Joint Inspection Research Articles

Willingness to Pay for Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato Juice: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Consumers in Kenya

ABSTRACT Bio-fortified foods including orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) have been promoted worldwide as a potential mechanism to combat Vitamin A deficiency. One of the ways to promote consumption of OFSP is to process it into less perishable products with wider geographical coverage. However, there is a dearth of empirical insights on the specific attributes that consumers desire in such value-added products; this constrains sustainable investments in such initiatives. In order to fill this knowledge gap, the current study assessed consumers’ willingness to pay for OFSP juice attributes in rural and urban areas using choice experiment approach. Results showed that on average, for each liter of OFSP juice, rural consumers were willing to pay premiums of USD0.58, 0.39, 0.66, 0.75 and 0.72 respectively for the juice with OFSP only or that with OFSP and lemon as opposed to that with OFSP and mango; OFSP juice with additives; origin labeling of the OFSP juice and; joint inspection and certification of the OFSP juice rather than public inspection and certification. On the contrary, rural consumers demanded a discount of USD0.25 for involvement of private rather than public entities in the inspection and certification process. The urban consumers on the other hand, were willing to pay USD0.93, 0.82, 2.22, 0.32, 0.54 and 0.76 respectively, for juice with OFSP only or that with OFSP and lemon instead of OFSP and mango; additives, origin labeling and; private or joint inspection and certification as opposed to public inspection of the juice. These findings should inform the design of OFSP juices that meet the heterogeneous preferences of the rural and urban consumers.

Effect of Swing-Spiral-Trajectory on pulsed fiber laser welding stainless steel/Copper dissimilar metals

The dissimilar metal combinations of SUS303 stainless steel and C19210 pure copper with a thickness of 0.2 mm by utilizing a nanosecond pulsed fiber laser was performed in lap welding with swing-spiral-trajectory. The weld effect was evaluated by means of microstructural and mechanical examinations. The influence of pulse frequency, speed and swing frequency as well as pulse waveform on mechanical properties and microstructure was clarified. The metallurgical behavior and weld penetration inside the fusion zone were observed with microscopic inspection of the welded joints and the welded surface. Part of molten pool materials inserted into copper plate formed an intertwined nails for enhancing the interfacial bonding strength was observed in the cross-section of the weldment. Additionally, the presence of a thin intertwined transition layer with solid solutions accomplished by the copper and liquid stainless steel mutual diffusion at the fusion line, indicated that the swing spiral welding pattern can strengthen the interface fusion. Some defects, such as porosities and microcracks, were also found in the welded joints. They were mainly due to the significantly different linear expansion coefficients of copper and steel. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis confirmed that the interdiffusion and dissolution of copper and stainless steel occurred inside the molten pool, and the surface composition of the weld pool was dominated by iron. The microhardness (MH) study showed that the heat-affected zone (HAZ) was harder than the fusion zone on the stainless steel side, and the fusion interface microhardness much variation indicated microstructural change alongside the weld interface. The tensile test results revealed that the fracture location was in the molten pool on the stainless steel side, the fracture was protruded and the fracture mode was intergranular brittle fracture.

Automatic compact camera module solder joint inspection method based on machine vision

Because of the contradiction between the production requirements of compact camera modules (CCMs) to achieve high efficiency and quality and the low efficiency and poor accuracy of traditional solder joint inspection methods, an automatic inspection method of CCM solder joint based on machine vision is proposed. After optimizing the imaging parameters according to the CCM inspection process, the region of interest is dynamically identified based on feature matching and image enhancement methods to remove background interference. On this basis, an improved adaptive particle swarm optimization is used to optimize the kernel extreme learning machine to automatically classify the solder joint defects. Experimental results showed that with its low latency, high precision and robustness, the CCM surface solder joint defect detection and classification method based on machine vision can effectively solve the problem of low efficiency and high cost of the current CCM solder joint defect detection technology.

