Factory Hall Research Articles

Energy efficient heating and ventilation of a factory hall by monitoring the indoor air climate

Background Different usage scenarios and design guidelines were considered when planning a factory building and its ventilation system. Accordingly, it often makes sense to analyze the actual operating conditions again during subsequent operations in order to optimally adapt the air supply to the respective conditions in terms of demand-responsive ventilation. The aim is to ensure good indoor air quality and thermal comfort while significantly reducing energy consumption. Methods For this purpose, in addition to the sensors in the building management system, approximately 120 wireless sensors were installed in the occupied areas to measure the air temperature, operating temperature, humidity, and CO2. In this way the spatial and temporal distributions of temperature, humidity, and CO2 in the hall were visualized and evaluated to reduce the volume flows of the ventilation systems. The recorded data and findings were used to optimize ventilation systems by gaining a deeper understanding of indoor air flow. Results As part of the investigation, a considerable reduction in the air volume flows and thus the required energy consumption of the air handling units was achieved while maintaining the same thermal comfort. It was shown that the temperature field and indoor air quality were not negatively affected by the change in the air volume flow over a wide range. Conclusions This was made possible by the well-designed ventilation system, which achieves a low-pulse, slightly stratified indoor airflow, and a structural envelope with very good thermal insulation.

SLAM for Indoor Mapping of Wide Area Construction Environments

Abstract. Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), i.e., the reconstruction of the environment represented by a (3D) map and the concurrent pose estimation, has made astonishing progress. Meanwhile, large scale applications aiming at the data collection in complex environments like factory halls or construction sites are becoming feasible. However, in contrast to small scale scenarios with building interiors separated to single rooms, shop floors or construction areas require measures at larger distances in potentially texture less areas under difficult illumination. Pose estimation is further aggravated since no GNSS measures are available as it is usual for such indoor applications. In our work, we realize data collection in a large factory hall by a robot system equipped with four stereo cameras as well as a 3D laser scanner. We apply our state-of-the-art LiDAR and visual SLAM approaches and discuss the respective pros and cons of the different sensor types for trajectory estimation and dense map generation in such an environment. Additionally, dense and accurate depth maps are generated by 3D Gaussian splatting, which we plan to use in the context of our project aiming on the automatic construction and site monitoring.

Projektovanje i realizacija fotonaponske elektrane izlazne snage 1500 kW na krovu fabrike „Flash“-Apatin

The paper presents the realization of a photovoltaic power plant with an output power of 1500 kW on the roof of the "Flash" factory hall in Apatin, Serbia. The solar power plant is connected to the LV bus-bars in the 20/0.4 kV 1600 kVA transformer station and supplies the factory's consumers through them. In periods when there is not enough solar insolation, the power of consumers in the factory is realized from the power grid. The solar power plant contains 3780 mono-crystalline photovoltaic panels, each with a power of 455 W. The roof surface of the building faces southwest - northeast. Photovoltaic panels are installed on the roof surface of the production hall with the administrative part. The specificity of the roof structure composed of two units (a roof with roof slopes and a flat roof) caused a series of design solutions that will be presented in more detail in the paper. The paper also shows the disposition of DC/AC power converters-inverters and their mutual communication, as well as the system for monitoring output parameters (voltage, current, power) and the quality of electricity delivery to consumers in the factory.

Integration of Autonomous Driving Functionalities for End-of-Line Production Transport Scenarios

Autonomous driving functionalities are increasingly being integrated into nowadays cars, which presents an opportunity for Automotive manufacturers to use these functionalities as part of the production process. This paper presents a case study of the integration of autonomous driving functionalities in a prototype vehicle for end-of-line production transport.The vehicle is equipped with sensor instrumentation, processing systems, and actuators to achieve automated driving, and the Robot Operating System (ROS) was utilized to achieve navigation on a pre-established route within a factory hall. The vehicle was also tested on a test track to emulate outdoor post-production testing stations. Complementary developed functions allow the vehicle to be effectively tracked and monitored inside and outside the demo factory.The use of autonomous driving functionalities in end-of-line production transport presents an opportunity for car manufacturers to streamline their production process. The successful integration of these functionalities in the vehicle using ROS and real-time tracking validates their use in a smart automotive factory. Further research and development in this area can lead to improved production efficiency and safety.

