Application of six sigma methodology to reduce defects of a grinding process

Six Sigma is a data-driven leadership approach using specific tools and methodologies that lead to fact-based decision making. This paper deals with the application of the Six Sigma methodology in reducing defects in a fine grinding process of an automotive company in India. The DMAIC (Define–Measure–Analyse–Improve–Control) approach has been followed here to solve the underlying problem of reducing process variation and improving the process yield. This paper explores how a manufacturing process can use a systematic methodology to move towards world-class quality level. The application of the Six Sigma methodology resulted in reduction of defects in the fine grinding process from 16.6 to 1.19%. The DMAIC methodology has had a significant financial impact on the profitability of the company in terms of reduction in scrap cost, man-hour saving on rework and increased output. A saving of approximately US$2.4 million per annum was reported from this project

A review of miniaturised Non-Destructive Testing technologies for in-situ inspections

Non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques have become attractive trends of product manufacturing, installation and post-maintenance in the aerospace, automotive and manufacturing industry, because of its benefits such as cost saving, easy to use and high efficiency etc. With the industrial products becoming large-scale, high integration and complication, developing the NDT miniaturisation technique for in-situ inspections is highly demanded and becoming an inevitable trend. However, in-situ inspection using NDT have been limited by a number of factors, such as the heavy weight, large size or complex structure etc. This paper aims to systematically identify and analyse the current state-of-the-art of NDT miniaturisation techniques in research and innovation, and discuss the challenge and prospect of miniaturisation of the commonly used NDT techniques

Application of TRIZ to develop an in-service diagnostic system for a synchronous belt transmission for automotive application

Development of robust diagnostic solutions to monitor the health of systems and components to ensure through life cost effectiveness is often technically difficult, requiring an effective integration of design development with research and innovation. This paper presents a structured application of TRIZ and USIT (Unified Structured Inventive Thinking) to generate concept solutions for an in-service diagnostic system for a synchronous belt drive system for an automotive application. The systematic exploration through TRIZ and USIT methods has led to the development of six concept solution ideas directed at the functional requirement to determine the state or condition of the belt. The paper demonstrates that the combined deployment of TRIZ and USIT frameworks is a valuable approach addressing difficult design problem

A document analysis of the visibility of sustainability in TVE teacher education programme: the case of a Malaysian HEI

There has been a global call for institutions of learning to engage in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by leading world organisations. Although scholars advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, the research literature shows that majority of sustainability issues are addressed through fields such as environmental and developmental education. There has also been a call for the integration of Sustainable Development (SD) in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes by various scholars and bodies such as the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The issue, however, is that Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) programmes are not yet embracing this call to integrate ESD into their programmes. Hence, it is imperative to reiterate the intersection between TVE and SD and how the former can contribute significantly to the SD agenda. Therefore, by completing a qualitative documentary analysis of a TVE programme, using a Malaysian Higher Education Institution (HEI) as a case study, this paper discusses the visibility of sustainability in TVE programmes as well as explores the overarching goal of ESD and why it is especially crucial for TVE. Findings reveal that the concept of sustainability is only barely reflected in the TVE teacher training curriculum. Recommendations for practice change and further research are presented and discussed

Deep Learning in the Automotive Industry: Applications and Tools

Deep Learning refers to a set of machine learning techniques that utilize neural networks with many hidden layers for tasks, such as image classification, speech recognition, language understanding. Deep learning has been proven to be very effective in these domains and is pervasively used by many Internet services. In this paper, we describe different automotive uses cases for deep learning in particular in the domain of computer vision. We surveys the current state-of-the-art in libraries, tools and infrastructures (e.\,g.\ GPUs and clouds) for implementing, training and deploying deep neural networks. We particularly focus on convolutional neural networks and computer vision use cases, such as the visual inspection process in manufacturing plants and the analysis of social media data. To train neural networks, curated and labeled datasets are essential. In particular, both the availability and scope of such datasets is typically very limited. A main contribution of this paper is the creation of an automotive dataset, that allows us to learn and automatically recognize different vehicle properties. We describe an end-to-end deep learning application utilizing a mobile app for data collection and process support, and an Amazon-based cloud backend for storage and training. For training we evaluate the use of cloud and on-premises infrastructures (including multiple GPUs) in conjunction with different neural network architectures and frameworks. We assess both the training times as well as the accuracy of the classifier. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the trained classifier in a real world setting during manufacturing process.Comment: 10 page

