Energy efficient engine. Volume 2. Appendix A: Component development and integration program

The large size and the requirement for precise lightening cavities in a considerable portion of the titanium fan blades necessitated the development of a new manufacturing method. The approach which was selected for development incorporated several technologies including HIP diffusion bonding of titanium sheet laminates containing removable cores and isothermal forging of the blade form. The technology bases established in HIP/DB for composite blades and in isothermal forging for fan blades were applicable for development of the manufacturing process. The process techniques and parameters for producing and inspecting the cored diffusion bonded titanium laminate blade preform were established. The method was demonstrated with the production of twelve hollow simulated blade shapes for evaluation. Evaluations of the critical experiments conducted to establish procedures to produce hollow structures by a laminate/core/diffusion bonding approach are included. In addition the transfer of this technology to produce a hollow fan blade is discussed

Study of thermoelastoplastic contact deformation of production tooling mixed structures

A calculation technique based on the unified methodological approach is proposed for the analysis of thermoelastoplastic contact deformation of mixed structures. The proposed numerical technique involves the finite element method. The problem of stress-strain state evaluation for one class of mixed shrouded half-hot extrusion dies is considered. Recommendations on production tooling design are give

The contribution of research to the development of organic farming in Europe

On national as well as on EU level, research funds should be directed substantially towards organic farming in order to improve the economic and ecological performance of organic farming. The impact of research funds is very high in this field of food production, because, as yet, the potential of organic farming has been scarcely tapped by research. Integrating organic farming research into conventional research structures means disintegrating organic farming itself. Therefore, special attention should be given to how research activities are organised. National or regional centres of competence (hubs) are needed in order to provide and maintain an appropriate quality of research. These hubs can be organised as real or virtual centres. Evaluation procedures for most national and EU research funds do not consider adequately the unique approach and methodology of organic farming research

Evaluating The Ecological Sustainability Of Production Networks – A Data-based Approach

The design of global production networks influences the ecological sustainability of manufacturing operations, since it determines the environment with which a production process interacts. Historically sustainability has not been a primary goal for the design of production networks and its evaluation remains a challenge. The multiple goals of sustainability and complex structures of production networks constitute to a high modelling effort that can only be managed with databased solutions. To further decrease the modelling expenditures, the data used in such a solution should be already available or easy to obtain. This paper presents a methodology and data framework to evaluate various ecological sustainability goals, which are impacted by the design of global production networks. The approach is validated with a company that produces electrical appliances

Opzioni reali e Investimenti in Ricerca e Sviluppo

This paper combines the real options approach with game theory in order to evaluate the convenience to invest in Research and Development (R&D). The evaluation method adopted in this case is not based on the traditional $VAN$ but on the binomial model, which is used for the pricing of financial options. The model presented here considers a two-stage game whose players are two firms, $A$ and $B,$ which have both the option to invest in R\&D and the option to invest in production stage. Depending on the strategies carried out by the two firms, we can have different market structures (Cournot, Stackelberg, monopoly) whose final payoff values are related to the operating costs. The amount of these ones depend on the success of the R&D investment. The model examines both the case in which only one firm has the option to invest in R&D, and the case in which both the firms can invest in R&D.Real Options; Game Theory

The Production of Culture Perspective in Historical Research: Integrating the Production, Meaning and Reception of Symbolic Objects

Historians have analyzed films, novels, records, theater plays etc. primarily in reference to their meaning and reception. This article makes a case for moving the focus to the actors, structures and processes that shape symbolic objects before these are consumed. To this end, we present a framework established in US sociology to study the fabrication, distribution and evaluation of symbolic content. We discuss the production of culture perspective as an approach that appears to be particularly useful for historical research and, by reviewing selected works from the sociological literature, demonstrate how this perspective can be applied to phenomena like popular music and literary fiction. We focus on genres as bundles of conventions as one lens through which historians may analyze the creation, reproduction, evaluation and consumption of culture

Multilingual media components directly embeddable in open educational resources in science and technology

