The recent developments made in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, and the printable materials available, have increased the scope of AM fabrication techniques beyond merely producing prototype models and towards manufacturing viable, operational devices. Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), an AM technique available at The University of Sheffield, has been investigated as a means of producing simple particle detectors, with the aim to create a method of 3D printing operational Single Wire Gaseous Detectors (SWGDs) which minimises the need for human interference. Multiple FDM printers and thermoplastics have been assessed as viable options for this work with open-source, large-scale printers, such as the Gigabot from re:3D, deemed the most appropriate, and uncoloured Polylactic Acid (PLA), lacking excessive additives, found to be the best option currently available. An investigation into the available techniques for creating cathode structures has been performed, with conductive PLA used to produce cylindrical cathodes, as well as some development towards novel detector designs, i.e. a tessellating, triangular gaseous detector for muon tracking. Four SWGDs have been produced using the FDM process, and were successfully operated over a range of applied bias voltages to detected cosmic ray muons and beta particles from a strontium-90 source. A selection algorithm was created to determine signals from the detectors, and analyse the data, enabling the responses of the detectors to be characterised. Initial steps towards the fabrication of a printable plastic scintillator have been completed, as has some work towards 3D printed readout patterns. Work in these fields could yield interesting, novel designs, however, development in these areas is still in its infancy.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)