A major concern in machining industries today are the build- up of internal residual stresses within acrylic structures that often result in engineering failures. Such failures are frequently caused by heat treatments or other poor machining processes. Norgren has tasked students in UConn's Senior Design to further study this phenomenon of residual stress in the company's Poly(methyl-methacrylate), or PMMA acrylic material blocks by developing new heat- annealing parameters at different ramp-soak-cool temperatures/times and observing the development of stress through a birefringence color system.

Our team collaborated with Management & Engineering for Manufacturing 15 on this project.