (temperature and pressure) and the cameras were all engineered to allow easy control by inexperienced remote operators and to guarantee safety to the local instructor. Students response was enthusiastic and proved their extreme ability to adapt, to learn, to govern robots and dip into the real world from their virtual doors.

Biography: Dr. Ernesto Di Maio received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), where he is Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering. His research focuses on the processing and modeling of thermoplastic and thermosetting foams and on the physical properties of polymer/gas solutions relevant to foaming. He is the Director of the foamlab, the Foaming Laboratory of the University of Naples, where new characterization and processing tools are developed to gain new understanding and to design new foamed materials and products.

Dr. Di Maio has published 100 papers on ISI Journals, 1 Book, 14 Book Chapters, has filed 14 patents, contributed with 20 invited or keynote lectures and with 200 papers at international conferences. His papers have been cited 3400 times with an H-index of 33.

He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Cellular Plastics, SAGE Publishing Inc., Member of the Editorial Board of Cellular Polymers, SAGE Publishing Inc. and Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Elsevier B.V.

He founded two spin-off companies on a patented material for eco-building in 2009 and on a patented technology for achieving multi-graded polymeric foams in 2018.