Industrial Technology Commons^™

Implementation Of An Autonomous Guided Vehicle (Agv), Allen St. Myers, Alan Miller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report thoroughly represents a proposal to AAM Metal Forming Minerva for the implementation of an AGV (Autonomous Guided Vehicle) Unit. Our recommendations are made with consideration to existing manufacturing processes and demonstrate how using an AGV would be a net positive investment for the company. By first examining the current operating costs, a three-tiered proposal is tailored based on increasing investment cost. Each tier increase encompasses the previous tiers’ proposed improvements while also growing in complexity and investment cost. The results of our research indicate that our Tier 2 proposal will provide the most benefit to our facility now …

Opportunistic Maintenance Strategy Of A Heave Compensation System For Expected Performance Degradation, Chao Zhang, Yujie Qian, Hongyan Dui, Shaoping Wang, Rentong Chen, Mileta M. Tomovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In the marine industry, heave compensation systems are applied to marine equipment to compensate for the adverse effects of waves and the hydraulic system is usually used as the power system of heave compensation systems. This article introduces importance theory to the opportunistic maintenance (OM) strategy to provide guidance for the maintenance of heave compensation systems. The working principle of a semi-active heave compensation system and the specific working states of its hydraulic components are also first explained. Opportunistic maintenance is applied to the semi-active heave compensation system. Moreover, the joint integrated importance measure (JIIM) between different components at different …

Solar Photovoltaic Performance Monitoring: A Bibliometric Review, Research Gaps And Opportunities, Javed Sayyad, Paresh Nasikkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Electrical power generation has been revolutionized by growing demand and use of Renewable Energy (RE) sources such as Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) as the main electricity source in modern times. The main objective of this bibliometric analysis is to understand the scope of the literature available for SPV performance characterization. This detailed reviewed was performed on the documents related to SPV research considering all the subject categories from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. The patterns for the particular set of keywords were broke down with the recuperated outcomes from Scopus database in the language, publication type, year of publication, …

Fusion-Features And Visual-Dictionary Image Recognition Methods For Apple Classification In Smart Manufacturing, Ahsiah Ismail

Student Works (2020-2029)

Smart manufacturing enables an efficient manufacturing process to optimize production. The optimization is performed through data analytics that requires reliable and informative data as input. Therefore, in this research, two image recognition feature extraction methods namely Curvelet Wavelet-Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (CWGLCM) and Fuzzy-Spatial Pyramid Matching (F-SPM) are proposed to provide reliable inputs for vision-based apple classification in smart manufacturing. Feature extraction is one of the major steps that could influent the efficiency of the manufacturing process. The CW-GLCM method is a feature extraction of fusion-features with Decision Tree classifier, while the F-SPM method uses a visual-dictionary based method to …

Evaluation Of A Bulge Reduction Technology For Corrugated Fiberboard Containers Under Static Compression, Daan Peleman, Jay Singh, Koushik Saha, S. Roy

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

This research examines the effect of top-to-bottom static compression load on the bulge of RSC containers. The study compares a control regular slotted container (RSC) constructed with corrugated fiberboard to tape-reinforced designs. The bulge reduction, achieved using various tape placements and conditioning environments, were measured. Currently, no research on the effect of reinforcement tape towards reduction in the out-of-plane displacement (bulging) of the corrugated fiberboard panels has been undertaken. Samples related to four different container designs, varying by presence, quantity and the position of the reinforcement tape on the vertical panels, were tested and analyzed. The study involved the use …

Towards A Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud Through Operable Digital Twins And Virtual Production Lines, Md Rakib Shahriar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In last decade, the paradigm of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has integrated industrial manufacturing systems with Cloud Computing technologies for Cloud Manufacturing. Up to 2015, there were many CPS-based manufacturing systems that collected real-time machining data to perform remote monitoring, prognostics and health management, and predictive maintenance. However, these CPS-integrated and network ready machines were not directly connected to the elements of Cloud Manufacturing and required human-in-the-loop. Addressing this gap, we introduced a new paradigm of Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud (CPMC) that bridges a gap between physical machines and virtual space in 2017. CPMC virtualizes machine tools in cloud through web services …

Feasibility Of Electric Field Assisted Clogging Reduction In Cold Gas Spraying Nozzle, Hendric Tronsson

