Dr. Jonathan S. Colton


Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director, Center for Polymer Processing

ME 2110
(Creative Decisions and Design)
Radio Sandy Springs show

ME 4210
(Manufacturing Processes and Engineering)
Spring 2008

ME 6222
(Manufacturing Processes and Systems)
Fall 2005

ME 4793: Composites Materials and Processes

Plastic hypodermic needle newspaper article (HTML) (PDF)

Suggested Graduate Manufacturing Courses

 

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

NanoMolding and MicroMolding. Polymer and composites processing.
BioMEMS sensors. Biomedical and Medical Devices. Plastic Hypodermic Needles.
Self-assembling, functionally gradient materials. Nanocomposites. Nanotechnology.
Manufacturing and production. Design.
Safety. Machine and Machinery Guarding. Product Design. Failure Analysis. Forensic Engineering.

Dr. Colton came to the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech in 1985, after completing his S.B., S. M., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He serves as Director of the Institute-wide Center for Polymer Processing.  He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in design and manufacturing. He is principal researcher on projects sponsored by - among others - National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, NATO, Ford, General Motors, General Electric, Schlumberger, U.S. Navy, and Lockheed-Martin Corp. He has spent a year as a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London.

Dr. Colton is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and of the Society of Plastics Engineers, has been a Woodruff Faculty Fellow, and has received the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the SAE Teetor Award, and the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. Dr. Colton received a NASA Space Act Award.  He has received the outstanding paper award from the Rapid Prototyping Journal. In 2007, he was named the Jack M. Zeigler Outstanding Educator Award, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Georgia.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

"A Process for Prestaging Thermosetting Towpreg”, Polymer Composites, 20:1, 132-145 (1999), (with R.W. Beck).

 

"Experimental Study of Post-build Cure of Stereolithography Polymers for Injection Molds," Rapid Prototyping Journal, 5:2, 72-81 (1999), (with B.M. Blair).

 

"Serviceability Considerations for the Layout of Coiled Tubing Units", Journal of Engineering Design, 10:3, 259-275 (1999), (with V. Rotundo).

 

"A Process Management Strategy for Re-design:  An Anchoring and Adjustment Approach," Journal of Engineering Design, 11:3,159-173 (2000), (with L.A. Dixon).

 

"Evaluation of Epoxy Resins for Use in Hot, Wet Environments," Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, 39:4, 667-682 (2000), (with K. Becker).

 

"A Machine System for the Rapid Production of Composite Structures," Polymer Composites, 20:1, 124-133 (2000), (with J.H. Brown).

 

"Thermal Effects on Stereolithography Injection Mold Inserts," Polymer Engineering and Science, 40:6, 1360-1368 (2000), (with Y. Lebaut).

 

"Failure Mechanisms in Stereolithography Injection Molding Tooling," Polymer Engineering and Science, 40:6, 1395-1404 (2000), (with A.E. Palmer).

 

"Material Systems for Rapid Manufacture of Composite Structures," Polymer Composites, 21:6, 918-930 (2000), (with J. Kinard).

 

"Draft Angle and Surface Roughness Effects on Stereolithography Molds," Polymer Engineering and Science, 40:7, 1581-1588 (2000), (with T. Cedorge).

 

"Design Rules for Stereolithography Injection Molding Inserts," CIRP - Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 30:2, 175-182 (2000), (with T. Cedorge, Y. LeBaut, and A. Palmer).

 

"Open-celled Thermoplastic Microcellular Foam," Polymer Engineering and Science, 41:3, 380-400 (2001), (with B. Rodeheaver).

 

"Failure of Rapid Prototype Molds during Injection Molding," CIRP Annals, 50:1, 129-132 (2001), (with J. Crawford, G. Pham, and V. Rodet).

 

"Ejection Force Modeling for Stereolithography Injection Molding Tooling," Polymer Engineering and Science, 42:4, 681-693 (2002), (with G. Pham).

 

"Effects of Aging on Epoxy-based Rapid Tooling Materials," Rapid Prototyping Journal, 8:4, 215-223 (2002) (with X. Ottemer).

 

"Using Genetic Algorithms to Set Target Values for Engineering Characteristics in the House of Quality," Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering - Transactions of the ASME, 2:2, 106-114 (2002), (with M.P. Brackin).

 

"Properties of Rapid Prototype Injection Mold Tooling Materials," Polymer Engineering and Science, 43:1, 125-138 (2003) (with V. Rodet).