Joint optimization of inspection and maintenance strategy for complex multi-component systems using a quantum-inspired genetic algorithm

Advances in sensor and data technology enable real-time condition monitoring, thus extending the opportunities for condition-based maintenance (CBM) to be applied in practice. In this paper, a joint inspection and maintenance strategy for multi-component systems is proposed. The objective of this strategy is to minimize the long-run expected operational cost by jointly considering the inspection frequency of each health monitor in the system and the threshold for the maintenance initialization. To find the optimal strategy, a dynamic Bayesian network-based maintenance model is developed at first to provide reasoning of the dynamic reliability of degrading components in the multi-component system, in which complex relationship among inspections by different health monitors, different failure modes in the system, and different maintenance actions to system components are considered and quantified. Then, a quantum-inspired genetic algorithm (QGA) is proposed to optimize the strategy. With quantum encoding method, improved rotation gate, and specially designed crossover and mutation operators, the QGA is able to find the optimal strategy for multi-component systems with a general system structure. An example simplified from real practice is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed strategy and the optimization algorithm, with comparison to similar strategies and traditional intelligent optimization algorithms.

Corrigendum to “Joint Inspection of HD Video and Robot in Substation Based on OCR Technology”

Corrigendum to “Joint Inspection of HD Video and Robot in Substation Based on OCR Technology”

Detection of butt weld of laser-MIG hybrid welding of thin-walled profile for high-speed train

PurposeThis study aims to solve the problem of weld quality inspection, for the aluminum alloy profile welding structure of high-speed train body has complex internal shape and thin plate thickness (2–4 mm), the conventional nondestructive testing method of weld quality is difficult to implement.Design/methodology/approachIn order to solve this problem, the ultrasonic creeping wave detection technology was proposed. The impact of the profile structure on the creeping wave detection was studied by designing profile structural test blocks and artificial simulation defect test blocks. The detection technology was used to test the actual welded test blocks, and compared with the results of X-ray test and destructive test (tensile test) to verify the accuracy of the ultrasonic creeping wave test results.FindingsIt is indicated that that X-ray has better effect on the inspection of porosities and incomplete penetration defects. However, due to special detection method and protection, the detection speed is slow, which cannot meet the requirements of field inspection of the welding structure of aluminum alloy thin-walled profile for high-speed train body. It can be used as an auxiliary detection method for a small number of sampling inspection. The ultrasonic creeping wave can be used to detect the incomplete penetration welds with the equivalent of 0.25 mm or more, the results of creeping wave detection correspond well with the actual incomplete penetration defects.Originality/valueThe results show that creeping wave detection results correspond well with the actual non-penetration defects and can be used for welding quality inspection of aluminum alloy thin-wall profile composite welding joints. It is recommended to use the echo amplitude of the 10 mm × 0.2 mm × 0.5 mm notch as the criterion for weld qualification.

Highlighting "Risky Remands" Through Prisoner Death Investigations: People With Very Severe Mental Illness Transitioning From Police and Court Custody Into Prison on Remand.

Prison suicide/self-inflicted death is an international public health crisis, harming stakeholders including bereaved families, prisoners, prison staff and death investigators. England and Wales' record prison suicide numbers in 2016 cost at least £400 million. Death rates are an indicator of prison safety, and unsafe prisons mean unsafe societies. I present four case studies of people with very severe mental illness who were remanded to prison from police and/or court custody and went on to take their own lives in prison. I use publicly available data from Ombudsman and Coronial death investigations in England and Wales, highlighting that these accessible sources could be more widely mobilized to reduce the substantial harms and costs of prisoner deaths. Case studies include three men (Lewis Francis, Jason Basalat and Dean Saunders) and one woman (Sarah Reed) who took their own lives between January 2016 and April 2017. All four people were clearly very mentally unwell at the time of their alleged offense and remand to prison. I develop the concept of “risky remands” to highlight that people with very severe mental illness being remanded to prison is a particularly problematic practice. I highlight the implications of people with very severe mental illness transitioning into prison in the first place, arguing that being remanded to prison is not an acceptable or safe pathway into healthcare. I illustrate that police custody suites and courts may lack awareness of mechanisms and/ or the practical ability to transfer ill detainees charged with a serious crime to mental health facilities for assessment and/ or treatment. My analysis amplifies and extends recent Criminal Justice Joint Inspection findings that it is unacceptable to use prisons as a “place of safety,” and that the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Welsh Government must increase the supply of medium and high secure beds. Moreover, Ombudsman investigations did not engage with the remand transition, effectively legitimizing this risky practice for very ill people. As such, my analysis also counters the apparent “problem of implementation” in prison oversight, instead questioning what reviewers recommend, based on which evidence.

