Factory Laboratory Research Articles

Forecast of the direction changes of meat products odor in the development of new recipes according to the results of “electronic nose” data treatment with chemometric methods

The possibility of using new parameters of quartz crystal microbalance and methods of principal component analysis and discriminant analysis using regression to latent structures for processing the output data of piezosensors array for the detection of individual odor-forming compounds, quantitative assessment of odor properties in routine analysis, in the development of new recipes of food systems with the introduction of functional additives in the factory laboratories are discussed. Sorption of volatile organic compounds that make up the odor of meat products, on thin films of sorbents - modifiers of piezoelectric resonators electrodes, forming an array of sensors of gases analyzer "electronic nose" is studied. The resulting sensor array is trained on the main marker substances (distilled water, ethane, butyric acids, aliphatic alcohols (C2-C5) of normal and isomeric structure, dimethyl ketone, methyl ethyl ketone, alkyl acetates (C2-C5) methylpropionate). The effect of of water vapors as interfering factor in sorption of organic compounds was assessed. The parameters of the efficiency of volatile compounds sorption, allowing the identification of individual organic compounds or a class of similar to them in nature in gas mixtures were calculated. The use of discriminant analysis with regression to latent structures allowed the identification of individual organic compounds in the equilibrium gas phases over the real models for forecasting of change of direction of meat products odor with partial replacement of meat raw materials with functional preparations of plant origin (buckwheat and millet cereals, pickles of soybean and rapeseed protein) and products of microbial synthesis (preparation of yeast and wheat bran). For a detailed study of the changes in odor direction _ during the introduction of different amounts of cereals in the product the principal components method was applied. As the input parameters for the chemometric methods traditional analytical signal of the array of piezosensors - individual responses of measuring elements and the new - the parameter of sorption efficiency were selected. The results of gases analyzer processing data "electronic nose" with chemometric methods are consistent with the results of tasting the finished product by trained specialists.

Evaluation of the moisture content of tapioca starch using near-infrared spectroscopy

The purpose of this study was to develop a calibration model to evaluate the moisture content of tapioca starch using the near-infrared (NIR) spectral data in conjunction with partial least square (PLS) regression. The prediction ability was assessed using a separate prediction data set. Three groups of tapioca starch samples were used in this study: tapioca starch cake, dried tapioca starch and combined tapioca starch. The optimum model obtained from the baseline-offset spectra of dried tapioca starch samples at the outlet of the factory drying process provided a coefficient of determination (R2), standard error of prediction (SEP), bias and residual prediction deviation (RPD) of 0.974, 0.16%, -0.092% and 7.4, respectively. The NIR spectroscopy protocol developed in this study could be a rapid method for evaluation of the moisture content of the tapioca starch in factory laboratories. It indicated the possibility of real-time online monitoring and control of the tapioca starch cake feeder in the drying process. In addition, it was determined that there was a stronger influence of the NIR absorption of both water and starch on the prediction of moisture content of the model.

Development and Application of Mobile Digital Speckle Interferometer for Vibrometer Model Sample Honeycomb

The problems of the development of mobile digital speckle interferometer with a cw laser to obtain the vibration characteristics of the full-size structures in factory laboratories. Given the results of the use of the mobile testing interferometer for the study of vibration characteristics of model samples of honeycomb panels, different way to connect mobile plate frame with power-trim. Considering the cellular plate as a system with distributed parameters provides a method to determine its natural frequencies and mode shapes by acoustic excitation. The experimental results are compared with those of serial laser Doppler vibrometers.

Assessment of time to pregnancy and spontaneous abortion status following occupational exposure to organic solvents mixture

Due to increasing usage of chemicals in various industries, occupational exposure of women with these materials is unavoidable. Nowadays, some studies indicate adverse effects of exposure to these chemicals, especially organic solvents on the reproductive system of females. This study aimed to assess the relationship between spontaneous abortion and occupational exposure to organic solvents mixture in pharmaceutical industry. This study was carried out in a pharmaceutical factory located in the suburb of Tehran in 2010. During the study, married women who were working in the factory laboratory units and had exposure to mixed organic solvents were compared with married women who were working in the packing units of the factory without occupational exposure to organic solvents in terms of spontaneous abortion frequency and duration of pregnancy using statistical methods. In this study, the frequency of spontaneous abortion in employees with and without exposure to organic solvents mixture was 10.7 and 2.9% respectively. This study showed that even after adjustment for confounding factors, there was a significant correlation between spontaneous abortion and occupational exposure to organic solvents mixture and this correlation increased with increasing levels of exposure to organic solvents. Also, a significant correlation was observed between occupational exposure to mixed organic solvents and waiting time to become pregnant (TTP). Furthermore, this study showed that even after adjustment for confounding variables, shift workers were significantly more affected by spontaneous abortion compared to daytime workers (P < 0.001). Also, in our study, synergistic effect between shift working and occupational exposure to organic solvents mixture on spontaneous abortion was seen. According to the results of this study, since there is probability of spontaneous abortion resulting from occupational exposure to various chemicals including organic solvents, recommendation to review the status of occupational exposure of workers can be helpful in improving fertility consultations and reproductive health.

