Science and education at the Faculty of Transport (SUT)

The studies in the field of transport began at the Silesian University of Technology in 1969. Originally, they were carried out in Transport and Communication Unit of Mcchanical and Power Engineering Faculty. In 1974 the Institute of Transport and Communication, operating as a faculty, was established. In 1984 the Institute of Transport was organized. In 1992 the University structure was reorganized which resulted in combining the Institute with the Faculty of Materials Science. Metallurgy. Transport and Management that was newly established in Katowice

Influence of a Potential Railway Line Connecting the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea on the Development of Eurasian Trade

This article deals with the current state of the transport of goods on East - West routes. It presents currently available options of carriage with mentioning the barriers and problems associated with the increasing Eurasian trade of goods carried along these corridors. Special attention was focused on costs and time analysis of exemplary freight of 40-feet container from China to Poland using alternative routes. It is determined that there are alternative possibilities that also include waterways. The main aim of this article is to present the potential demand related to the TRACECA major traffic flows passing through a corridor formed on one hand, in Western and Central Europe, and on the other - in Central and East Asia. As one of these possibilities a TRACECA corridor with the railway Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is considered together with SWOT analysis based on experts’ knowledge. The benefits of intermodal transport are obvious so the introduction of railway line connecting two seas, the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea, seems to be the crucial element in the cheapest solution

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis of Air Cargo Freight Services Provider

In the theoretical part, this article presents the basic conditions for the organization of air transport cargo divided into different types of cargo shipments. Then an analysis of the Polish market of air cargo shipments is presented, taking into account the type of companies, airlines and airports that support them. In the research part, an FMEA analysis of an entity providing air cargo transport organization services was made, presenting several disadvantages and possible remedial actions that contribute to the improvement of the quality of services

New Technologies for Hull Assemblies in Shipbuilding

The modern stage of shipbuilding industry development is characterized by an intense competition and the beginning of introduction of new materials and effective welding technologies, which change the appearance of this quite conservative field, at leading global shipbuilding enterprises. In particular, the application of laser technologies during ship construction decreases the cost of hull manufacturing by 30%, increases the production capacity by 10%, and reduces welding deformations by 30% compared to traditional welding methods. The application of composite materials for ship construction allows decreasing the ship weight by 10%, which leads to 1-7% decrease in fuel consumption, reduction of polluting emissions and significant saving of expenditures. Adhesion-bonded joints become more frequently used in shipbuilding, as they offer a possibility of joining different materials along with the advantages brought by the adhesion process itself, being reliable, cost-efficient and ensuring easy maintenance and repair

Cargo Loading and Unloading Efficiency Analysis in Multimodal Transport

The paper presents assessment of the impact of the processes handling efficiency on the transport process based on research done in the real object, using same technologies and material handling equipment. The aim of the paper was to confirm importance of loading and unloading processes of palletized cargo as an initial and final link of multimodal transport by developing methods’ proposal for monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of cargo operations as well as development of measures and comparison estimators. The analysis of the manipulation operations’ duration throughout the transport process is based on the percentile rates of manipulation and carriage in total transport process duration and the percentage of manipulating time in the duration of the carriage. These indicators and examined loading and unloading times, are the basis for the development of scheduling algorithms for optimizing transport processes on the scale of the whole transport chain. This data is also a helpful input to support strategic decisions on the allocation of financial resources for the development of infrastructure and terminal equipment, warehouses and other facilities.</p

A comparison of forecasting the results of road transportation needs

Determining the size and quality of transport needs would not be possible without adequate forecasting based on the sales volume or demand for this service from the past periods. Traditional forecasting methods use econometric models that may be subject to serious errors. The use of the methods taking into account the variability of the studied phenomena or more advanced mathematical methods enables to minimize the error. Various methods of artificial intelligence such as a neural network, fuzzy sets, genetic algorithms, etc., have been recently successfully applied. The aim of this paper is to compare three forecasting methods that can be used for predicting the volume of road freight. The article deals with the effectiveness of three prediction methods, namely Winter's method for seasonal problems – a multiplicative version, harmonic analysis and harmonic analysis aided by the artificial immune system. The effectiveness of prediction was counted using MAPE errors (main average percentage error). The results of calculations were compared and the best example was presented