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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

The Business Case For Industrial Safety: Revealing The Comprehensive Value Of Ergonomic Investments For Manufacturing Enterprises In Industry 4.0, Shane Stan Oct 2019

The Business Case For Industrial Safety: Revealing The Comprehensive Value Of Ergonomic Investments For Manufacturing Enterprises In Industry 4.0, Shane Stan

Honors Theses

How can today’s manufacturing enterprises construct, implement, and optimize modern safety initiatives in a manner that will present maximum return on investment and facilitate enterprise growth? Furthermore, how can these manufacturers assure individual ergonomic investments become part of a larger strategy to facilitate organizational change in safety? This work addresses these questions by placing industrial ergonomics in a business improvement context which comprehensively presents the financial returns and growth opportunities poised by modern safety initiatives. Additionally, to further strengthen the business case for industrial safety, an ergonomic action planning framework is established to guide the creation of holistic safety programs …


Prototyping A Conductive Polymer Steering Pad For Rail Freight Service, Anthony A. Villarreal, Constantine Tarawneh, Miguel Ontiveros, James Aranda, Robert Jones Jul 2019

Prototyping A Conductive Polymer Steering Pad For Rail Freight Service, Anthony A. Villarreal, Constantine Tarawneh, Miguel Ontiveros, James Aranda, Robert Jones

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The AdapterPlus™ steering pad is a polymer component on a railcar that helps to reduce stresses on the axle as a railcar rounds a curve. One railway application requires a minimum of 240 mA to be passed through the steering pad to the rail, which activates air valves that control automated cargo gates. Currently, two copper studs are inserted into the pad to provide a conductive path. However, after continuous cyclic loading caused by normal service operation, the copper studs deform, wear, and eventually lose contact between the two surfaces rendering the pad nonconductive. One proposed solution to this problem …


Estimating The Outer Ring Defect Size And Remaining Service Life Of Freight Railcar Bearings Using Vibration Signatures, Joseph Montalvo, Constantine Tarawneh, Jennifer Lima, Jonas Cuanang, Nancy De Los Santos Jul 2019

Estimating The Outer Ring Defect Size And Remaining Service Life Of Freight Railcar Bearings Using Vibration Signatures, Joseph Montalvo, Constantine Tarawneh, Jennifer Lima, Jonas Cuanang, Nancy De Los Santos

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The railroad industry currently utilizes two wayside detection systems to monitor the health of freight railcar bearings in service: The Trackside Acoustic Detection System (TADS™) and the wayside Hot-Box Detector (HBD). TADS™ uses wayside microphones to detect and alert the conductor of high-risk defects. Many defective bearings may never be detected by TADS™ since a high-risk defect is a spall which spans more than 90% of a bearing’s raceway, and there are less than 20 systems in operation throughout the United States and Canada. Much like the TADS™, the HBD is a device that sits on the side of the …


Autojack - Hydraulic Powertrain System, Tyce Vu Jan 2019

Autojack - Hydraulic Powertrain System, Tyce Vu

All Undergraduate Projects

A primary problem for mechanics and automotive enthusiasts is the risk associated with lifting and securing a vehicle with conventional jack stands. Often times, improper jack-stand installation results in the vehicle collapsing unexpectedly, causing injury and/or death. This problem can be minimized through the application of a newly re-designed vehicle lifting system. The conventional method for lifting cars is time consuming and can be unsafe in many circumstances. A better, safer, and more efficient lift design was needed; the AutoJack. The approach of the AutoJack design was entirely focused on the safety of lifting a vehicle. Safety was improved by …