Nitrite in feed – Legal background, status of analytical methods and technological knowledge

Feed materials in general and especially those from sugar industries are affected by recent European legislation setting maximum limits for nitrite contents in feed materials, which have not previously been subject to legal limits. Legal limits for undesirable substances require analytical methods to verify compliance. After reviewing analytical studies and historical data on nitrite contents in feed materials it became obvious, that molasses currently being produced in Europe would only comply with this limit in a few cases and that difficulties would arise from the lack of existing validated analytical methods for this purpose. This impedes also the monitoring of the status quo for studies about possible technological measures as demanded by European authorities. This publication describes in detail the legal background and nutritional consequences of limiting the nitrite content in feed. The analytical challenge of identifying and developing appropriate and reliable methods for detecting nitrite contents in the complex matrices of feed at that low level and that are suitable to be carried out in factory laboratories is outlined. Following a review of the knowledge on this subject, it was found that there are currently no studies, which deal with the import, formation, distribution and degradation of nitrite along the sugar manufacturing process. The task for the future is primarily to find and validate appropriate analytical methods which are essential for investigating the technological processes in the sugar industry in order to find measures to control the nitrite level in feed.

Interference-free simultaneous determination of Sudan dyes in chili foods using solid phase extraction coupled with HPLC–DAD

A simple, rapid, inexpensive and robust solid phase extraction (SPE) cleanup method coupled with high performance liquid chromatography–diode array detector (HPLC–DAD) for the determination of four Sudan dyes in chili products was developed. The interference substances were removed completely by normal SPE-Alumina N, resulting in a clean and interference-free baseline. Without the use of expensive LCMS/MS instrument the low levels of Sudan dyes were identified and quantified in chili foods with good precision and recovery. Depending on the Sudan dyes involved, the limit of determination (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were in the range of 4.1–5.8 and 13.2–19.1 μg/kg, respectively. The recovery, repeatability and reproducibility varied from 93.2% to 103%, from 0.3% to 4.4%, and from 0.6% to 4.9%, respectively. This method is suitable for the routine analysis of Sudan dyes for the common factory laboratory due to its sensitivity, simplicity, convenience and low-cost.

The potential for using IBP spectrometer with spark ablation of samples at ferrous metallurgy enterprises

On the basis of the results of practical utilization of direct analysis of metal samples with an atomic emission spectrometer with inductively bound plasma (IBP), a comprehensive evaluation of the technique applied is given. Analytical capabilities are compared with chemical methods, with spectral analysis by an atomic emission spectrometer with IBP after sample dissolution and by spark atomic emission spectrometers. The role and the place which the above technique can find in a factory laboratory at metallurgical enterprises are shown.

CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SOME TYPES OF CEMENT AVAILABLE IN LOCAL MARKET

There is no doubt that the type and properties of cement extremely affect the general properties of produced concrete .Cement is one of the main ingredients of cement past phase in concrete. In present study chemical and physical properties of four types of Portland cement available in Iraqi local market were studied ,these types as follow : two types of ordinary Portland cement Kubaisa (Iraqi cement) and Ismnta (Jordanian cement) and the others of sulfate resisting cement Torab alsabia (Lebanese cement ) and Al-qaim (Iraqi cement).Chemical analysis of the four types of cement were conducted in Baghdad central laboratory in National Center for Constructional Laboratories and Researches (NCCLR) and Al-qaim factory laboratory .The physical tests were conducted in the concrete laboratory of Al_anbar university-college of engineering including standard cement paste ,initial and final setting and compressive strength of cement mortars.The results indicate that the local cement (Kubaisa and Al-qaim) showed better performance than imported cement (Ismnta and Torab alsabia) in most tested chemical and physical properties .Kubaisa cement showed 34.1 % , 35.5 % higher compressive strength compared with Ismnta cement at 3 and 7 day respectively and lower loss on ignition and insoluble residue . The major compounds of Kubaisa cement were nearest to those in typical cement. For sulfate resisting cement , Al-qaim cement showed 13.3 % higher compressive strength at 7 day and lower percentage of C3A (1.95%) . Torab alsabia cement exceed the limits of Iraqi standard I.O.S No.5 1984.