Complex suicides involving the use of firearms and hanging: A retrospective study and review of the literature

IntroductionSuicides are the second most common cause of non-natural death in Germany after accidents. Most common is death by hanging, followed by the use of firearms. More frequent “simple” suicides in which one suicide method is used are distinguished from rare “complex” suicides, in which several methods are applied, whereby the combination of gunshot and strangulation is frequently chosen. Such cases require a thorough criminalistic and forensic medical examination to check the plausibility of assumed sequences of events and to detect covered-up homicides. Material and methodsA retrospective analysis of 5,400 post-mortem examinations at the Institute of Legal Medicine Giessen (2009–2018) revealed three cases in which gunshot and hanging were used to commit a planned complex suicide. ResultsCase 1: The body of a 66-year-old carcinoma patient was found hanging from a tree in a kneeling position with a bullet through the head. The post-mortem examination revealed a penetrating head shot, uninjured soft tissues of the neck, no injuries to the hyoid bone or larynx and no signs of congestion. After autopsy, the gunshot through the head was considered as cause of death.Case 2: An 82-year-old man was found dead with two bullet wounds in the chest, hanging in free suspension in a factory hall. The necropsy showed two chest entry wounds with injuries to the heart and lungs as well as a vital ligature mark and fractures of the hyoid bone and larynx without signs of congestion. The combination of hanging and the gunshot wounds was concluded as cause of death.Case 3: The body of an 81-year-old pain patient was found in his home next to a small-caliber rifle, with a noose around his neck, attached to a suspension torn from the wall. The autopsy revealed a tangential shot through the skull with superficial injury to the frontal brain and a vital cord mark on the neck with fractures of the hyoid bone and larynx without signs of strangulation. In this case, hanging was identified as cause of death. ConclusionComplex suicides are rare events, that require a thorough criminalistic and forensic medical examination Although being called complex suicides and one of the methods usually being suitable to cause death, the cause of death is not always a combined one.

CONTROL APPROACHES FOR TEMPERING MACHINE TOOL FRAMES WITH MULTIPLE FLUID CHANNELS AND LIMITED, JOINTLY USED ACTUATING VARIABLE

Nowadays, the thermo-energetic design of a machine tool also includes the thermal stabilization of its machine components. In the past, thermal stability was irrefutable connected to minimizing the temperature gradient of machine tools by air conditioning the entire machine or even the factory hall. Today, thermal stability also defines minimal inhomogeneities in the temperature field of the machine tool due to higher energy efficiency requirements. Fluidic tempering systems of machine components offer considerable potential concerning the minimization of thermo-elastic displacements with acceptable energy demand. Hence, intelligent algorithms are required to combine tolerable geometric deviations with minimal energy effort. The scope of this paper is the integration of a demand-oriented fluidic temperature control system into a machine bed. The resulting multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) systems and varying boundary conditions are challenges, which are addressed. Therefore the paper compares two control approaches, a decentralized single-loop control and a multi-loop control by decoupling the control loops and especially focus on the distribution of the jointly used actuating variable, combined with the variation of different boundary conditions.

First encounters with industrial work: Kombolcha Industrial Park

First encounters with industrial work: Kombolcha Industrial Park

Fabrication of 3D hydrogel to the treatment of moist air by solar/wind energy in a simulated battery recycle plant salon.