The use and reuse of OER (Open Educational Resources) depends on several conditions. Amongst others, the richness of their metadata, their granularity and the languages ​​in which they are made available. This work aims to facilitate efficient production of graphical and language-neutral components. It is assumed that the STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engeneering and Mathematics) share a common mathematical language and, more intuitively, an iconographic approach linked to the structures that satisfy the formulas used in each case. The work is limited to these areas of knowledge, primarily as presentations and animations of very low granularity, which can be directly integrated into larger resources in any language. The overall research design consists of four stages: 1. Initially, the manual generation of presentations and animations, with no literal in any language, and very concisely focused (mainly, definitions of a single concept for each animation). Determination of common graphics primitives to differentiate the common subtasks: presentation of examples to make the concept emerge inductively, graphical construction of the definition, highlighting the generalization or instantiation steps, homogeneous use of icons for emphasising or posing a question to the observer .. . 2. Evaluation of the expressiveness and effectiveness of these resources. Currently, these resources are being presented to small groups of students. This fall begins a multilingual evaluation process on a larger scale: as part of a regular course at the UNED and as LabSpace course in the Open University. Here we attempt to clarify the appropriate assessment tools (preferably in the same graphics language) with the minimum amount of additional external comments to constitute a course in a particular language. 3. The first two stages must provide an intuitive and graphical interface of the selected formalism (mainly Discrete Mathematics and Logic). The third stage addresses the effect of changing the output device on the selection of the graphics primitives for each generic subtask. Possible variations of the graphical language will be studied in the context of HCI analyses. 4. Finally the approach addresses semi-automatic generation, via script, of these resources: from formal description of the definitions or processes (as described, for example, in OMDoc) to the production of the corresponding animation. Additionally, the injection of semantics should facilitate the link between different animations, the navigation and search of conceptual dependency and the identification of concepts that have supporting collections of resources as described. At this point, the current development of this work provides results for the first two stages described

The Use of a Factory Simulation to Evaluate a Flexible Control Structure for Integrated Manufacturing

Once a control structure for an integrated manufacturing system is decided upon, manufacturing activities are limited by that structure. A flexible control structure is presented as an approach for accommodating a variety of manufacturing activities, without being limited to a single control structure. A flexible control structure is one that allows multiple types of control structure in the manufacturing process. For example, both hierarchical and non-hierarchical structures may be used in a flexible structure. The properties of a flexible control structure are discussed from the point of view of graph theory. Control structures for automated manufacturing are difficult to evaluate without actually setting up a pilot production system. Since this is often not possible for reasons of expense or equipment availability, it would be advantageous to be able to simulate alternative control structures for their various characteristics. In this research, flexible control is demonstrated with a factory simulation of an automated on-line/post-process inspection system. Factory simulations present special problems when used for evaluation purposes. An approach to using a factory simulation is developed, and alternative control structures are evaluated with respect to their fault tolerance characteristics. The results of this research indicate that flexible control may be cost effective when a large variety of manufacturing activities must be accommodated, but further research is needed to confirm precisely how wide a range and what types of activities would justify this approach

ECO-INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR THE PROCESSING OF TECHNOGENIC MINERAL RESOURCES

The inorganic wastes and residues formed during the production and operation process are valuable technogenic minerals, the rational treatment of which can reduce the amount of non-renewable natural mineral resources. The relatively low reuse of technogenic mineral resources is currently associated with specific characteristics of these resources. They have a wide and multiplex diversity in composition and structure, and hence a wide, uneven range of physical and chemical properties that require a complex approach to assessing the potential for developing each resource. In addition, it is necessary to evaluate the ecological and energy efficiency, technical feasibility and economic efficiency of the processing of these resources in comparison with the production of natural mineral substances from traditional technologies. A methodology for the evaluation production of potentially new goods from technogenic mineral waste is proposed. Parameters such as multifunctionality of new products, energy and resource saving, lifetime increase, reduction of negative impact on the environment, maintenance or improvement of production quality compared to original quality are taken into account. The basis for the analysis of these possibilities and methodology of assessment of eco-energetic efficiency to justify the usefulness of mineral wastes processing are given. Possibilities of using this approach for the development of mineral waste from construction and demolition recycling technologies for the production of composites, binders, fillers and monolithic structures are shown