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

The relatively novel cold spraying process expands its range of applications constantly. In order to continue this trend, this process still has various hurdles that need to be overcome such as clogging. Clogging within the cold gas spraying process causes porous coatings with less material properties and lower durability; a solution is needed in order to reduce the clogging and so expand the cold gas spraying applications. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using an electric field to reduce clogging. To do so a simplified channel was used to simulate charged particle trajectory shifts under the influence of …

Dual-Axis Solar Tracker, Bryan Kennedy

All Undergraduate Projects

Renewable energies, and fuels that are not fossil fuel-based, are one of the prolific topics of debate in modern society. With climate change now becoming a primary focus for scientists and innovators of today, one of the areas for the largest amount of potential and growth is that of the capturing and utilization of Solar Energy. This method involves using a mechanical system to track the progression of the sun as it traverses the sky throughout the day. A dual-axis solar tracker such as the one designed and built for this project, can follow the sun both azimuthally and in …

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

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

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 …

Design And Validation Of A Modular Instrument To Measure Torque And Energy Consumption In Industrial Operations, Mary De La Cruz, Ramiro Gonzalez, Jesus A. Gomez, Atilano Mendoza, Javier A. Ortega

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

A modular torque measuring instrument capable of performing tapping torque tests (TTT) according to the ASTM D-5619 standard was designed, developed, and validated. With this new instrument, the performance of different lubricants can be evaluated in terms of frictional torque and energy consumption during tapping processes. This instrument can adapt onto any conventional milling machine or CNC machine and operate under various machining operations such as tapping, drilling, and other processes. To validate the design and performance of this new device, three commercially available lubricants were evaluated. From the three tested conditions, the results showed good repeatability, with consistent results …

Modeling Of Complex Parts For Industrial Waterjet Cleaning, Braden James

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Industrial high-pressure waterjet cleaning is common to many industries. The modeling in this paper functions inside a collaborative robotic framework for high mix, low volume processes where human robot collaboration is beneficial. Automation of pressure washing is desirable for economic and ergonomic reasons. An automated cleaning system needs path simulation and analysis to give the operator insight into the predicted cleaning performance of the system. In this paper, ablation, the removal of a substrate coating by waterjet, is modeled for robotic cleaning operations. The model is designed to work with complex parts often found in spray cleaning operations, namely parts …

An Energy Profile Model For Fused Deposition Modeling 3d Printing Process, Calvin Hawkins

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2018-19

This project develops a strategy to monitor and estimate the energy consumption of fused deposition modeling (FDM) additive manufacturing, which will benefit manufacturers and designers seeking to design and manufacture products with minimal energy consumption.

Remotely Controlled Industrial Robotic Arm And Simulation Of Automated Thermal Furnace, Prince Mehandi Ratta

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The right execution of controllers ensures the correct analysis of information, generating efficient results and better optimizing the system. In this report, two controllers were designed. Firstly, a remotely controlled robotic arm, since there are no such type commercially available controllers. Moreover, robotic platforms are costly, so students and researchers are often unable to learn the concepts of programming industrial robots. This project makes a non-destructive, remotely-controlled robotic arm to better teach students and researchers about programming and control of robotic arms. Secondly, simulation of an automated thermal furnace for ArcelorMittal on SIMULINK, which is used for the annealing process …

Material Interactions And Self-Assembly In Inkjet Printing, Karam Nashwan Al-Milaji

Theses and Dissertations

Inkjet printing has attracted much attention in recent years as a versatile manufacturing tool, suitable for printing functional materials. This facile, low-cost printing technique with high throughput and accuracy is considered promising for a wide range of applications including but not limited to optical and electronic devices, sensors, solar cells, biochips, and displays. The performance of such functional devices is significantly influenced by the deposit morphology and printing resolution. Therefore, fabrication functional devices with precise footprints by inkjet printing requires deep understanding of ink properties, material interactions, and material self-assembly.