A Process Control Platform for Education in the Virtual Factory Laboratory System

This paper describes an experimental platform which is useful for graduate and undergraduate education in control engineering. It contains a six-tank liquid level regulation system and a pilot distillation column, which can be used as stand-alone apparatus. Some extensions of the apparatus are made to increase the function of the platform. The compositions of distillate can be estimated by adding soft sensors to the distillation column. Integrating with liquid level regulation system makes the inlet and outlet flow of the distillation column controllable which provides a realistic engineering experimental environment. It is possible to describe the impacts of unloading from upstream and charging to downstream as in process industry. The platform has been used for graduate courses such as system identification, soft sensor designing and advanced control system.

VIRTUAL FACTORY LABORATORY SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION

This paper proposes a novel virtual factory laboratory system which includes enterprise applications and process modeling and simulation. The virtual factory is an enterprise-wide reference model for process industry which can simulate the production and the enterprise operation in many situations. Process simulation platform in the virtual factory is an open environment for modeling and simulating different processes, while enterprise application platform supports operation management research. User interface of this system, which presents physical model and information of enterprise, is built with virtual reality (VR) and visualization technique.

Toward Urban Agriculture of New Style—Plant Factory Laboratory

Toward Urban Agriculture of New Style—Plant Factory Laboratory

SIMULATION PLATFORM IN THE VIRTUAL FACTORY LABORATORY SYSTEM

A process simulation platform of a virtual factory laboratory system and its application to investigation of PCS and MES for process industries are introduced in this paper. Based on a dynamic simulation of a crude oil distillation process, we provide a detailed analysis of the development of dynamic-static hybrid simulation platform, which combines dynamic simulation of key units with static simulation of the whole industrial process and would help solve the problem of simulation efficiency. A hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation is also presented by replacing the distillation unit with a real pilot distillation tower in the virtual factory laboratory system.

Acute arsenic poisoning

A 43-year-old male attempted suicide in July, 2001, by drinking 54 g of arsenic trioxide (As2O3). The patient, a chemist by profession, prepared this amount of arsenic trioxide in his factory laboratory using a commercial solution of arsenic trichloride (AsCl3) as a base. He was admitted 5 h later. On arrival he was pale and diaphoretic, but his vital signs were normal. He was initially treated with gastric lavage and charcoal. 2 h later he developed vomiting, diarrhoea, thirst, pharyngeal constriction and paresthaesias in the legs. Initial blood tests were normal, except for a white cell count of 12·5×109/L. We measured blood and urine arsenic levels daily using inductively coupled plasma/ mass spectrometry. On the first day, the arsenic level in urine was 67 500 μg/L (normal <50 μg/L) and 132 μg/L (normal <5 μg/L) in blood. We gave him intravenous fluids and and 5 mg/kg of dimercaprol (British Anti-Lewisite, or BAL) intramuscularly every 6 h. An abdominal radiograph showed a large radio-opaque mass in the gastric antrum and a speckled pattern in the intestine (figure). We did a laparotomy and temporarily clamped the pylorus, and then attempted to remove the arsenic by gastric lavage with 22 L of 0·45% saline. Intraoperative fluoroscopy showed abundant radio-opaque material. We then tried to remove the arsenic endoscopically, but failed, as the arsenic had adhered strongly to the gastric mucosa. We finally did a gastrotomy and manually removed most of it.

SIGNS OF THE GLOBAL TIMES

COMING SOON TO FACTORY floors, laboratories, and store shelves: new labels for chemical products that will look similar throughout the world. There are standard symbols for properties such as flamm...

A. L. Franklin Pty Ltd, scientific instrument makers

Many of the world's leading industrialists and strategists prophesy that if ever there is a third world war, it shall not be won on the battlefields so famed of old, but rather success shall come to the victor from his superiority in the factory and scientific laboratory. The 'Post Office Directory' was one of Thorndyke's favourite books of reference; the amount of curious and recondite information that he succeeded in extracting from its matter-of-fact pages would have surprised no one more than it would the compilers of the work.

