This was my last Departmental seminar given in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge. It tells the story of apparatus and process invention. I have included pictures that influenced my career.

1. Cambridge 2011
“Inventing apparatus and processes”
By
Malcolm Mackley
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
University of Cambridge
UK

2. Acknowledgements
Cambridge. (1979 - 2011)
Sir Sam Edwards and Lord Lewis, John Davidson and John Bridgwater.
Alan Butcher, Dr Tim Nicholson (Cambridge Shear System CSS)
Prof Xiongwei Ni, (OFM)
Dr S Beckett, Peter Schroeder. (Nestle). Peter Dummett.
Robert Marshall, Dr Bas Smeulders, Dr Simon Butler
(Multipass Rheometer,
MPR)
Dr Bart Hallmark (Microcapillary Films MCF)
DrTri Tuladhar (Cambridge Trimaster)
The Department support staff, ( particularly the workshop)
An army of final year project students, PhDs, Post Docs
My wife, Margaret

3. Haruki Marakami
“What’s crucial is whether (your writing) attains the standards
you have set yourself.”
“I’m not the brightest person. I’m the kind of person who has to
experience something physically, actually touch something,
before I have a clear sense of it.” ……….
I’m a physical, not intellectual, kind of person. Of course
I have a certain amount of intelligence - at least I think I have.”
Haruki Marukami
“What I talk about when I talk about running”
2009

4. Malcolm Mackley
Scientist
Engineer
Inventor
Apparatus Processes
High Modulus Polyethylene (HMP)
Cambridge Shear System (CSS) Oscillatory flow mixing (OFM)
Multipass Rheometer (MPR) Flexible Chocolate
Cambridge Trimaster Micro Capillary Films (MCF)

5. Bristol 1970-1976; the genesis for invention
Sir Charles Frank Andrew Keller

6. Bristol
1972

7. Extensional Flows 1970s; scientific curiosity
1970 “Frank &Mackley, Double Jet” 1974 “G.I.Taylor (1934), Four Roll Mill”
1974 Two Roll Mill
1976 “Berry & Mackley, Six Roll Mill”

8. High Modulus Polyethylene (HMP) 1980s; process
Piston Solvent
UHMWPE Polymer powde r
Low entanglement polymer gel
1. Low entanglement UHMWPE polymer gel
Screw extruder
Spinnere t
Solvent recovery
Solvent recovery Gel fibres
2. Unoriented Gel fibre
Hot draw
4. Hot draw
Quench bath Quench bath
5. Oriented High Modulus Polyethylene
3. Unoriented Low entanglement semi crystalline fibre Low entanglement semi crystalline fibre
Schematic diagram of continuous High Modulus Polyethylene (HMP) process

9. Oscillatory Flow Mixing (OFM) 1980s; process

10. Cambridge 1980s

11. Cambridge Shear System (CSS), 1980s; apparatus
0 s-1 1 s-1 10 s-1 100 s-1 1000 s-1
I. Untreated
SWNT
II. Treated
SWNT
III. Untreated
MWNT
IV. Treated
MWNT

12. CNTs
Go to CNT helical banding movie

13. Cambridge 1990s

14. Flexible Chocolate 1990s; process
Extrusion processing
Cold Melt
Polyethylene Extrusion Processing
∆H
50 100 150 200
0
Temperature C
Chocolate 16 0
Cold Melt
Extrusion Processing
∆H
14 0
12 0 Piston/(ram)
A Yield
10 0
10 20 30 40 pressure Chocolate feed
Pressure
transducer
0
80 Die
Temperature C
60
B Extrusion pressure
40
20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
C
Compaction
(no flow)
t (s)

15. Stuttgart 1990s

16. Multipass Rheometer 1990s; apparatus

17. The Multipass Rheometer
Top
section
Test
section
Bottom
section

18. Scientific Art
Go to MPR slit movie

19. Matching Experiment with Simulation
Vp = 0.44 mms-1
3D EUsolve
Polystyrene (PS2)
10mm depth
LHS Pom Pom
RHS Experiment
3D simulation Experiment
dP = 3.76 bar dP = 3.96 bar

20. France 2000s

21. France 2000s

22. Cambridge Trimaster 2000s; apparatus

23. MicroCapillary Films (MCFs) 2000s; process
Polymer flow
Injector
Die land
MCF extrudate
Quench bath Extrudate to haul off

24. ….and finally
“…In other words , you cannot please everybody.”
“Just as in school, you enter it, learn something,
and then its time to leave.”
Haruki Marukami
“What I talk about when I talk about running”
2009

25. Malcolm Mackley
Scientist
Engineer
Inventor
Apparatus Processes
High Modulus Polyethylene (HMP)
Cambridge Shear System (CSS) Oscillatory flow mixing (OFM)
Multipass Rheometer (MPR) Flexible Chocolate
Cambridge Trimaster Micro Capillary Films (MCF)

26. Malcolm Mackley
Scientist
Engineer
Inventor
Apparatus Processes
High Modulus Polyethylene (HMP)
Cambridge Shear System (CSS) Oscillatory flow mixing (OFM)
Multipass Rheometer (MPR) Flexible Chocolate
Cambridge Trimaster Micro Capillary Films (MCF)
Author

27. http://www.publibook.com