In conventional inkjet printing process, where sessile droplets are directly …

Energy Efficiency Evaluation Of Blower Heater Non-Purge Compressed Air Dryers, Alexandra M. Botts

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

There are several compressed air dryers available for industrial use including, refrigerant, desiccant, and membrane. This research focuses on twin tower regenerative closed loop desiccant dryers, specifically: blower heater non-purge (BHNP) with and without cooling water pumps, Compressed-air Heater Purge (CHP), Blower Heater Purge (BHP), and Pressure Swing Heaterless (PSH). These styles of dryers are used mainly in industries that require extremely dry air such as, food manufacturing, medical air, or sensitive technology manufacturers. The research was conducted by collecting and analyzing real time current draw data on air compressors and associated dryers at eight different facilities (13 compressor systems) …

Manufacturing Process Simulation – On Its Way To Industrial Application, Dennis Otten, Tobias A. Weber, Jan-Christoph Arent

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Manufacturing process simulation (MPS) has become more and more important for aviation and the automobile industry. A highly competitive market requires the use of high performance metals and composite materials in combination with reduced manufacturing cost and time as well as a minimization of the time to market for a new product. However, the use of such materials is expensive and requires sophisticated manufacturing processes. An experience based process and tooling design followed by a lengthy trial-and-error optimization is just not contemporary anymore. Instead, a tooling design process aided by simulation is used more often. This paper provides an overview …

Advances In Composite Manufacturing Of Helicopter Parts, Tobias A. Weber, Hans-Joachim K. Ruff-Stahl

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This study investigates and compares different methods for improving standard autoclave composite manufacturing in order to find suitable approaches to a more efficient composite production. The goal is not only a reduction in manufacturing times and costs but also quality enhancement. Improved part quality while decreasing costs enables a manufacturer of composite parts to expand its market share, especially in the helicopter market, which has been constantly shrinking over the last two years. Various approaches such as improved tooling technology, the use of automated systems for lamination as well as outsourcing are examined to provide an overview of possible advancements …

Condition Assessment Of End-Of-Use Products For Remanufacturing, Jovan Morgan

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2016-17

The goal of the project is to use the automated 3-D laser scanner using a Capnut as a test object to detect surface defects, corrosion and calculation error through offline quality inspection. potentially reducing labor time and cost for both consumers and manufacturers.

Chocolate Bar Wrapping Machine, Austin M. Hoff, Daniel R. Trepke, Caleb B. Krichbuam

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Gilbert Chocolates has proposed to manufacture a machine to wrap chocolate bars. This machine is intended to replace two people wrapping the chocolate bars by hand, which is a time consuming method. This is especially apparent between October and January when the workers are working long hours in preparation for the Christmas rush of customers. Currently wrapping a bar takes about a minute and Gilbert Chocolates wants this time reduced down to 20-30 seconds. The budget for this project is set at $1000, and is being funded by the company. This machine needs to fit in a cubic foot of …

Photovoltaic Cooking In The Developing World, Tyler Watkins, Christopher O'Day, Omar Arriaga

Mechanical Engineering

The challenge of clean cooking is faced by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. We present a cooking technology consisting of a solar panel directly connected to an electric heater in a well-insulated chamber. Assuming continued decrease in solar panel prices, we anticipate that in a few decades Solar Electric Cooking technologies will be the most common cooking technology for the poor. Appropriate use of insulation reduces the power demand making low-power Insulated Solar Electric Cooking systems already cost competitive.

Fatigue Analysis Of The Welded Region In The Automotive Torsion Beam Rear Suspension System, Nan Zhan, Xiaochuan Zhang

The 8th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing

No abstract provided.

An Engineering Approach To Industrial Research And Development Of Pillows, Wesley Patterson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Comfort during sleep, though taken for granted, involves a great amount of research and engineering. Few give it a second thought, but nearly one-third of a person’s life is spent with their head on a pillow, thus making them a point for increased quality. Having been approached by a tier-1 bedding manufacturer, a team of both mechanical and electrical engineers was been tasked with the goal of creating a valid research tool that the customer, Tempur-Sealy, will utilize in the company’s research and development of high-end pillows. The team sought to tackle this project utilizing tools and knowledge gained throughout …

Solar Turbines Compressor Blade Installation Tools, Ryan Bruce, Carolyn Honeycutt, Stephen Oltrogge, Emmett Ross

Mechanical Engineering

The following report documents a California Polytechnic State University, Mechanical Engineering Senior Project sponsored by the gas turbine manufacturer, Solar Turbines. The senior project team consisted of four senior mechanical engineering students at Cal Poly, all with general concentrations; Ryan Bruce, Carolyn Honeycutt, Steve Oltrogge, and Emmett Ross. Kenneth Thomas sponsored the group and serves as the point of contact between the senior project team and Solar Turbines. He is a member of the Solar Turbines Mechanical Design Engineering Team and a Cal Poly graduate. Christoph Maurer served as the project team’s on-campus advisor.

