PRODUCT DESIGN TECHNIQUES IN AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTION

In the present and medium term perspective in the future, the mechanical engineering and other industrial branches are facing advanced challenges arising from global changes in the technical, economic and social environment. Submitted article deals with the approach to Product design in automotive sector that is using benefits from the synergic effect of utilizing the innovative methods, techniques and tools, within the integrated model of complex product development. The suggested paradigm is demonstrated on the project of experimental car ICAR 2010 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia

Influence of drift on robot repeatability and its compensation

This paper presents an approach to compensate for the effect of thermal expansion on the structure of an industrial robot and thus to reduce the repeatability difference of the robot in cold and warm conditions. In contrast to previous research in this area that deals with absolute accuracy, this article is focused on determining achievable repeatability. To unify and to increase the robot repeatability, the measurements with highly accurate sensors were performed under different conditions on an industrial robot ABB IRB1200, which was equipped with thermal sensors, mounted on a pre-defined position around joints. The performed measurements allowed to implement a temperature-based prediction model of the end effector positioning error. Subsequent tests have shown that the implemented model used for the error compensation proved to be highly effective. Using the methodology presented in this article, the impact of drift can be reduced by up to 89.9%. A robot upgraded with a compensation principle described in this article does not have to be warmed up as it works with the same low repeatability error in the entire range of the achievable temperatures.Web of Science1122art. no. 1081

Does the in vitro egg hatch test predict the failure of benzimidazole treatment in Haemonchus contortus?

Considerable research has been directed towards optimising in vitro tests that can diagnose resistance in pre-parasitic stages of parasites. The objective of this study was to compare the in vivo faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT), the in vitro egg hatch test (EHT), and the molecular determination of the frequency of a codon 200 allele of β-tubulin isotype 1 associated with benzimidazole resistance in larval stages of Haemonchus contortus obtained from infected goats. Animals were infected with composite infective doses representing 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80% resistant alleles. Faecal samples for the EHT were collected on 28, 33, and 35 days post-infection. The results of the in vivo FECRT indicated that albendazole treatment reduced infections consisting of composite doses of 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80% larvae of the resistant isolate by 91.3, 78.0, 63.3, 48.4, 36.5, and 41.4%, respectively. The drug concentration at which 50% of the eggs were prevented from developing hatching larvae (ED50) in the in vitro EHT varied from 0.09 ± 0.01 to 15.63 ± 12.10 μg/mL thiabendazole. The results of the in vitro EHT indicated that the test could estimate in vivo resistance well. The EHT could thus accurately estimate the in vivo efficacy of the drug and percentage of the resistance allele in the population using hatching parameters in delineation doses. This finding was also supported by comparing the FECRT data to the hatching percentages in the EHT on 30 goat farms in Slovakia with natural mixed infections of gastrointestinal parasites