Enhancing Facility Layout via Ant Colony Technique (Act)

Cellular manufacturing systems optimization is investigated and manipulated using artificial intelligent (AI) approach combining facility layout and group technology scope. This research applied the ANT COLONY technique  (ACT) optimization where this process was inspired by the real ants and how they move and build colonies by avoiding obstacle and simulate the process to get a procedure that can be adopted on this optimization process. In this research the problem goes in two way first the theory that take account the positions of machines inside the plant and its equations of controlling and second is the routing of part during product life cycle then execute results and applying it on factory configuration. The application of Ants system was carried out on industrial factory of electrical motor where all data was taken from the factory depending on the position and sequence of operations took place. Results were carried out in a way that depending on the showing site plan configurations for each stage and studying the iteration curve response to the parameters changes while testing the system during different environments. The results show high flexibility in ACS (Ant colony system) with fast response and high reduction in the distance crossed by the product part that reached 500m. The ratio of the reduction is 0.625. Keyword: Artificial intelligent (AI), Ant colony (AC), pheromone, genetic algorithm, facility layout, cell manufacturing (CM)

Applying trade-off curve to support set-based design application in an aerospace company

Companies compete greatly with each other today, so they need to focus on innovation to develop their products and make them competitive. Lean product development is the ideal way to develop product, foster innovation, maximize value, and reduce time. Set-Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) is an approved lean product improvement mechanism that builds on the creation of a number of alternative designs at the subsystem level. These designs are simultaneously improved and tested, and the weaker choices are removed gradually until the optimum solution is reached finally. SBCE implementations have been extensively performed in the automotive industry and there are a few case studies in the aerospace industry. This research describe the use of trade-off curve as a lean tool to support SBCE process model in CONGA project, using NASA simulation software version 1.7c and CONGA demonstration program (DEMO program) to help designers and engineers to extract the design solution where it exists according to the customer requirement and to extract alternative nearest solutions from the previous project that meet customer requirement to achieve low noise engine at an aerospace company and also extract the infeasible region where the designers cannot make any prototype in this region before manufacturing process begin, that will lead to reducing rework, time and cost

Investigation of Thermal Stress Distribution in Laser Spot Welding Process

The objective of this paper was to study the laser spot welding process of low carbon steel sheet. The investigations were based on analytical and finite element analyses. The analytical analysis was focused on a consistent set of equations representing interaction of the laser beam with materials. The numerical analysis based on 3-D finite element analysis of heat flow during laser spot welding taken into account the temperature dependence of the physical properties and latent heat of transformations using ANSYS code V.10.0 to simulate the laser welding process. The effect of laser operating parameters on the results of the temperature profile were studied in addition to the effect on thermal stresses and dimensions of the laser welded workpiece which showed good correlations between analytical and numerical results. It was found that the temperature gradients during laser welding are usually very large and it was viewed that very high temperature at the center of the workpiece, and is decreased very significantly as propagating along the radial direction. Also it found that the thermal residual stresses around the laser spot due to plastic strains were very small and localized within 1.0 mm range. It is concluded that the laser welding process is effective to reduce the welding residual stress. The stresses along the lateral direction of the workpiece changed from compression at the spot under the laser beam and tension away from the spot at the end of welding to tension at the spot under the laser beam and compression away from the spot when it cooled, which are in a good agreement with the published results

Thermal Field Analysis of Oblique Machining Process with Infrared Image for AA6063-T6

Metal cutting processes still represent the largest class of manufacturing operations. Turning is the most commonly employed material removal process. This research focuses on analysis of the thermal field of the oblique machining process. Finite element method (FEM) software DEFORM 3D V10.2 was used together with experimental work carried out using infrared image equipment, which include both hardware and software simulations. The thermal experiments are conducted with AA6063-T6, using different tool obliquity, cutting speeds and feed rates. The results show that the temperature relatively decreased when tool obliquity increases at different cutting speeds and feed rates, also it is found that the mean tool rake face temperature distribution decreases with increase of tool obliquity. The result also show that the maximum error between the predicted and measured temperatures by IR camera was between 6-27 °C

The Investigation of Monitoring Systems for SMAW Processes

The monitoring weld quality is increasingly important because great financial savings are possible because of it, and this especially happens in manufacturing where defective welds lead to losses in production and necessitate time consuming and expensive repair. This research deals with the monitoring and controllability of the fusion arc welding process using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model. The effect of weld parameters on the weld quality was studied by implementing the experimental results obtained from welding a non-Galvanized steel plate ASTM BN 1323 of 6 mm thickness in different weld parameters (current, voltage, and travel speed) monitored by electronic systems that are followed by destructive (Tensile and Bending) and non-destructive (Hardness on HAZ) tests to investigate the quality control on the weld specimens. The experimental results obtained are then processed through the ANN model to control the welding process and predict the level of quality for different welding conditions. It has been deduced that the welding conditions (current, voltage, and travel speed) have a dominant factors that affect the weld quality and strength. Also we found that for certain welding condition, there was an optimum weld travel speed to obtain an optimum weld quality. The system supports quality control procedures and welding productivity without doing more periodic destructive mechanical test to dozens of samples