The present study deals with preparation of Al hybrid metal matrix composites by the stir casting technique. In this work, Al5052 alloy was selected as the main metal which reinforces with zirconium dioxide and aluminium oxide. The wear test has been conducted on the POD apparatus. 9 specimens are produced by varying reinforcements’ percentage for conduction of tests. The amount of ZrO2 reinforcement is fixed to 8wt%, while the concentration of Al2O3 varied from 5wt% to 10wt%. The parametric optimization of wear behaviour is done through the Taguchi method with L9 orthogonal array. Minitab statistical software helped to find SN ratio and ANOVA reading for each parameter: load (N), sliding speed (rpm), and wt% of reinforcements. From the ANOVA outcome, the load parameter is the highest influencing element that improves wear resistance of made samples around 46%, followed by weight% of reinforcement 29% and sliding speed 26% as second and third influenced parameters, respectively.

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Urinary catheterization is a routine procedure in an intensive care unit (ICU) for monitoring the urine output of critically ill patients. The catheters which are most often used to help with urinary incontinence and retention also face problems like blockage, leakage and infection. These problems are due to proteins that adhere to the catheter surface and quickly build up on each other forming a protein layer. As the layers build up they can crystallize, providing the major source of blockage and leakage. Current strategies to avoid these problems include coating a catheter with silver alloy to reduce bacteria on the catheter surface. However, silver alloy coatings can lead to increased silver resistance for bacteria. Since silver is already used as an antibacterial agent in many places in a hospital, it is even more possible that resistance can develop. An alternative solution is presented involving coating latex, a common urinary catheter material with a micro layer (5-100 microns) of polyethylene glycol. This hydrogel is applied using an interfacial photopolymerization process with ethyl eosin as the photoinitiator. A 25 ppm concentration of ethyl eosin provided the strongest gel to surface adhesion and significantly lowered protein adhesion when compared to an uncoated latex substrate.

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