Contaminated air in battery recycling halls threatens the health of factory workers. In this work, a new 3D hydrogel was designed in a simulated salon with an innovative rotary module. The Pb(II), Fe(III) and SO42- was adsorbed from air. Solar energy was transferred by wind to the factory hall and absorbed moisture was evaporated. The hydrophilicity, stability in water and storage of Pb(II) and Fe(III) in the hydrogel were optimized. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) theory, Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were employed to characterize and analyze the 3D hydrogel. The collector was able to quickly raise the wind temperature to 44 °C. In each cycle, in average 60% of air moisture was absorbed on the 3D hydrogel. The evaporation rate was more than 1.4 kgm-2h-1. The efficiency of ions removal in each cycle was 82%. In the 0.68 m3min-1 of wind flow the temperature was 43.3 °C and evaporation was done in a shorter time.

Optimization of the energy supply in the plastics industry to reduce the primary energy demand

Abstract In the United States, approximately one third of the energy end-use is from the industry which makes the industrial sector ranked number one in terms of energy consumption. One way to lower the energy consumption and to enhance the energy efficiency in the industry is to combine intelligent linkage of energy consumer, distribution, storage, and energy supply. In this paper, the research is focused on the study of these combinations leading to a smart industrial consumer which can interact in a “smart grid” system. This model-based study considers the energy supply of a plastic processing company, the processing machines as well as the factory hall including a HVAC system. The energy flows of all technologies are linked and interdependent. Different energy efficiency measures are integrated, and an innovative flexible high-temperature system is introduced. The complex energy flows are shown and the end and primary energy demand as well as the CO2 emissions are determined. The plastic processing industry mainly uses electric power for their facilities. To obtain flexibility in using machines from many different energy sources such as combined heat and power plant (CHP), heat by the burning of natural gas, or electrical grid, the electrical heating method is changed to thermal oil heating in many production machines. The study shows the energy saving potential for a typical manufacturing company located in three different locations in Germany, Canada and the USA. Based on the results of the study, the end energy demand increases due to thermal losses. Besides the primary energy demand can be reduced up to 34 percent through a flexible use of different energy sources. Furthermore, a high degree of flexibility can be achieved.

MICRO-NETWORK CREATION IN INDUSTRIAL SURVEYING

Industrial surveying is special field of work within engineering surveying. In this article we have documented some procedures and principles which are very special in industrial surveying. A micro-network consists of net points which are set as a base for all surveying in the industry. These points create coordinate system for all measured parts of the machine. For realization of micro-network are used well known geodetic methods such as triangulation, trilateration, levelling or trigonometric high. As horizontal and vertical controls do not exist in a factory hall, a surveyor has to find some different method to start working.

Affective speaker state analysis in the presence of reverberation

Little is known about the impact of reverberation on performance of running speaker state classification systems. This study thus aims to approach the topic by measuring effects on a state-of-the-art engine with consideration of six public room impulse responses for convolution of the affective speech signals of three standard datasets comprising of emotion and interest. Speech data thereby is given by this year’s INTERSPEECH Paralinguistic Challenge corpus TUM AVIC and the frequently used Berlin and eNTERFACE sets. The room impulse responses comprise rooms in private apartments, chapels, a factory hall, and a van. Speaker independent performance after speaker adaptation is investigated. To cope with reverberation, matched condition learning and acoustic space adaptation are considered as efficient means. By that a report is provided on suitability of feature types given the type of impulse response. In the result almost all occurring corruption arising from reverberation can be restored, yet the general impact varies with the type of room or acoustic environment.

A Measurement-Based Statistical Model for Industrial Ultra-Wideband Channels

The results of three ultra-wideband (UWB) measurement campaigns conducted in two different industrial environments are presented. A frequency range of 3.1-10.6 or 3.1-5.5 GHz was measured using a vector network analyzer and a virtual array technique enabling the investigation of small-scale statistics. The results show that the energy arrives in clusters, and that the abundance of metallic scatterers present in the factory hall causes dense multipath scattering. The latter produces a small-scale fading that is mostly Rayleigh distributed; the only exception being the delay bin containing the line-of- sight component. The power delay profile can be modeled by a generalized Saleh-Valenzuela model, where different clusters have different ray power decay constants. It is also noted that the number of multipath components required to capture a majority of the energy is quite large. More than a hundred components can be needed to capture 50% of the total available energy.

