Sustainable Machining Processes through Optimization of Process Parameters

Machining processes are a vital part of manufacturing activities in major industries that contributes to the growth of the economy. They mostly require high amount of electrical energy to power the various support modules installed on machine tools. Carrying out machining activities with a view to reducing energy consumption will therefore result in a lowered cost of production for manufactured products. Previous studies on some energy-saving methods adopted by researchers and the limitations faced in the reduction of energy consumption have been discussed. In this work, the effect of process parameters in the conservation of energy during machining processes was experimented. Results shows that much energy could be saved by optimizing parameters before machining

Effect of Coolant Temperature on Machining Characteristics of High Carbon Steel

This paper reports on the effect of coolant temperature on machining of high carbon steels. The development of a cooling system to reduce the temperature of water soluble coolant to 7.9oC from ambient temperature was employed in this work to improve the machining performance. The experiments were performed using cooled and ambient temperatures by employing Taguchi L18 orthogonal array to design the experimental runs. The cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut were the machining parameters used; while the tool-work piece interface temperature was monitored using a digital thermometer with k-type thermocouple wire. The selected control factors are material removal rate and surface roughness. The experimental results were analyzed using Minitab 16. The main effects and percentage contributions of various parameters affecting surface roughness and material removal rate were discussed, and the optimal cutting conditions were determined. It was observed that surface finish improved by 65% with the use of the developed cooled system. The reduction in coolant temperature played a vital role in improving surface finish during machining high carbon steels

Design and Development of a Wear Testing Machine for Manufacturing Laboratories

Wear of parts during manufacturing processes is inevitable but controllable. Therefore, the critical study of wear in engineering components is vital because failure of components due to wear has resulted in loss of a great deal of fortune. This study was therefore an attempt to design and fabricate a wear testing machine, evaluate the performance of the machine and compare data obtained with existing ones. Materials for the various parts were carefully selected based on desirable properties and availability. Design calculations were made for the main shaft, compression spring, belt, pulley and electric motor. The post fabrication test was carried out on the machine to evaluate the performance of the machine and results gotten reported

Effect of Annealing on Machinability of Grey Cast Iron

This study investigates the influence of process parameter on machined cast iron under varying material strength and cutting conditions. The three process parameters considered in this study are spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut. The cast iron bars were annealed and machined under both wet and dry cutting conditions. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio was used to analyze results generated, identify optimal process parameters (factors) and analyze the effect of these parameters on tool-tip temperature. Taguchi design of Minitab 18 was employed to optimize and analyze results. Results shows that the spindle speed was the most significant factor affecting tool-tip temperature reduction, followed by feed rate, while the depth of cut has least role to play on tool-tip temperature. Depth of cut and spindle speed both significantly influenced increment in material removal rate. The annealed cast iron bar had a better surface integrity than the Unannealed sample bars. Conclusively, the preferred condition for machining grey cast iron bar was annealed and wet machining condition

Comparative Analysis of Selected Animal and Vegetable Oils Suitability in Machining of Plain Carbon Steels

Due to the alarming rate in public awareness on environmental issues, there has been growing demand for biodegradable materials which has opened an avenue for using vegetable and animal oils as alternatives to petroleumbased polymeric materials in the market, most especially in machining operations. Thus, research on biodegradable functional fluids has emerged as one of the top priorities in lubrication, due to their applicability in many diverse areas. In this quest, there is need to conduct machining trials to determine the suitability of these oils in metal cutting (turning) operations of plain carbon steels. This study investigate the effect of the selected cutting fluids on certain parameters like machine removal rate (MRR), machining time, tool wear and spindle power consumption, etc. under different machining combination in turning operations of plain carbon steels obtained from universal steel Ikeja, Nigeria, using 150 x 10 HSS cutting tool. The selected oils purchased from Ogunpa market in Ibadan, Nigeria, were sieved to remove any foreign particles or dirt. The solution; water, based-oil, and emulsifier (to allow thorough mixing of water and oil without separation), were mix at an elevated temperature of 550C in a proportion 4:1:3. Experimental results clearly showed that Conventional cutting fluid might be replaced with Non-conventional cutting fluids (vegetable and animal based) as they give better performance. With slight modifications and deliberate but careful alterations in some of the components of such oils, even better performing cutting fluids could be obtained.Self-sponsore

Development and Evaluation of an Interactive Instructional Package for Teaching Engineering Graphics Skills

Exposure to modern pedagogical approaches and methods with appropriate instructional media can enhance the development of high-level critical thinking and technical skills. This study examined the development of an interactive instructional software package for teaching engineering graphics and evaluated its relative effectiveness on second-year undergraduate engineering students' academic achievement, skill transfer, and retention. In this study, the quasi-experimental, pre-test, post-test, control group design was employed. 45 research participants were sampled, employing two-stage stratified sampling technique, which comprises the simple random sampling to assign students into three groups from the study population and systematic sampling with k = 3 to select 15 students from each group to a control group and experimental groups A and B. The control group was exposed to conventional classroom instruction (CI), group A to computer-aided instruction (CAI); and group B to conventional and computer-aided instructions (CCAIs). A computer-aided learning package on engineering graphics was developed using the Camtasia software package, which served as the treatment instrument. The pre-test and post-test data used for analysis stemmed from a validated Engineering Graphics Achievement Test instrument. Analysis of covariance and Sidak post hoc test statistical analysis of the groups' performance provided the results on the comparative effects of the treatment conditions. Findings indicated significant differences between the academic achievement, skill transfer, and retention of students, exposed to CCAIs, and CI or CAI strategies. When used together, a significant improvement in students' academic achievement, transfer, and retention of engineering graphics skills occurred than either the CI or CAI strategy used alone

