Machining Line Research Articles

Wash Testing of Electronic Yarn

Electronically active yarn (E-yarn) pioneered by the Advanced Textiles Research Group of Nottingham Trent University contains a fine conductive copper wire soldered onto a package die, micro-electro-mechanical systems device or flexible circuit. The die or circuit is then held within a protective polymer packaging (micro-pod) and the ensemble is inserted into a textile sheath, forming a flexible yarn with electronic functionality such as sensing or illumination. It is vital to be able to wash E-yarns, so that the textiles into which they are incorporated can be treated as normal consumer products. The wash durability of E-yarns is summarized in this publication. Wash tests followed a modified version of BS EN ISO 6330:2012 procedure 4N. It was observed that E-yarns containing only a fine multi-strand copper wire survived 25 cycles of machine washing and line drying; and between 5 and 15 cycles of machine washing followed by tumble-drying. Four out of five temperature sensing E-yarns (crafted with thermistors) and single pairs of LEDs within E-yarns functioned correctly after 25 cycles of machine washing and line drying. E-yarns that required larger micro-pods (i.e., 4 mm diameter or 9 mm length) were less resilient to washing. Only one out of five acoustic sensing E-yarns (4 mm diameter micro-pod) operated correctly after 20 cycles of washing with either line drying or tumble-drying. Creating an E-yarn with an embedded flexible circuit populated with components also required a relatively large micro-pod (diameter 0.93 mm, length 9.23 mm). Only one embedded circuit functioned after 25 cycles of washing and line drying. The tests showed that E-yarns are suitable for inclusion in textiles that require washing, with some limitations when larger micro-pods were used. Reduction in the circuit’s size and therefore the size of the micro-pod, may increase wash resilience.

Safety and Automatization of Machining Line

Abstract the paper deals with problematic of machining lines of machine components for the automotive industry. There is a current issue of increasing labor productivity and economic efficiency of production with full safety of production and environmental protection. Therefore, for a specific practical assignment, the replacement of existing machinery using manual workpiece handling is performed by a fully automated safety-accessible one. For this purpose, an analysis of the technical and operating parameters of the proposed NC machines has been prepared. Attention is paid to optimization of material flow and arrangement of individual workplaces of production machines including handling and transfer of material between individual workplaces. Particular attention is paid to the safety of workers and improves the environmental conditions of the production plant. Finally, the overall efficiency of the proposed solution is evaluated in detail compared to the current solution.

Development of a form milling method for line gear: principle, CNC machine, cutter, and testing

Milling, as one of the most versatile machining methods, which is simple and flexible, is suitable for small and medium batch production of gears. Relevant method of form milling for line gear, a new type of gear, was studied in this paper. Firstly, the principle of a form milling for line gear was presented, that is capable of machining line gears with circular helix, conic helix, or planar helix as their contact curve, and of external or internal line gears. Secondly, the corresponding design methods of form milling cutters were proposed on basis of the structural characteristics of external and internal line gears, separately. Then, on the basis of the milling characteristics of line gear, a special CNC machine tool was developed, which is much cheaper than a five-axis machine tool. Finally, through the relative experiments on line gears and line gear reducers, the feasibility of the processing method proposed and the practicability of the special machine tool developed were verified.

Plateau honing of a diesel engine cylinder with special topography and reasonable machining time

Deep valleys and flattened peaks are essential characteristics of the finished cylinder bore surface, which is known as the plateau surface. Generally, a honing process is done in three steps to achieve a plateau surface, which is costly and time-consuming and acts as a bottleneck for cylinder block machining line. The real challenge is to select optimum levels of honing process parameters to achieve desired surface characteristics with minimum machining time. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of the input parameters of the honing process on the surface texture of diesel engine cylinder bore. The Rk family parameters are used for surface roughness evaluation and the honing crosshatch angle, in accordance with engine design requirements, which was fixed for all experiments. Optimization by means of the desirability function technique allowed determining most appropriate conditions to desirable roughness (surface quality) and/or minimize machining time (productivity). Based on the findings of this study the conventional three-stage honing process has been replaced by the two-stage process. Using the proposed two-stage honing process the intended plateau surface in cylinder bores are achieved and a remarkable reduction in the honing process time is obtained. Consequently, the process efficiency is improved significantly.

