Development of Exhaust Leak Detector Device for Automotive Service Industry: A Prototype Design

The exhaust system plays a vital role in removing the gaseous emissions that is being produced within the combustion chamber during fuel-air mixture activities. The exhaust system is defined as a series of chambers and pipes that starts at the engine and ends at the back of the car with the tail pipe. However if there are any leaks in the exhaust system, it provide a direct path for the emission gaseous including carbon monoxide to enter can be very dangerous as it provides a direct path for carbon monoxide and other dangerous gaseous emissions to enter the cowl vent at the base of the windshield and directly to the passenger compartment. The risk of exposure to these hazardous gaseous is also high especially during vehicle maintenance services in suspected cases of leakages to the exhaust system.  The inspection of the exhaust system is done manually in most of the automotive services workshops. In this paper, accidental risks of performing these inspection jobs on a vehicle’s exhaust system, performed by a technician are discussed. In order to minimize the risks to technicians or mechanics, a prototype device to detect exhaust leakage was developed using a gas sensor module and a web camera. This device was successfully operated in detecting possible leakages of the exhaust system

The Impact of Employee Involvement and Empowerment in Lean Manufacturing System Implementation towards Organizational Performances

Lean Manufacturing System (LMS) implementations in Malaysia’s automotive industry has not been extensive in its expected reach, as extensive inquiries revealed it being adopted as a “pick-and-choose” system for certain processes or only upon determined levels within the industry. Current implementation strategy does not permit the industry to gain total benefits from the system itself. Undeniably, a few significant factors are being given less significance in multiple stages of LMS’ execution. Employee involvement and employee empowerment have been identified as part of these contributing factors in a successful implementation of LMS in an organization. However, important criterion with its contributing aspects of these factors is not given the necessary attention, translating into a lamer impact upon companies embarking on a LMS deployment. This paper examines the impact of these two factors in the implementation of a lean manufacturing system towards achieving organizational performances in the automotive industry. A questionnaire-survey was administered to gauge the impact of these two factors in an implementation process of a lean manufacturing system and later analyzing the effect towards their organizational performances. Data from 204 automotive parts manufacturers were gathered and analyzed. The correlation between the influencing factors, 5 lean activities and 6 organizational performances were measured. The results gained suggest that the integration between employee involvement and employee empowerment will be a valuable critical organizational capability impacting organizational performances towards the successful implementation of LMS in the Malaysian automotive industry

Physical properties of homogeneous particleboard based on acacia tree and polyurethane adhesive as a resins

The formaldehyde-based adhesives have always been chosen for manufacturer in the making of particleboard because of the cost. However, it has low moisture resistance and high water absorption. At the same time, formaldehyde-based adhesive also produced gaseous emission that can cause cancer and bronchial health. Meanwhile, the high water resistance, low moisture content and healthy to the human body nowadays becomes most important issues in the making of furniture for market. This research was discusses on the ability of Acacia tree as raw material and polyurethane (PU) as an adhesive for making the homogeneous particleboard. The aim of this research isto looking the impact of using different particle sizes from Acacia tree to the physical properties of the end product. This study also focuses on the potential of paraffin wax as a water repellent agent. The testing of physical properties was includes the thickness swelling (TS) testing, moisture content (MC), density and water absorption (WA testing). The size of Acacia particle was varied from xx>2mm and x>4mm. All particleboards produced was achieve the range of medium density according to the Japan Industry Standard (JIS). The results have shown that the value of the density and the particle size was influenced the result especially for the physical properties. From this research it is proved that the PU as a resin and sawdust of acacia tree with some specific size can be a good binder and material for the particle board industries in future. The paraffin wax also showed a great potential as a water repellent agent based on the reduction of water absorption of the particleboard. The particleboard with sizes between 2mm to 4mm proves better results compared to the smaller or bigger sizes of particle

Development and performance of particleboard from various types of organic waste and adhesives : A review

Environmentally friendly or green building materials are more commonly used in the construction industry and furniture making industry. The knowledge of the environmental risks including the depletion of natural resources, the impact of pesticides, as well as the amplifier and enforcement criteria of good practice have led to an increase in the practice of recycling waste materials, and in particular, the recycling of abandoned trees in particleboard production. From the adhesive aspect, in view of future constraints of formaldehyde use, suitable alternatives to formaldehyde-based adhesive systems would have to be developed and implemented in the wood processing industry. The present review represents a critical appraisal of various organic wastes and adhesives used as raw materials in particleboard development. The core of this review is an assessment of physical and mechanical properties of particleboards based on various types of organic waste and adhesive. Based on these data, we evaluated their potential to identify suitable alternative raw materials having a certain probability to meet the requirements of a large-scale industry sector. Characteristics such as density, thickness swelling, modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) are significant in the studies carried out by researchers worldwide. However, they also depend on the types of raw materials, adhesives, parameters and indicators used throughout particleboard production. As an overall conclusion, some organic wastes have the potential to replace wood fibers as raw materials in particleboard production with similar performances. Natural-based adhesives have also shown the potential to substitute formaldehyde-based adhesives in terms of performance. However, toxicological investigations should be performed before a decision can been made to ensure they are safe and add value as replacements for formaldehyde-based adhesives

Application of Memetic Algorithm to Solve Truck and Trailer Routing Problems

Abstract Application of memetic algorithm (MA) is considered in this work to solve the truck and trailer routing problem (TTRP). In TTRP, some customers can be designated as vehicle customers and can be serviced either by a complete vehicle (a trailer pulling by truck) or a single truck. However, some customers are known as truck customers and have to be serviced by a single truck. To employ this algorithm, Partial-mapped crossover (PMX), various mutations and local search approaches have been applied and a truck and trailer routing problem has been solved. The results compared with the findings available in the literature. The MA used for this purpose obtained 13 best solutions out of 21, including 10 new solutions. The results obtained from the application of MA are better than other algorithms such as tabu search and simulated annealing. Therefore, application of MA is useful for solving TTRP