A practical method to follow the evolution of electrochemically active areas during plate formation processes in lead acid batteries

A new method to follow the evolution of the plates of a battery during the formation processes is proposed and developed. The developed methodology can be used not only in research but also in the factory laboratories due to its simplicity. To exemplify the methodology, results for formation processes of tubular plates are presented using as precursor PbO or Pb 3O 4. The methodology gives access to the evolution, during its formation process, of the portions of the active material available for the discharge processes, the so called electrochemically active area. At the same time, the proposed technique permits the determination of the whole amount of PbO 2 during formation. Through the results it is pointed out what experimental conditions must be used during the application of the method and examples are given of the kinds of interpretation that can be made. Finally, information is presented which was deduced from the results presented.

Bottom-up planning approaches in enterprise modelling—the need and the state of the art

Increasing market demands for products in combination with technological progress led to the development of new manufacturing paradigms. Future enterprises will be composed of widely autonomous, self-organising and self-optimising work units which will be working together in flat hierarchies. In order to be agile, the work units will co-operate on a product-oriented basis. Thereby, work units of so-called virtual enterprises may belong to various companies and may be distributed world-wide. Enterprise models are used for documentation, (re-)design, analysis and the operation of a company. In order to be applicable in the future, they must be adaptable to the needs of future enterprises. For example, to speed up the (re-)formation and operation of a virtual enterprise, a methodology and tools based on suitable enterprise models are required to help to find the right partners and to determine the interfaces between those partners. This paper is organised as follows. Section 1 gives an overview of general trends in manufacturing and lists typical characteristics of future enterprises. Section 2 explains the authors' understanding of bottom-up design and why there is a need for a bottom-up design methodology. Following this motivation, existing enterprise models, also referred to as reference architectures, are reviewed. Next, the first research results of the methodology which were obtained are presented. Finally, we will give an overview of our Virtual Fa ctory Laboratory, Karlsruhe (VICTOR) which is an experimental platform for validating the approach taken.

Surface Roughness of Footwear Soling Materials: Relevance to Slip Resistance

Abstract The slip resistance of commercial safety boot and experimental footwear solings has been studied over a period of 15 years. Shoes, with experimental solings, were worn in a factory, and the coefficient of friction (CoF) measured at intervals, using a walking traction test. These measurements have shown that a microcellular polyurethane, AP66033 (formerly T66/103) gives the greatest slip resistance of any soling material on wet or oily factory floors and laboratory test surfaces. This performance is attributed to the statistically significant relationship between CoF and mean peak to trough roughness (Rtm). The surface structure of soling materials was examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy, and images compared with Rtm measurements. There is now sufficient experimental evidence to confirm that surface roughness is one of the determinants of CoF on lubricated floors. The wear characteristics of the floor/sole combination must be considered: some soling materials may become polished on certain floors. However, AP66033 cannot be polished.

Information management systems for dairy factory laboratories

Dairy laboratories are responsible for measuring the quality of ingredients, intermediate products and finished products. A particular challenge in the food processing sector is that consistently high quality products must be made from raw material which varies widely in composition and to some extent in quality. Consequently, routine milk sampling and analysis form part of the quality control system in any dairy plant. Sampling and data collection begin at the milk collection point on the farm, and so the collection truck must be considered part of the informationlquality control management system. Computerized information management systems relieve the workload on the laboratory manager by assisting with tasks such as organizing the workload; tracking samples; monitoring instruments; acquiring, storing, reporting and analysing test data; and with additional functions such as Good Laboratory Practice and IS0 9000. Of particular significance to laboratories is that computer interfaces and computer technology inside analytical instruments have opened new ways of integrating on-line measurements in the process, and on-line laboratory data. With the increasing rationalization of the dairy industry there are fewer laboratories, and a laboratory often processes samples for several factories, which requires good integration. The number of samples which are submitted is increased and the cost of automation becomes justified,

Measurement of fat and sucrose in dry cake mixes by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

SummaryA feasibility study was carried out to assess the potential of near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy for the measurement of fat and sucrose in dry cake mixes. The calibration of the NIR instrument was carried out in a research laboratory and then assessed under quality control conditions in the factory laboratory. It was possible to measure fat with an accuracy (±2σ) of ±3.4% for products with a fat content of 8–25% compared with +0.76% for the precision of the Soxhlet procedure. In the case of sucrose the accuracy was ±5.4% for products with a sucrose content of 10–40% compared with ±2.0% for a high pressure liquid chromatography (hplc) method. It must be concluded, therefore, that while NIR offers a quicker, simpler method of quality control, this is at the expense of accuracy.