Buffer allocation in asynchronous serial production systems with Bernoulli machines during transients

Some asynchronous production systems can never be truly balanced. This phenomenon demands the incorporation of asynchronism and unreliability in buffer allocation problems (BAPs). This paper reports a BAP in an asynchronous serial production system with Bernoulli machines. A profit-based integer programming model is formulated to maximise the throughput and minimise the buffer capacity simultaneously. Because the production run is finite in the current mass customisation environment, a transient analysis is used to estimate the system performance. Piecewise closed-form expressions are derived for a two-machine case based on Markovian structures. For M > 2 machine lines, an efficient recursive algorithm based on aggregation is developed. Considering the nonlinear characteristic of this BAP, a dynamic-objective particle swarm optimisation with neighbourhood searching is developed. This approach is verified by a case from an assembly plant. The results demonstrate that the programming method can increase the system profit by 1.85%.

Productivity enhancement by using programmable logic controller-based automated guided vehicles for material handling

The programmable logic controller (PLC) based and magnetic tape guided automatic guided vehicles were designed and implemented in a production environment where significant material handling is involved. The work is focused on transporting the components of transmission plant of a small car from the machining line (consisting of multitude of machine tools) to the assembly line. The new automated material handling system was designed to replace the existing manual material handling system. The PLC controller deals with the movement of the vehicle in forward and reverse path with the use of four different sensors. Magnetic tape-based guiding lines that are relatively inexpensive, and less-complex are implemented for the movement of automated guided vehicle (AGV) in a specified path. Infrared sensor system is integrated to the AGV for effective obstacle detection during the material movement. Auto-charging of the batteries of the AGV without needing them to halt specifically for charging is implemented. The results showed that lithium-ion batteries are more suitable compared to the led-acid batteries for the present type of AGVs and their charging strategy. The overall AGV system showed promise and proved to be more productive and reliable compared to the previously existing manual material handling system.

Productivity enhancement by using programmable logic controller-based automated guided vehicles for material handling

The programmable logic controller (PLC) based and magnetic tape guided automatic guided vehicles were designed and implemented in a production environment where significant material handling is involved. The work is focused on transporting the components of transmission plant of a small car from the machining line (consisting of multitude of machine tools) to the assembly line. The new automated material handling system was designed to replace the existing manual material handling system. The PLC controller deals with the movement of the vehicle in forward and reverse path with the use of four different sensors. Magnetic tape-based guiding lines that are relatively inexpensive, and less-complex are implemented for the movement of automated guided vehicle (AGV) in a specified path. Infrared sensor system is integrated to the AGV for effective obstacle detection during the material movement. Auto-charging of the batteries of the AGV without needing them to halt specifically for charging is implemented. The results showed that lithium-ion batteries are more suitable compared to the led-acid batteries for the present type of AGVs and their charging strategy. The overall AGV system showed promise and proved to be more productive and reliable compared to the previously existing manual material handling system.

Use of a computer simulation program to quantify the influence of masking calculation methods on ISO 5006-1 visibility results

IntroductionThe ISO 5006-1 is used to evaluate visibility on earth-moving machinery but has been criticized for a cumbersome field method. Field conditions are difficult to reproduce. Investigators may be required to evaluate a particular machine's line of sight profile to examine how it contributed to an accident. However, the standard relies on values such as operator size and positioning that accident investigators may not possess. Furthermore, practitioners in various settings face limitations related to lighting, time, and space. MethodsA computer simulation version of the standard was completed on a small lift truck machine and a larger haul truck. Variations on obstruction, or masking, calculation methods were completed to highlight the variability within the ISO 5006-1 standard under controlled conditions. Additionally, the impact of operator anthropometrics and seat positioning on masking measurements were quantified. ResultsGenerally, ISO 5006-1 calculated masking widths and those measured using a monocular view point underestimated masking sizes as compared to a gold standard binocular measurement. Binocular and monocular measurements of the percentage visibility on a horizontal plane showed little difference (<1%). Furthermore, variations in operator anthropometrics and seat positioning showed minimal changes in measures of visibility (<2%). ConclusionsDepending on the accuracy required for a given application, variations in visibility measurements may be considered acceptable or unacceptable. The variation of 300 mm observed in one case between a binocular masking width and monocular width exceeds the acceptable masking width (300 mm) defined by the ISO. However, variations in seat positioning and anthropometrics showed much smaller differences.

