An Industrial Application of Business Intelligence Approach to the Electronic Defence Sector

In the age of digital transformation, the availability of data is growing ex-ponentially leading companies to struggle in processing big data while not missing out useful insights to focus on their business development strate-gy. In this scenario, always more often companies are making use of Busi-ness Intelligence platforms that could allow them to collect, analyses and disseminate data in real time to face the dynamic of the market. This paper aims to apply a Business Intelligence approach that adopts OSINT (open-source intelligence) and SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) techniques to Defence Electronics Market to analyse how this technology could facili-tate Companies decision-making process by providing them with a distinct competitive advantage. In this frame we used QUIPO intelligence platform for an industrial scenario analysis in the Defence Electronics sector. This is an initial research to study the correlation between the experimental OSINT analysis carried out by the intelligence platform and the information based on the internal experience and know-how of the company for the use case study

Understanding Plasma Fluid Dynamics Inside Plasma Torches Through Advanced Modeling

The aim of this work is to investigate by means of a 2-D and 3-D FLUENT© based numerical model the behaviour of different types of transferred arc dual gas plasma torches used for cutting of metallic materials, putting into evidence the physical reasons for the industrial success of various design and process solutions appeared over the last years, such as: secondary gas swirl injections with different directions, various different approaches for the geometry of the plasma chamber, the effect of externally superimposed magnetic fields. Flow and heat transfer equations are solved with coupled electromagnetic ones, for a LTE optically thin plasma, while turbulence phenomena are taken into account by means of a k-ε RNG model. Simulations include a prediction of the thermal behaviour of the solid components of the torch head, including electrode and hafnium insert, thermal histories and trajectories of hafnium oxide particles emitted from it under idealized conditions and the efficiency of nozzle and electrode cooling systems in various operating conditions including gas mixtures (O2/air, H35/N2, N2/N2). Radiation is included in the calculation of heat transfer to the surfaces of the components using a customized Discrete Ordinate (DO) model. Results obtained from the simulations of one of the plasma torches here considered are also compared with experimental measurements in order to perform a validation of the model for what concerns pressure values in different regions of the device, and the gas mass flow rate during the working phase. For this purpose suitably modified plasma torches with measurement systems have been designed and used during realistic cutting conditions

High Speed Imaging of Pilot Arcing and Piercing in PAC

In this paper, high-speed camera imaging of pilot arcing and piercing process phases in plasma arc cutting (PAC) with dual gas torches have been investigated using mild-steel and stainless-steel plates. The technique has provided new insight of the PAC process, and some interesting phenomena have been highlighted, such as the trajectory and velocity of hafnium particles emitted from the electrode during pilot arcing and the effect of nonperfectly aligned consumables (shield-nozzle) on inducing destructive piercing