Структуроутворення сталей в умовах високих швидкостей нагріву при зварюванні

This paper deals with structure formation in weld joints of quenching steels 15Cr5Мo and 12Cr1МoV as made by “short cycle” argon-shielded welding as well as with the possibility of control of transformation and quality for weld joints by the thermodynamic cycle of welding. It is demonstrated that where the developed technology is applied, the weld metal is sound, defect-free, of martensitic-ferritic structure. In the weld-affected zone of steels at high heating rates and with short time of metal exposure to temperatures exceeding critical transformation temperatures in heating, non-uniform austenite of low homogeneity is formed, in which the carbide phase containing alloy elements undergoes partial dissolution. As a result, the austenite breakdown in cooling (in spite of high rates) takes place in the bainitic range as well as in the martensitic range. In the weld-affected zone of steel 12Cr1МoV, the bainitic structure predominates while the weld-affected zone of steel 15Cr5Мo shows the bainitic-martensitic structure mainly. During weld joint inspection by shock loading testing, the metal having the above structure experiences bending or ductile fracture. The process parameters were determined, with which structures of high brittle fracture resistance are formed. The technology developed was implemented in tube studding for manufacture and repairs of cooling panels; it is recommended for common use in industrial applications. Keywords: welding, quenching, thermodynamic cycle, argon, bainite, quality, application.

Persistence Against the Odds: How Entrepreneurial Agents Helped the UN Joint Inspection Unit to Prevail

AbstractSince its inception in 1966, the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) has prevailed in the face of significant existential challenges. Against this backdrop, we investigate how and why the JIU persisted over time. Combining delegation and historical institutionalist approaches, we posit that entrepreneurial agents and layering processes together help us better understand persistence of international organizations. Based on semi‐structured interviews with UN staff and JIU inspectors, we examine three critical junctures in the history of the JIU. Our results show that entrepreneurial agents and stakeholders in the JIU managed to avoid the closure or demotion of the JIU by engaging in a strategy of institutional layering. Our analysis, however, also demonstrates that the JIU survived at the price of losing its privilege as the central UN oversight body. These findings have implications for the study of international organizations and for the reform of the UN system at large.

A reliable solder joint inspection method based on a light-weight point cloud network and modulated loss

High-speed and high-reliability automated quality inspection is widely demanded in the electronics industry. Recently, deep learning theory combined with many non-destructive technologies shows superior performance for inspecting failed soldering. In this paper, a reliable point cloud learning based method is implemented for high-speed solder joint shape defect detection. First, a light-weight neural network named Solder PointNet (SPNet) is proposed. With local group attention mechanisms, SPNet avoids adverse effects of outliers in the scanning point cloud and finds favorable critical point feature adaptively. Then, a modulated loss is designed to ensure reliable low false detection rate. By adjusting the weights of cross-entropy loss, the predictive distribution of defective samples is guided to a smaller range, thereby setting an appropriate threshold to efficiently separate the predictive distribution. Furthermore, the proposed method is further trained and evaluated on the self built solder joint dataset DHU-PAD1000 of point cloud data. Comparison experiments are carried out on the built dataset, and the results show that SPNet achieves higher accuracy with fewer parameters, considerable speed advantage, and more reliable automated detection.