Improvement Suggestion Performance of Blowing Machine Line 4 with Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Method at PT. Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia MedanUnit

Maintenance is an activity to maintain facilities or equipment of the factory and make repairs or adjustments to the necessary replacement to satisfactory condition of production operations in accordance with what is planned. Companies often experience damage to the Blowing machine so that interconnected machines cannot be operated. The purpose of this study was to improve the performance of Blowing line 4 engines with the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) method at PT. Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia Medan Unit, also to determine the level of Blowing machine performance based on the analysis of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) at PT. Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia Medan Unit. The method used in this study is the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) method to measure Ishikawa’s treatments and diagrams to compare and propose low engine performance. The results of data processing shows machine maintenance has not comply the OEE standards in July 81.48%, August 81.48%, September 78.07%, October 81.22%, November 78.08%, and those that fill the standards in June amount to 86.48%, with losses that most affect the effectiveness of equipment in line 4 blowroom machine is Equipment Failure Losses of 11.42% based on the results of the study, the proposed improvement in engine performance is to provide training to employees, and increase operator awareness. against engine damage, thus the production process will run smoothly.

Improvement Suggestion Performance of Blowing Machine Line 4 with Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Method at PT. Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia Medan Unit

Maintenance is an activity to maintain facilities or equipment of the factory and make repairs or adjustments to the necessary replacement to satisfactory condition of production operations in accordance with what is planned. Companies often experience damage to the Blowing machine so that interconnected machines cannot be operated. The purpose of this study was to improve the performance of Blowing line 4 engines with the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) method at PT. Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia Medan Unit, also to determine the level of Blowing machine performance based on the analysis of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) at PT. Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia Medan Unit. The method used in this study is the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) method to measure Ishikawa’s treatments and diagrams to compare and propose low engine performance. The results of data processing shows machine maintenance has not comply the OEE standards in July 81.48%, August 81.48%, September 78.07%, October 81.22%, November 78.08%, and those that fill the standards in June amount to 86.48%, with losses that most affect the effectiveness of equipment in line 4 blowroom machine is Equipment Failure Losses of 11.42% based on the results of the study, the proposed improvement in engine performance is to provide training to employees, and increase operator awareness. against engine damage, thus the production process will run smoothly.

Labour Productivity Improvement in an Automobile Component Manufacturer Machine Shop using Lean Tools

Productivity Improvement has become an important goal for today’s automotive industry, as the customer demand is increasing every day. Organisation takes this as an opportunity to improve the business potential. Implementation of lean manufacturing tool results in productivity improvement and cost reduction in several companies. There is a strong correlation between productivity and labour productivity. Labour productivity improvement has a direct impact on business growth. This article presents a case study on application of lean manufacturing tool “Eliminate Combine Rearrange Simplify (ECRS)” in the manufacturing industry. This work is carried out in a medium scale automotive parts manufacturing company where all kinds of machining operation is taken place and the output of the product is supplied to vehicle manufacturer. This case study is illustrating increase in labour productivity in an automobile component machining line by applying the ECRS technique. Vertical Machining centre, Combination of tool, man and machine concept is used for implementing ECRS technique in the machining line. After implementation there is significant increase in labour productivity and reduction in throughput time and saving of space on the shop floor.

Study of household accident prone areas in rural Saharanpur

Introduction: Household accidents cause injury to the affected individual along with stress and economic strain to the family. Studies on household accident prone areas in rural area of India are rare. Objective: The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of domestic accidents and rural household accident prone areas. Methods: The study was done in the village Pilkhani, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh from October to December 2018. Sixty houses were randomly selected in the village. Information regarding household accident prone areas was gathered by interviewing the head of the family or the adult informant and accident prone areas were observed in the household. The analysis was done using MS Excel software. Results: Prevalence of domestic accidents was 8.25% with falls being the most common. Uneven brick/kacha floor, floor at different levels, improper electric fittings, fodder cutting machine and low clothes line were frequently found accident prone areas identified in the households. Conclusion: In order to prevent and control the domestic accidents, creation of awareness among the community and inculcation of household safety measures using Information Education and Communication interventions have to be strived for along with structural modification of accident prone areas in the household.

