Evaluation of new spot variant approach for joining of dissimilar materials

Lightweight structures are typically applied in structurally optimized components integrating multi-lightweight materials. One major limitation for further development and wider use of these structures is the difficulty to join the materials with significant dissimilar physical properties, especially metals to polymeric based materials. The joining of metal to polymer is one important demand from modern mechanical design that still strives to find reliable and energy efficient manufacturing solutions for this field of application. The existing solutions are not able to meet all the demands, namely regarding load-bearing structures where thicker components are needed. In this scenario, a new solution for hybrid joining of advanced lightweight engineering material, was recently invented at Aalto University, and it will be tested in the variant of spot joining. The new solution envisages the joining of thick structural components enabling multi-directional mechanical resistance. The current work aims to evaluate a new approach for the spot variant and to understand the process better. New laboratorial conditions were developed for the implementation of the joining method. Tentative work started with some slot variant tests, but focus was put on the spot variant. The results obtained from the mechanical testing of the spot variant indicate a 50 percent and 85 percent increase in the tensile shear and cross tension tests respectively

Productization Recommendations of Service Contracts for the Case Company

The case company is a rapidly growing company providing equipment, software, and services for coating extremely thin films over a required surface. Recently, the case company made the decision to productize its service offerings in order to cater to high volume manufacturing customers in the semiconductor business market. Specifically, these customers requested comprehensive service contracts to aid their businesses. Hence, this thesis study was performed to propose productization recommendations of service contracts for the case company. The thesis study utilized the applied research approach for handling the business problem and for developing practical and useable solutions for the case company. The research approach involved four stages. The first stage was to study the existing literature regarding productization activities and to develop a step-by-step conceptual framework. The second stage was to understand the current service contract offering and the service contract offering process and to identify the key strengths and weaknesses. Out of the twelve identified weaknesses, five weaknesses that were relevant to the productization of the service contract were chosen for further study. The third stage was to co-create a set of initial recommendations based on the findings from the conceptual framework and the selected weaknesses. The initial recommendations included data requirements for calculating the cost of ownership for an equipment. The final stage was the validation of the initial recommendations. The outcome of this thesis study is a set of productization recommendations of service contracts for the case company. These recommendations help the case company to improve its service offerings and provide better services to its intended customers