The Use of Task Lighting in an Industrial Work Area Provided with Daylight

A dimmable task lighting system was installed at six working places in a luminaire factory in France. The factory hall had skylights that prvided a lot of daylight. The purpose was to study which illuminances users select, how often they use additional task lighting, whether they liked the lighting system and if their selections were influenced by the amount of daylight or the type of work. The workers were free to use the task lighting in any way they wanted. The settings of the task lighting were recorded between the winter of 2004 and the spring of 2005. The opinions of the users were sought by means of questionnaires after the testing period. It was found that those workers who worked in the area on more than 20 days in the testing period used the task lighting (viz. switched it on) on average only during 6.5% of the total working time. The task lighting was used more frequently during the times when the amount of daylight was limited (darkness or dark weather) and less frequently when there was more daylight in the area. And the task itself also had an influence on the preferred illuminance, and hence on the frequency of use of the task lighting. The preferred horizontal task illuminances supplied by the task-lighting luminaires varied from person to person, with an average of around 600 lux. The users expressed the wish that they wanted to keep the system after the test period, and 41 per cent of the users felt that the task lighting helped them to perform better.

A new temporal method for the identification of source directions in a reverberant hall

The study presented here is related to the reduction of noise in factory halls. The type of factory hall considered here has large dimensions and contain several industrial machines, running 24 h a day. A method is presented to determine the angular directions which provide the main contributions to the sound levels at any point in the hall. These directions correspond to the sources and their images on the walls and on the obstacles. The method is based on the use of cross-correlation functions of sound signals measured on a microphone array. It is adapted to the constraints of the problem (short measurement time, no possibility to stop the machines, small dimensions of the array, etc.). Experimental results are shown first for several test cases carried out in a semi-anechoic room and in a rectangular room, and, then, for the case of a surface-planing machine in a cluttered hall.

Analytical investigations in a death case by suffocation in an argon atmosphere

A 31-year-old engineer was found dead in a reaction vessel (diameter 0.8 m, height 1.8 m) of a bulb factory some minutes after he had entered it for repair work. Resuscitation attempts with artificial respiration were unsuccessful. Despite autopsy and usual toxicological analyses, no cause of death could be found. Since in the normal production process, argon was used as a protecting gas, the possibility of suffocation in an argon atmosphere was investigated. This was rendered more difficult because of the natural content of 0.93 vol.% argon in air and since the excessive argon could have been removed by the resuscitation attempts. Gas samples from larynx, esophagus, bronchi, and stomach, separated blood samples from both ventricles of the heart and from the vena iliaca externa as well as tissue samples from lung and liver were collected during autopsy into headspace vials in such a way that the loss of gas and a dilution by surrounding air was avoided as far as possible. The samples were analyzed by headspace GC–MS. The abundance of Ar + ( m/ z=40) was used for quantification with N 2 2+ ( m/ z=14) as internal standard. The following argon concentrations were measured (mean values, case under investigation/comparison cases): gas from larynx 1.79/0.96 vol.%, stomach gas 1.58/0.89 vol.%, heart blood (left ventricle) 7.2/2.7 μg/mL, heart blood (right ventricle) 5.8/2.7 μg/mL, blood from vena iliaca externa 3.6/2.7 μg/mL. A clearly increased concentration was also found in lung tissue, whereas in liver tissue no significant difference in comparison to other cases was measured. From the results, it follows that the deceased inhaled an increased amount of argon a short time before death. The concentrations are consistent with asphyxia and subsequent resuscitation attempts. They cannot be explained by a long-term inhalation of an atmosphere enriched with argon before the incident as it is likely to have occurred in this factory hall.