Modelling and evaluation of multi-state reliability of repairable non-series manufacturing system with finite buffers

The capacity and capability of flexible manufacturing system varies with different market demands. To satisfy the requirements of performance expressions, avoid the problem of combinatorial explosion and consider the influence of intermediate buffer stations, a new reliability modelling and evaluating methodology for repairable non-series hybrid flexible manufacturing systems with finite buffers is proposed using an extended vector universal generating function technique. For repairable modular machines, the Markov models of modular machines are established using stochastic process analysis and the corresponding theoretical steady-state probability in various states is obtained. Furthermore, the original system in combination with multi-state reliability measures of buffer stations is equivalent to a system with independent machines which can be expressed by vector u-functions. Based on the probability distributions of the states of subsystems, the composition operators for series connections and parallel connections are defined. Consequently, the entire system is simplified to one component represented by the polynomial universal generating function. In particular, reliability indicators and measurement models are given to assess the system’s reliability through promoting the basic ones. Finally, a practical case of engine head machining line is utilized to verify the effectiveness of the method. The results demonstrate that the use of vector universal generating functions can describe the system structure and states more appropriately while providing efficient assessment.

Vibration Analysis on Rotating Machines using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

The history has record that heavy industries face major problems that causes by variant types of mechanical failures came from rotating machines. The Vibrations in rotating machine almost fond in everywhere, due to unbalances, misalignments and imperfect part, analytical approaches has shown that vibration monitoring has great capability in detecting and addressing the defect particular part in the machine line .The vibration velocities and vibration load will be measured at different speeds using The Time-frequency analysis at initial condition. The result of vibration readings spectrum analysis and phase analysis can be determining the figure of vibrations character, and the causes of height vibration will be found. By reading the spectrum unbalance will be identified. When the unbalanced part was balanced then we found that the vibration was decrease. The Vibration experimental frequency spectrum test will be conduct for both balanced and unbalanced condition and also in different speed conditions. To full fill the vibration analysis test, in this experimental research a prototype of vibration monitoring system was constructed. The vibration can be generated and the system performance can be monitored. In this prototype the signal from load cell and velocity sensor will be processed in microcontroller and send to computer where FFT will processed the signal to create spectrum in the computer display. The actual final result of Vibration analysis test will be provide after finish the vibrations analysis test that will be done latter, therefore the chart result on this paper is based on theoretical only.

Cleaning Validation: Complete Guide for Health - Based Approach in Chemical Cross - Contamination Risk Assessment.

Cross contamination is a major concern in the pharmaceutical industry, especially with long - term dosing and possible cumulative effects. The risk depends on many factors that can be divided into three main groups: individual related-starting from the individual's genomic makeup, age, sex, environment, and even diet and psychological state, which in turn alter the individual's response to contamination and to any active pharmaceutical ingredient (API); formulation related-the API's cleanability, solubility, batch size, maximum daily dose, and most importantly permitted daily exposure (PDE), which covers the toxicological profile of this API, including its genotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, sensitizing potential, or any adverse effects that would result from long- or short - term cross contamination; and facility related-as the machine shared surface area between Product A as the contaminant and Product B as the contaminated. The following approach is based on EMA recommendations on health - based exposure limits. It aims to address all three of the aforementioned groups to give a scientific rationale on how to evaluate the cleaning process efficiency.LAY ABSTRACT: This manuscript aims to provide a health-based exposure limit for acceptable carryover of one pharmaceutical product to another in a multiproduct pharmaceutical facility, owing to the manufacturing of more than one product on the same machine line, without any affects upon or side effects in patients. The risk assessment of cross contamination is affected by many factors, related to either the patients taking the pharmaceutical products or the pharmaceutical product itself.Factors related to patients include those that might alter the individual's responses toward active pharmaceutical products; for instance, the cytochrome P450 (CYP) liver enzyme family is responsible for the breakdown of more than 30 different classes of drugs. Patients having less active or inactive forms of CYP enzymes cannot metabolize or eliminate certain drugs, leading to accumulation and increased toxicity of those drugs. Aging also affects the metabolizing process of drugs. Other factors can affect an individual's response toward any drug, and these effects range from minor to major.The factors related to the facility or formulation itself also have a major impact on the determination of maximum allowed carryover between two products; for instance, a potentially carcinogenic active pharmaceutical ingredient must have a lower accepted carryover than a noncarcinogenic one. Smaller batch size poses a larger threat when the batch is contaminated with the same amount of contaminant as a larger batch, and a large surface area machine train poses a larger risk for contamination.