Dual Matrix Array Probe Based Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing for Inspection of Trimetallic Weld Joints

Dual Matrix Array Probe Based Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing for Inspection of Trimetallic Weld Joints

IC Solder Joints Inspection via an Optimized Statistical Modeling Method

IC Solder Joints Inspection via an Optimized Statistical Modeling Method

Numerical Study of Ultrasonic Guided Waves in a Composite-Plastic Lap Joint

Composite materials have increasingly been used as key structural components in aerospace industries. Unlike traditional isotropic materials, composites are known to have complex internal structures and anisotropic material properties. It is essential to develop nondestructive methods for the inspection of material defects and the characterization of material properties. Ultrasonic guided waves have proven to be an efficient and effective technique for nondestructive testing. However, there are limited studies on investigating guided waves in composite-plastic lap joints. Since guided waves are dispersive and multimodal, it is important to understand the propagation of guided waves in these lap joints. In this study, we investigated the guided waves in composite-plastic lap joints by using finite element simulations. We calculated the dispersion curves for composites and simulated the propagation of guided waves in a composite-plastic lap joint. Our results show that the wavenumber in the lap joint area is larger than that in a composite plate. Moreover, as the thickness of the plastic plate increases, the wavenumber at the lap joint increases while the wavenumber in the composite plate area remains constant. We expect the results of this study can benefit the inspection of composite-plastic lap joints.

Structural grouting of load-bearing precast concrete elements: Issues and solutions

The purpose of this paper is to raise construction industry awareness regarding structural grouting of precast concrete projects in the United States. Incidents related to structural grouting have occurred with both precast concrete systems and other building systems. Designers, architects, owners, insurance carriers, and the construction industry in general are becoming increasingly aware of deficient grouting installation methods and verification procedures. Concerns include the timeliness of grout installation during the erection process, the lack of grout on some components of finished projects, and the poor quality of installed grout. These concerns pertain to horizontal connection joints of critical load-bearing elements between foundations and precast concrete columns and walls, stacked precast concrete columns, and stacked precast concrete walls. Current building codes and standards provide no requirements and limited guidance for the installation or special inspection of these critical horizontal joints. In an effort to address this gap in building codes and standards, as it specifically relates to precast concrete structural products, some precast concrete producers and erectors are implementing several strategies and new procedures, as noted and further developed in this paper.

PERANCANGAN SISTEM REPOSITORY JOINT INSPECTION PADA PT. KAI (PERSERO) REGIONAL III PALEMBANG

PT. Indonesian Railways Regional Division III is still processing and storing reports manually. The best system was developed called the website-based Repository Joint Inspection System, aiming to make it easier for employees to manage, store, and monitor existing reports for the managerial. This system was developed using the RUP (Rational Unified Process) method. This system has four types of users, Admin, User, Manager, and Safety. However, this study will explore and explain the upload, download, and delete processes of file features in more detail. Testing on this system uses the black box method with feature test techniques. Based on the test results, the system developed in this study follows the expected results, so it can be concluded that this system is suitable for managing and storing reports.

A novel solder joints inspection method using curvature and geometry features in high-density flexible IC substrates surface mount technology

The automatic optical inspection based defective diagnosis systems in the surface-mounted device is fairly important to the optimization of electronic manufacturing. The gist of this paper is that presents a novel inspection system for the distinction of defective solder joints on the high-density flexible IC substrates. Initially, an ultra-high precision 3D information acquirement system is elaborated. Then, several critical sub-regions are divided and pivotal features are extracted from them, in which the differential geometry based estimation scheme to obtain discrete curvatures directly and the crest line representation based shape characterization method are proposed. Finally, each type of the solder joints is described with different and ordered feature sequences, and the practical classification process is formulated as the pattern recognition and classification problem, which is also implemented by the set of predefined diagnosis rules of thumb and the introduced logical operations. By classifying seven categories of industrial solder joints and exhaustively comparing with other state-of-the-art methods, the performances of the proposed diagnosis system is validated. Experimental results verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the developed system from three aspects, i.e. inspection speed, total correct rate, and detectable types.