 

"Flexible Polymer Composite Electromagnetic Crystals," Polymer Engineering and Science, 43:4, 822-830 (2003) (with C. Marrett, A. Moulart, and A. Tcharkhtchi).

 

"Sheet Metal Forming using Polymer Composite Rapid Prototype Tooling," Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology - Transactions of the ASME, 125:3, 247-255 (2003), (with Y. Park).

 

"Assessment of Percolation and Homogeneity in ABS/Carbon Black Composites by Electrical Measurements," Composites Part B: Engineering, 34:7, 607-614 (2003) (with R. Ou and R.A. Gerhardt, C. Marrett, and A. Moulart).

 

"Polymeric Composites for Use in Electronic and Microwave Devices," Polymer Engineering and Science, 44:3, 588–597 (2004) (with A. Moulart and C. Marrett).

 

"Production and Analysis of Injection Molded Micro-Optics Components," Polymer Engineering and Science, 44:3, 564–579 (2004) (with A. McFarland).

 

“Measuring the Compression of a Carbon Nanospring,” Nano Letters, 4:6, 1009-1016 (2004) (with M.A. Poggi, J.S. Boyles, L.A. Bottomley, A.W. McFarland, C.V. Nguyen, R.M. Stevens, and P.T. Lillehei).

 

“Production and Characterization of Polymer Microcantilevers," Review of Scientific Instruments, 75:8, 2756-2758 (2004), also Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, 10:9, August 30 (2004) http://www.vjnano.org/nano/ (with A.W. McFarland, M.A. Poggi, and L.A. Bottomley).

 

“Injection Moulding of High Aspect Ratio Micron-scale Thickness Polymer Microcantilevers,” Nanotechnology, 15:11, 1628-1632 (2004) (with A.W. McFarland, M.A. Poggi, and L.A. Bottomley).

 

“A Method for Calculating the Spring Constant of Atomic Force Microscope Cantilevers with a Nonrectangular Cross-section," Analytical Chemistry, 77:4, 1192-1195, (2005) (with M.A. Poggi, A.W. McFarland, and L.A. Bottomley).

 

“Fabrication and analysis of plastic hypodermic needles,” Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology, 29:4, 181-186 (2005) (with H. Kim).

 

“Techno-Economic Life Cycle Modeling of Hypodermic Needles and Syringes,” Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology, accepted for publication (2004) (with H. Hefner).

 

“Characterization of Microcantilevers Solely by Frequency Response Acquisition,” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 15:4, 785-791 (2005) (with A.W. McFarland, M.A. Poggi, and L.A. Bottomley).

 

"Failure Analysis of Rapid Prototyped Tooling in Sheet Metal Forming – V-Die Bending," Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering - Transactions of the ASME, 127:1, 116-125 (2005) (with Y. Park).

 

"Failure Analysis of Rapid Prototyped Tooling in Sheet Metal Forming – Cylindrical Cup Drawing," Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering - Transactions of the ASME, 127:1, 126-137 (2005) (with Y. Park).

 

“Role of Material Microstructure in Plate Stiffness with Relevance to Microcantilever Sensors,” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 15:5, 1060-1067 (2005) (with A.W. McFarland).

 

“Chemical Sensing with Micromolded Plastic Microcantilevers,” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 14:6, 1375-1385 (2005) (with A.W. McFarland).

 

“Injection-moulded Scanning Force Microscopy Probes,” Nanotechnology, 16:8, 1249-1252 (2005) (with A.W. McFarland, M.A. Poggi, and L.A. Bottomley).

 

“Influence of Surface Stress on the Resonant Behavior of Microcantilevers,” Applied Physics Letters, 87, 053505 (2005) (with A.W. McFarland, M.A. Poggi, M.J. Doyle, and L.A. Bottomley).

 

“Fatigue of Rapid Prototyped, Sheet Metal Forming Dies,” International Journal of Fatigue, 28:1, 43-52 (2006) (with Y. Park).

 

“Microcantilevers: Sensing Chemical Interactions via Mechanical Motion,” Chemical Reviews, 108:2, 522-542 (2008) (with K.M. Goeders, and L.A. Bottomley)

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Georgia Institute of Technology
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
813 Ferst Drive, Room 434
Atlanta, GA 30332-0405 USA
Phone: +1-404-894-7407
FAX: +1-404-894-9342
jonathan.colton(at)me.gatech.edu

Directions to the Manufacturing Research Center, where Dr. Colton is located in Room 434.

This document was last updated by JSC on 12/12/2007.