Undulatory Diamond Smoothing of Machine-Part Surfaces

The use of an industrial robot for undulatory diamond smoothing of machine-part surfaces is considered. The design of a robot for diamond smoothing of cylindrical and complex surfaces is described, and an example of an automatic machining line that includes a two-column industrial robot for undulatory smoothing is presented. In tests, the wear resistance of samples subjected to diamond smoothing on a lathe and to undulatory smoothing is compared.

Improving productivity of a multi-product machining line at a motorcycle manufacturing plant

This paper introduces a case study to improve productivity of a multi-product transmission case machining line at a motorcycle manufacturing plant. First, the manufacturing process is introduced to characterise the production flow. Through structural modelling, such a process is simplified through aggregations and transformed into a two-stage Bernoulli line model with split dedicated machines and finite buffers. Using Markov chain analysis, the system throughput can be estimated. The results are validated by plant data. To improve system productivity, through numerical experiments, we investigate the impacts of increasing machine efficiency, varying demands and implementing different loading policies. Such a study provides a quantitative tool for plant engineers and managers to improve production operations.

Influence of sinusoidal and square voltages on partial discharge inception in geometries with point‐like termination

High-voltage equipment involves both electrical and electronic components. In electrical power network, which consists of rotating machine, power transformers and transmission lines, field enhancement at critical regions can lead to local breakdown [partial discharges (PD)]. The continuous occurrence of PDs can lead to complete breakdown. While in large power equipment sharp edges can be avoided, this is not the case in power converter due to the miniature nature of the semiconductor device. Sharp edges can also be present in any power equipment in the shape of conducting particles, either stuck at a barrier or freely moving in the bulk oil. This creates high-field regions, prone to PD activities. Different power equipment operates at different voltages such as AC, DC, square voltage, pulse voltage, fast-rise transient voltage etc. This study presents the influence of sinusoidal voltage, slow- and fast-rise square voltage on PDs in two different geometries using optical PD measurement technique. Fast-rise square voltage has the lowest PD inception voltage while the sinusoidal voltage has the highest. This is may be due to the influence of homo- and hetero-charges. Fast-rise square voltage displayed higher PD magnitude at inception which may be connected to the rise time of the voltage.

Set-partitioning-based heuristic for balancing and configuration of automated flexible machining line

Flexible machining lines are used in a wide range of industries due to their ability of reconfiguration to meet high variety of customer demands. A novel problem is proposed in the current research to consider automated flexible machining line (AFML) with automated machining using computer numerical control machines and automated auxiliary operations using robots. A mixed-integer programming model for the current novel problem is developed. Moreover, a novel method named set-partitioning-based heuristic (SPH) is proposed to solve this new flexible machining line balancing problem to minimise the cycle time of the line and the performance is compared with both exact algorithm and random search algorithm. A set of benchmark instances based on different size of problems against different system parameters is made. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis of the system parameter in AFML is performed to know, how the number of machines and processing time can influence the cycle time and the utilisation of AFML. Computational experiments are performed to show the performance of the proposed method SPH against other methods and the results indicate that SPH performs best among all test methods in terms of solution quality and computation on both the proposed benchmark instances.

Design Control Systems of Human Machine Interface in the NTVS-2894 Seat Grinder Machine to Increase the Productivity

In the Manufacturing of automotive spare parts, increased sales of vehicles is resulted in increased demand for production of engine valve of the customer. To meet customer demand, we carry out improvement and overhaul of the NTVS-2894 seat grinder machine on a machining line. NTVS-2894 seat grinder machine has been decreased machine productivity, the amount of trouble, and the amount of downtime. To overcome these problems on overhaul the NTVS-2984 seat grinder machine include mechanical and programs, is to do the design and manufacture of HMI (Human Machine Interface) GP-4501T program. Because of the time prior to the overhaul, NTVS-2894 seat grinder machine does not have a backup HMI (Human Machine Interface) program. The goal of the design and manufacture in this program is to improve the achievement of production, and allows an operator to operate beside it easier to troubleshoot the NTVS-2894 seat grinder machine thereby reducing downtime on the NTVS-2894 seat grinder machine. The results after the design are HMI program successfully made it back, machine productivity increased by 34.8%, the amount of trouble, and downtime decreased 40% decrease from 3,160 minutes to 1,700 minutes. The implication of our design, it could facilitate the operator in operating machine and the technician easer to maintain and do the troubleshooting the machine problems.