Computer Vision Based Robotic Polishing Using Artificial Neural Networks

Polishing is a highly skilled manufacturing process with a lot of constraints and interaction with environment. In general, the purpose of polishing is to get the uniform surface roughness distributed evenly throughout part’s surface. In order to reduce the polishing time and cope with the shortage of skilled workers, robotic polishing technology has been investigated. This paper studies about vision system to measure surface defects that have been characterized to some level of surface roughness. The surface defects data have learned using artificial neural networks to give a decision in order to move the actuator of arm robot. Force and rotation time have chosen as output parameters of artificial neural networks. Results shows that although there is a considerable change in both parameter values acquired from vision data compared to real data, it is still possible to obtain surface defects characterization using vision sensor to a certain limit of accuracy. The overall results of this research would encourage further developments in this area to achieve robust computer vision based surface measurement systems for industrial robotic, especially in polishing proces

The effect of Malaysian cocoa extract on glucose levels and lipid profiles in diabetic rats

The present study aims to investigate the effect of cocoa extract on serum glucose levels and lipid profiles in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. Cocoa extract (contained 285.6 mg total polyphenol per gram extract) was prepared from fermented and roasted (140 °C, 20 min) beans by extracting using 80% ethanol in the ratio of 1–10. The extract of three dosages (1, 2, and 3%) was fed to normal and diabetic rats for a period of 4 weeks. In hyperglycaemic group, cocoa extract (1 and 3%) diets were found to significantly lower (p < 0.05) the serum glucose levels compared to the control. Furthermore, supplementation of 1 and 3% cocoa extract had significantly reduced (p < 0.05) the level of total cholesterol in diabetic rats. In addition, 1, 2, and 3% cocoa extract diets had significantly lowered (p < 0.05) the total triglycerides. Interestingly, this study found that serum HDL-cholesterol had increased significantly (p < 0.05) in diabetic rats fed with 2% cocoa extract, while the LDL-cholesterol had decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in the 1% treated group. These results indicate that cocoa extract may possess potential hypoglycaemic and hypocholestrolemic effects on serum glucose levels and lipid profiles, respectively. The results also found that the effect of cocoa extract was dose-dependent

Flammability, morphological and mechanical properties of sugar palm fiber/polyester yarn-reinforced epoxy hybrid biocomposites with magnesium hydroxide flame retardant filler

This paper aims to study the surface morphology, flammability and tensile properties of sugar palm fiber (SPF) hybrid with polyester (PET) yarn-reinforced epoxy composite with the addition of magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) as a flame retardant. The composites were prepared by hybridized epoxy and Mg(OH)2/PET with different amounts of SPF contents (0%, 20%, 35% and 50%) using the cold press method. Then these composites were tested by horizontal burning analysis, tensile strength testing and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The specimen with 35% SPF (Epoxy/PET/SPF-35) with the incorporation of Mg(OH)2 as a flame retardant showed the lowest burning rate of 13.25 mm/min. The flame took a longer time to propagate along with the Epoxy/PET/SPF-35 specimen and at the same time producing char. Epoxy/PET/SPF-35 also had the highest tensile strength of 9.69 MPa. Tensile properties of the SPF hybrid with PET yarn (SPF/PET)-reinforced epoxy composite was decreased at 50% SPF content due to the lack of interfacial bonding between the fibers and matrix. Surface morphology analysis through SEM showed uniform distribution of the SPF and matrix with less adhesion, which increased the flammability and reduced the tensile properties of the hybrid polymeric composites. These composites have potential to be utilized in various applications, such as automotive components, building materials and in the aerospace industry

Characterizations of pepsin-soluble collagen derived from lizardfish (saurida tumbil bloch, 1795) skin, bone and scales

Reducing food waste is critical for sustainability. In the case of fish processing, more than sixty percent of by-products are generated as waste. Lizardfish (Saurida tumbil Bloch, 1795) is an economically important species for surimi production. To address waste disposal and maximize income, an effective utilization of fish by-products is essential. This study aims to isolate and characterize pepsin-soluble collagens from the skin, bone and scales of lizardfish. Significant differences (p 70%) in acidic conditions (particularly at pH 4.0) and at low sodium chloride concentrations (0–30 g/L). Microstructural analysis depicted that all extracted collagens were multi-layered, irregular, dense, sheet-like films linked by random coiled filaments. Overall, pepsin-soluble collagens from lizardfish skin, bone and scales could serve as potential alternative sources of collagens

The Effect of Acidic to the Fly Ash Based Geopolymer Artificial Aggregate

Abstract: The Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), which is widely used materials not only consumes significant amount of natural resources and energy but also pollutes the atmosphere by the emission of CO 2 . Hence, reduce this ill effect, the search for alternative result is geopolymer concrete. This experiment research focused on utilizing fly ash as source material. Fly ash is receiving more attention now since their uses generally improve the properties in construction industry, cost saving and reduction of negative environmental affects. Three different molarity of paste has been tested to acidic environment to determine the effect of acidic to the fly ash based geopolymer artificial aggregate. The geopolymer paste samples were cured at 70°C for 1 day and keep in room temperature until the testing days. The compressive strength and acid resistant testing was done at after 28 days. The result showed that the geopolymer paste with NaOH concentration of 12 M produced maximum strength

Flammability, tensile and morphological properties of oil palm empty fruit bunches fibre/ pet yarn reinforced epoxy fibre retardant hybrid polymer composites

Oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) fiber is a natural fiber that possesses many advantages, such as biodegradability, eco-friendly, and renewable nature. The effect of the OPEFB fiber loading reinforced fire retardant epoxy composites on flammability and tensile properties of the polymer biocomposites were investigated. The tests were carried out with four parameters, which were specimen A (constant), specimen B (20% of fiber), specimen C (35% of fiber), and specimen D (50% of fiber). The PET yarn and magnesium hydroxide were used as the reinforcement material and fire retardant agent, respectively. The results were obtained from several tests, which were the horizontal burning test, tensile test, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The result for the burning test showed that specimen B exhibited better flammability properties, which had the lowest average burning rate (11.47 mm/min). From the tensile strength, specimen A revealed the highest value of 10.79 N/mm2. For the SEM morphological test, increasing defects on the surface ruptured were observed that resulted in decreased tensile properties of the composites. It can be summarized that the flammability and tensile properties of OPEFB fiber reinforced fire retardant epoxy composites were reduced when the fiber volume contents were increased at the optimal loading of 20%, with the values of 11.47 mm/min and 4.29 KPa, respectively

Pos Besar, 01000 Kangar, Perlis Malaysia., Development of Pilot Plant for Novel Geopolymer Brick Making Machine

With rapid growing country&apos;s development and rose in construction activity, rising demand of building materials and increased construction wastes have encouraged the development of new building materials. Geopolymer based construction materials such as concrete, aggregate, brick and so on are getting good response by the public especially those in the construction and development industries nowadays. Geopolymer bricks making process consume less energy and low cost in term of raw materials and production compared to conventional bricks. It become a nessesity nowadays to provide a machine that produced construction material based on geopolymer that are compatible with geopolymer process that can improved productivity and promote geopoymer construction material to repace convertional construction material. This paper presents the main component, specification and controlling system of the geopolymer brick making machine. This paper also describes the basic operation of the brick produced by using novel geopolymer brick making machine. The capacity production is adequate which has mixing tank capacity of 40 kg per batch with high compaction pressure which is 40 tonne and low curing temperature needed (less than 100 °C) that can produce high quality and environmental friendly brick. The size of the brick produced is 9&quot; x 4&quot; x 2.5&quot; accordance with the standard size based on British Standard BS 3921: 1985

Effect of reinforcement of alkaline-treated sugar palm/bamboo/kenaf and fibreglass/ kevlar with polyester hybrid biocomposites: mechanical, morphological, and water absorption properties

In this age of globalisation, decreasing synthetic resources have exhilarated global communities to apply natural fibres as substitute materials for green technology development. The growth of products from lignocellulose fibre-reinforced composites has been a wide topic among material scientists and engineers due to their abundance, sustainability in nature, biodegradability, and availability at low cost. A series of natural/synthetic hybrid fibre-reinforced composites are prepared by reinforcing polyester resin as the matrix. Natural fibres such as sugar palm/kenaf/bamboo with fibreglass/Kevlar hybrid composite materials were used in this research to determine the mechanical and water absorption properties. The difference between the weight content of natural fibres which were 0 (control sample), 15, 45, and 60 wt% influenced their strength of mechanical properties. The Charpy impact and tensile test were performed following the ASTM D6110-10 and ASTM D3039, respectively. A water absorption test in accordance with ASTM D570-98 was also performed on three different natural fibre-reinforced hybrid composite materials to determine which composite had the best water resistance property. The results showed that hybrid fibre-reinforced composite for 45 wt% kenaf fibre possessed better tensile properties and 60 wt % sugar palm fibre performed better during the Charpy impact strength test compared to other natural/synthetic hybrid fibre-reinforced composites. It was concluded that sugar palm fibres demonstrated the best water resistance in this study

The mechanical performance of sugar palm fibres (Ijuk) reinforced phenolic composites

Sugar palm fibres are one of the natural fibres which have many features and need further study to understand their properties. The aim of this work is to investigate the flexural, compressive and impact properties of sugar palm fibres reinforced phenolic composites. Sugar palm fibres were used as a filler (particle size 150 μm) and with loading of 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 vol.%. The fibres were treated by sea water and then fabricated into composites by hot press technique. Flexural, compressive, and impact tests were carried out as per ASTM D790, ASTM D695-08a, and ASTM D256 standards, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the morphology and the interfacial bonding of the fibres-matrix in composites. The results show that the mechanical properties of the composites improve with the incorporation of fibres. The composite of 30 vol.% particle loading exhibit optimum values which are 32.23 MPa, 61.66 MPa, and 4.12 kJ/m2 for flexural, compressive, and impact strength, respectively. This was because good compatibility of fibre-matrix bonding. Consequently, sugar palm fibre is one of the prospective fibres and could be used as a potential resource to reinforcement polymer composite

COMPATIBILIZATION OF POLYPROPYLENE (PP)/ETHYLENE PROPYLENE DIENE TERPOLYMER (EPDM)/KAOLIN COMPOSITES: EFFECT OF MALEIC ANHYDRIDE-GRAFTED-POLYPROPYLENE

The tensile properties and morphology of polypropylene (PP)/ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM)/kaolin composites were investigated. Maleic anhydride-grafted- polypropylene (MAPP) as a compatibilizer was used to improve the compatibility of kaolin filled PP/EPDM composites. Results show that incorporation of MAPP increased the tensile strength and Young&rsqu