Stratification of welding fumes and grinding particles in a large factory hall equipped with displacement ventilation

The purpose of the study was to investigate the performance of displacement ventilation in a large factory hall where large components of stainless steel for paper, pulp and chemical industries were manufactured. The performance of displacement ventilation was evaluated in terms of concentration distributions of welding fumes and grinding particles, flow field of the supply air and temperature distributions. Large differences in vertical stratification patterns between hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and other particulate contaminants were observed. The concentration of Cr(VI) was notably lower in the zone of occupancy than in the upper part of the factory hall, whereas the concentrations of total airborne particles and trivalent chromium (Cr(III)) were higher in the occupied zone than in the upper zone. The stratification of Cr(VI) had the same tendency as the air temperature stratification caused by the displacement flow field.

Stratification of welding fumes and grinding particles in a large factory hall equipped with displacement ventilation

The purpose of the study was to investigate the performance of displacement ventilation in a large factory hall where large components of stainless steel for paper, pulp and chemical industries were manufactured. The performance of displacement ventilation was evaluated in terms of concentration distributions of welding fumes and grinding particles, flow field of the supply air and temperature distributions. Large differences in vertical stratification patterns between hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and other particulate contaminants were observed. The concentration of Cr(VI) was notably lower in the zone of occupancy than in the upper part of the factory hall, whereas the concentrations of total airborne particles and trivalent chromium (Cr(III)) were higher in the occupied zone than in the upper zone. The stratification of Cr(VI) had the same tendency as the air temperature stratification caused by the displacement flow field.

Patriot or Prostitute?: Sexual Discourses, Print Media, and American Women during World War II

This article examines the simultaneous mobilization and control of female sexuality in the United States during the World War II era. It focuses, in part, on the role that print media played in encouraging women to support the war effort both in industrial and entertainment milieus. In a sense, female bodies were drafted for the duration. The government campaign to mobilize women was, however, complicated by a concurrent campaign to prevent and control venereal diseases in the military. As wartime women necessarily crossed established gender boundaries by responding to their prescribed civic obligations, in both factory and dance hall, they became suspicious individuals. Print media reflected and reinforced sociopolitical concerns regarding "excessively" sexual women who came to symbolize contamination. The line between the patriotic "good girl" and the prostitute or "promiscuous bad girl" collapsed and produced the "patriotute."

Industrieller Maschinenbau im 19. Jahrhundert: Werkstattpraxis und Entwicklung spanabhebender Werkzeugmaschinen im deutschen Maschinenbau, 1870–1914 by Volker Benad-Wagenhoff, and: Maschinen für die Massenfertigung: Die Entwicklung der Drehautomaten bis zum Ende des Ersten Weltkrieges by Jürgen Ruby