Wear characteristics, reduction techniques and its application in automotive parts – A review

Wear phenomenon impact the operating efficiency and service life of engineering materials due to the influence of surface interaction at different working conditions. Successive tribological studies on wear-resistant materials in the last decade is estimated at approximately 40 of friction and wear, including laboratory tests. Most locally improvised wear testers in accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and European (EN) standards, though, achieves 95-97 parametric accuracies with reduced cost, they hardly harmonize degradation and Archard’s coefficients for all possible wear factors, providing little data for simulation of mechanical and chemical wears which are responsible for non-uniform aggregation of wear patterns in practice. Complexities of intermeshing factors which combine to influence the effectiveness of developed test devices span over loads, speeds, temperature, pressures and ambience for various applications. This study highlights the techniques of wear characterization, test standards and wear reduction with emphasis on surface texturing for improved eta/beta phase re-arrangements at low working temperatures in the enhancement of grain contraction during high bias-voltage cathodic substrate multi-phase coating, phosphating during pretreatments using peening techniques, residual stress reduction during cryogenic heat treatments as well as the impact of suitable architectural matrix composite strengthening, microstructures and material reinforcements as suitable factors to influence improved tribological behaviors in materials. Optimal additive manufacturing (AM‐fabricating) techniques with pretreatments, thermal cycling and tempering can engineer enhanced anti-tribocorrrosion in Automotive components

Human-Robot Co-working Improvement via Revolutionary Automation and Robotic Technologies – An overview

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, prevalently dubbed “Industry 4.0”, is currently in full swing. “Smart Manufacturing for the Future" is considered “theme” of Industry 4.0. Some futurists are said to be arguing what the theme of the fifth Industrial Revolution should be. Collaboration between humans and robots is a common thread that goes across all of the concepts. In the disciplines of robotics and artificial intelligence research, there has been significant advancement in recent years. For a variety of reasons, robots are becoming more widely available, and we will soon be in frequent contact with them as we go about our daily lives. While there are several investigations and research on low-level human-robot collaboration and activities, findings on human-robot collaboration at higher and more direct levels are lacking. This work focuses on new and automation technologies to improve human-robot collaboration in this study

Performance Assessment of the Developed Flux Powder on the Tensile and Hardness Properties of Steels Joints Using TIG-Welding.

The conversion of waste to wealth has recently grossed high attention as it possesses the ability to boost the economy of any nation; hence, this research. In this study, the characterization and investigation of mechanical properties of nano-flux (CaO) welding powder developed from bio-agrowaste (eggshell) was carried out. Mild, galvanized and stainless steel of plates and rods were used as parent metals for the experiment. Results obtained from hardness test in the base metal, weld joint and heat affected zone for the galvanized and mild steel plates with nano-flux powder gave the best hardness of 111.95, 120.30, 182.99 and 206.21, 164.85, 110.56 BHN respectively. The tensile stress obtained both for mild and stainless steel was 88.14 MPa while the tensile strain obtained for both plates were 0.0155 mm/mm. Microstructural analysis results shows an improvement in the structure, surface and patterns of the weld with the use of developed flux compared with imported flux. Hence eggshells can be recycled and used for developing flux powder for welding processes

Wear characteristics, reduction techniques and its application in automotive parts – A review

AbstractWear phenomenon impact the operating efficiency and service life of engineering materials due to the influence of surface interaction at different working conditions. Successive tribological studies on wear-resistant materials in the last decade is estimated at approximately 40% of friction and wear, including laboratory tests. Most locally improvised wear testers in accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and European (EN) standards, though, achieve 95–97% parametric accuracies with reduced cost, they hardly harmonize degradation and Archards coefficients for all possible wear factors, providing little data for simulation of mechanical and chemical wears which are responsible for non-uniform aggregation of wear patterns in practice. Complexities of intermeshing factors which combine to influence the effectiveness of developed test devices span over loads, speeds, temperatures, pressures, and ambience for various applications. This study highlights the techniques of wear characterization, test standards, and wear reduction with emphasis on surface texturing for improved eta/beta phase re-arrangements at low working temperatures in the enhancement of grain contraction during high bias-voltage cathodic substrate multi-phase coating, phosphating during pretreatments using peening techniques, residual stress reduction during cryogenic heat treatments as well as the impact of suitable architectural matrix composite strengthening, microstructures, and material reinforcements as suitable factors to influence improved tribological behaviors in materials. Optimal additive manufacturing (AM‐fabricating) techniques with pretreatments, thermal cycling, and tempering can engineer enhanced anti-tribocorrosion in automotive components