An improved firefly algorithm for optimal microgrid operation with renewable energy

Lately, an electrical network in microgrid system becomes very important to rural or remote areas without connection from primary power grid system. Higher cost of fuels, logistic, spare parts and maintenance affect the cost for operation microgrid generation to supply electrical power for remote areas and rural community. This project proposes an Improved Firefly Algorithm (IFA), which is a improvement of classical Firefly Algorithm (FA) technique using characteristic approach of Lévy flights to solve the optimal microgrid operation. The IFA has been used for optimizing the cost of power generation in microgrid system where daily power balance constraints and generation limits are considered. The microgrid system for this case study considered both of renewable energy plant and conventional generator units. There are two test systems that have been considered as case study. The first test system is a simple microgrid system which consists of three generators. The second test system consists of seven generating units including two wind turbines, three fuel-cell plants and two diesel generators. The IFA method has been implemented using MATLAB software. The results obtained by IFA was compared to FA and other algorithms based on optimal cost, convergence characteristics and robustness to validate the effectiveness of the IFA. It shows that the IFA obtained better results in terms of operating costs compared to FA, Differential Evolution (DE), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA)

Utilizing rapid prototyping 3D printer for fabricating flexographic PDMS printing plate

Recently printed electronic field is significantly growth. Printed electronic is to develop electrical devices by printing method. Conventional printing method that has been studied for this kind of printed electronic such as flexographic, micro contact printing, screen printing, gravure and ink jet. In flexographic and microcontact printing, a printing plate is used to transfer the designed and desired pattern to substrate through conformed contact. Therefore printing plate is play a big role in this area. Printing plate making by photopolymer which used in flexographic have limitation in achieving a micro-scale of pattern size. However, printing plate of microcontact printing have an advantages in producing micro, even nano-scale size by PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane). Hence, rapid prototyping 3D printer was used for developing a PDMS micro-scale printing plate which will be used in reel to reel (R2R) flexographic due to high speed, low cost, mass production of this type of printing process. The flexibility of 3D printer in producing any shape of pattern easily, contributed the success of this study. A nickel plating and glass etching master pattern was used in this study too as master pattern mould since 3D printer has been reached the micro size limitation. The finest multiple solid line array with 1mm width and 2mm gap pattern of printing plate was successfully fabricated by 3D printer master mould due to size limitation of the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3D printer nozzle itself. However, the micro-scale multiple solid line array of 100micron and 25micron successfully made by nikel platting and glass etching master mould respectively. Those types of printing plate producing method is valueable since it is easy, fast and low cost, used for micro-flexographic in printed electronic field or biomedical application

Degradation study of heat exchangers

Abstract This study mainly deals with the evaluation of various degradation mechanisms that heat exchangers are susceptible to with an aim of evaluating future design requirements. A heat exchanger is a heat management system that uses fluids to transfer heat from one medium to the other; the most common types of fluids being air, water, oil or specialised coolant mixtures. As part of this study a failure analysis of heat exchangers was carried out on selected heat exchangers used in both aerospace and automotive sectors. This study was then extended to designing test-rigs supporting two types of heat exchangers. For this study, an air-to-air and an oil-to-air heat exchanger test rigs were designed. Temperature, pressure and flow sensors were introduced in the test rig designs to monitor the flow characteristics in order to determine if degradations occurring as a result of operation have an impact on them. As part of the initial evaluation both visual inspection and pulsed thermography inspection were selected as suitable inspection methods to evaluate their in-service condition. Some heat exchanger units where then subjected to accelerated corrosion tests and their performance was monitored using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements. The outcomes of the study presented in this paper confirm the suitability and adaptability of thermography in detecting degradations occurring in heat exchangers