"As a material scientist I believe that a true understanding of materials is required to form well-founded designs."

Frank van Berlo is a doctoral candidate in the Polymer Technology group of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) where research is conducted in the broad area of Polymer Technology, i.e. the industrial arts of manufacturing of polymer-based products. Through both experimental studies and numerical simulations, van Berlo aims to understand the different aspects of Polymer Technology. Topics van Berlo is working on are characterization of mechanical properties of polymers and developing 3D printing methods using polymer powders. His main field of research is on the development of a new high-temperature Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printer. The main goal is to obtain fundamental insight this manufacturing technique and to optimize the 3D printing process using polymer materials.

Frank (Petrus Adrianus) van Berlo obtained his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2017. Thereafter he obtained his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2019, working on numerical simulations of flow and structure formation of polymers in a filament stretching extensional rheometer. In November 2019 he started as a doctoral candidate in the Polymer Technology group at Eindhoven University of Technology chaired by full professor Patrick Anderson.