Multisensor Inspection of Laser-Brazed Joints in the Automotive Industry.

Automobile laser brazing remains a complex process whose results are affected by several process variables that may result in nonacceptable welds. A multisensory customized inspection system is proposed, with two distinct non-destructive techniques: the potential drop method and eddy current testing. New probes were designed, simulated, produced, and experimentally validated in automobile’s laser-brazed weld beads with artificially introduced defects. The numerical simulations allowed the development of a new four-point probe configuration in a non-conventional orthogonal shape demonstrating a superior performance in both simulation and experimental validation. The dedicated inspection system allowed the detection of porosities, cracks, and lack of bonding defects, demonstrating the redundancy and complementarity these two techniques provide.

Joint Inspection of HD Video and Robot in Substation Based on OCR Technology

The research on the joint inspection technology of HD video and robot in substation is of great significance in the operation and maintenance management of substation. The related research on multidimensional collaborative inspection technology of substation has attracted great attention. The substation monitoring system is designed to realize multidimensional collaborative inspection of HD video and inspection robot. OCR technology is used to improve the abnormal recognition system of inspection robot equipment. According to the collection of video information, DSP comprehensive information processing is carried out, and the detection information is analyzed by frequency domain filtering method through human-computer interaction interface. Meanwhile, the main component features of substation detection components are extracted by pattern recognition method, and the resolution model of similar features of video monitoring images is constructed. It plays an important role in the daily operation and maintenance of substation to construct the reliability visual tracking and identification model and optimize the multidimensional cooperative inspection system model.

Numerical investigations of the clinching process and the failure prediction of clinched joints for dissimilar sheets

The clinching process is more and more used in automotive design and manufacturing. Traditional quality inspection of joints needs a lot of destructive tests, which is time-consuming and material-consuming. In this paper, the clinching process and joints failure of dissimilar materials, 6061 aluminium alloy and HC340/590DP dual-phase steel, are studied. A two-dimensional finite element model is established. Experiments were carried out to verify the numerical model. Through the axial tensile test, the quality of clinched joints for upper steel-lower aluminium alloy and upper aluminium alloy-lower steel were measured, respectively, and the strength and safety of the joints met the requirements of design indexes. The conventional prediction model of maximum tensile force and its modified model was researched. Combined with numerical simulation results, the fracture load, the separation load, and the failure mode of two clinched joints were predicted, respectively. Furthermore, the results are in good agreement with the experimental results. The results show that the modified prediction model of maximum tensile force has a good prediction result, and the error rate is less than 10%. The modified prediction model of maximum tensile force can effectively predict the tensile failure test results, which provides a basis for the quality evaluation and strength prediction optimization of dissimilar materials clinched joints.

유압력 체결 공법을 적용한 커플러 개발

Currently, the number of construction cases using large-diameter and high-strength steel and high-strength concrete is increasing due to the trend of large buildings. In the case of reinforcing bars that serve as the framework of a structure, the continuous state is the best in terms of structural stability. However, for convenience, it is transported and assembled to a predetermined standard. In this study, a coupler was developed applying SCM440 material with excellent mechanical properties, not S35C and S45C materials, generally used as coupler materials. To this end, high-frequency carburizing and heat treatment was applied to the element parts taking into account the taper angle and stress results, reflecting the results of low- and high-cycle fatigue tests and structural analysis for the applied material. Finally, in the case of a reinforced coupler fastened with hydraulic SD500 reinforcement bars with diameter D25, a reliability test was carried out using the mechanical joint inspection method of reinforced concrete reinforcement bars. Results were obtained that satisfied the characteristic performance values.