848 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE been discussed before. Consequendy, there is no conclusion to this interesting but disorganized and disconnected body of material. Lindy Biggs Dr. Biggs is associate professor of history at Auburn University and author of The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work in the Age ofMass Production (Balti­ more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). Industrieller Maschinenbau im 19. Jahrhundert: Werkstattpraxis und Ent­ wicklung spanabhebender Werkzeugmaschinen im deutschen Maschinen­ bau, 1870-1914. By Volker Benad-Wagenhoff. Stuttgart: Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1993. Pp. xiv+438; illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. DM58.00 (cloth). Maschinen fur die Massenfertigung: Die Entwicklung der Drehautomaten bis zumEnde des Ersten Weltkrieges. ByJurgen Ruby. Stuttgart: Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1995. Pp. 218; illustrations, figures, notes, bibliography, index. DM60.00 (cloth). Both of these books concentrate on precision machine tools, the heart and soul of mass production. In a brief preface toJurgen Ru­ by’s work, Ulrich Wengenroth rightly points out that American and German scholars alike have concentrated on the evolution of the assembly line while paying only scant attention to the automation of machine tools that made possible the substitution of technology for manual labor. Ruby and Volker Benad-Wagenhoff set out to ad­ dress the development of these hidden machines. Both succeed to some extent. Benad-Wagenhoff sets out the more ambitious project. He ad­ dresses the entire German machine-tool industry from roughly 1870 to 1914, a period of continual change and growth. He criticizes past historians for concentrating too much on great machines and their great inventors. And he is equally critical of social science ap­ proaches that ignore machine functions and production in the his­ tory of technology. Most likely he aims this criticism at the “social construction of technology” school, recently under attack by histori­ ans such as David Hounshell for explaining “everything and noth­ ing” and philosophers of technology such as Langdon Winner for being “conservative.” Benad-Wagenhoff promises a timely and am­ bitious program to reconstruct what he calls “technological human interaction” (p. 2), the assertion and arbitration of human volition in the medium of the factory hall. His use of secondary literature here is poor. As examples of “socio­ logical approaches” the book cites two histories of the machine-tool TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 849 industry from the 1960s. In fact, the author seldom consults litera­ ture more recent than the early 1980s, often no more recent than the 1920s and 1930s (e.g., the work of Conrad MatschoG), and he ignores international scholarship completely. His detailed descrip­ tions bog down in the very format the introduction warns against: one machine follows the next in a parade of invention, spiced only with particular detail about how workers operated their tools. “When the work was finished,” Benad-Wagenhofftells us ofthe drill press, “he [the machinist] turned offthe machine, cleaned the work piece of lubrication and cooling agents and shavings; he loosed the press elements and took the piece from the machine” (p. 155). Is this, then, all that the middle way between the social construction of technological systems and internalist history of invention has to offer? Benad-Wagenhoff’s most interesting conclusions do not stem from his theoretical program but from the book’s analysis of massproduction technique. Benad-Wagenhoffdates a major transition in the metalworking trades beginning around 1895 with the advent of high-speed, precision machine tools. He emphasizes the precision rather than the speed. Contrary to popular conceptions of mass pro­ duction, steam-powered, belt-driven tools could already turn out parts quickly in great numbers, but factories still had to rely upon lengthy and complicated fitting stages in production. New machines around 1895 drove “the human hand from fitting work” (p. 361). The book also notes that machine tools tended toward greater complexity, flexibility, and universality, not toward the single-pur­ pose tools most often associated with the heyday of classic modern production. Only industries with huge markets for uniform products could profit from the higher throughput that specialized machine tools offered. “The application of special machines, then, . . . says something about the conditions of [product] demand but nothing about the modernization of...

Editor's foreword special issue on parallel algorithms for geometric problems on digitized pictures

Image processin9 is one of the major fields of application for parallel processing. Some of the first multiprocessors were mainly built for processing images (e.g., the MPP for analyzing LANDSAT satellite data) because for such applications data volumes are often so large that the use of standard sequential machines becomes impracticable. In addition to standard image processing operations such as noise removal, edge detection, filtering, etc., researchers have recently also started to study other "high-level" geometric operations which are well known in computational 9eometry. This special issue of Algorithmica is devoted to parallel algorithms for computational-geometry problems on digitized pictures. The motivation for studying such operations is that in practice geometric data for computationalgeometry applications is often given in the form of an image; hence, parallel algorithms which can be applied directly to the image may be more efficient than applying "standard" parallel computational-geometry methods which require that the image is first converted into, e.g., a set of polygonal chains. For example, consider the standard path-plannin9 problem in robotics: given a set of simple polygons in the plane representing the obstacles and a polygon representing the robot, find the shortest path for the robot to move from point A to point B without colliding with any obstacle. In practice, the robot might be moving in a factory hall; instead of first creating a polygonal description of the obstacles and the robot, it may be more efficient to use as input an image obtained from a camera mounted to the ceiling of the factory. Using an image from a camera might also be more practical for dynamic environments where the locations and shapes of the obstacles are changing. Since the factory, and thus the image of the obstacles, could be very large and the robot's path has to be determined in real-time, a parallel method for solving the path-planning problem directly on the image is desirable. 2 When solving computational-geometry problems for images in parallel, researchers have several different types of parallel machines available. The papers selected for this special issue consider four very commonly used ones: the parallel