A gas turbine uses internal combustion …

Computing Research In Academia: Classifications, Keywords, Perceptions, And Connections, Sung Han Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recognizes five computing disciplines: Computer Science (CS), Computer Engineering (CE), Information Technology (IT), Information Systems (IS), and Software Engineering (SE). Founded in 1947 the ACM is the world's largest society for computing educators, researchers, and professionals. While Computer Science has been a degree program since 1962, the other four are relatively new. This research focuses on understanding the graduate research in four of the five ACM disciplines (CS, CE, IT, and IS) using a large body of thesis and dissertation metadata. SE is not found in the metadata and graduate work in SE is …

Optimization Of Process Parameters In Micro Electrical Discharge Machining (Edm) Of Ti-6al-4v Alloy, Farshid Alavi

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Ti-6Al-4V has a wide range of applications such as in the automotive and aerospace industries. Nevertheless, titanium alloys are very difficult to machine by conventional methods. Micro-EDM is a non-conventional machining method that uses the thermal effect of precisely controlled sparks. Manufacturers are looking for the methods and optimal settings to increase the productivity of micro-EDM in terms of lessening machining time and tool wear. Moreover, surface integrity of the machined area is crucial for some products such as biomedical implants.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the micro-EDM process parameters on response variables, in …

Applications Of Digital Manufacturing In Manufacturing Process Support, Vukica Jovanovic, Mihael Debevec, Niko Herakovic, Alok Verma, Mileta Tomovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In this study, the authors developed three new approaches and models for improvements related to manufacturing processes. The main focus was on planning in a digital environment before the actual manufacturing process is carried out. The first approach is digital manufacturing, which gives affords the opportunity for performing an entire manufacturing process in a virtual environment. In this way, engineers virtually define, plan, create, monitor, and control all production processes. The planning phase can be done simultaneously, while other manufacturing processes are already in place. In this way, processes can continue with no interruption. Various product lifecycle management tools have …

The Reconfigurable Machinery Efficient Workspace Analysis Based On The Twist Angles, Ana M. Djuric, Vukica Jovanovic, Mirjana Filipovic, Ljubinko Kevac

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

A novel methodology for the calculation, visualisation and analysis of the Reconfigurable Machinery Efficient Workspace (RMEW), based on the twist angles, is presented in this paper. The machinery's kinematic parameters are used for calculating the workspace, while the efficient workspace is associated with the machinery's path and includes the end-effector position and orientation. To analyse and visualise many different machinery efficient workspaces at the same time, the calculation is based on the previously developed and validated complex reconfigurable machinery's kinematic structure named n-DOF Global Kinematic Model (n-GKM). An industrial robot is used as an example to demonstrate …

A Case Study Of Multiple-Use Finish Electrodes For Die-Sinking Edm, Troy A. Robertson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examines the use of one finishing electrode to finish multiple dies without remachining the electrode. The multiple-use electrode finishing experiment in this study addresses technology in the die-forging industry. Methods of manufacturing spherical straight bevel forge gear dies have relied on die-sinking Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) practices that showed great potential for advancement. The focus of this study is solely on the improvements of electrode use in EDM finishing-processes. The surface finish quality itself is not an area of concern other than maintaining that it does not diminish. The focused concern is maximizing the process by using one …

Loss On Ignition Using Infrared Heating, Benjamin J. Binoniemi

Masters Theses

The focus of this study is a proof of concept that infrared heating can be used to produce a reliable and rapid method of performing the loss on ignition test. The loss on ignition test is a foundry industry standard test that requires all moisture and volatile organic compounds be vaporized from a sample of foundry sand. The standard test as recommended by the American Foundry Society uses a muffle oven and requires nearly four hours to perform. This new concept performs the same test in approximately ten minutes. The biggest issues with the loss on ignition test are time …

Engineered Surface Properties Of Porous Tungsten From Cryogenic Machining, Julius M. Schoop

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Porous tungsten is used to manufacture dispenser cathodes due to it refractory properties. Surface porosity is critical to functional performance of dispenser cathodes because it allows for an impregnated ceramic compound to migrate to the emitting surface, lowering its work function. Likewise, surface roughness is important because it is necessary to ensure uniform wetting of the molten impregnate during high temperature service. Current industry practice to achieve surface roughness and surface porosity requirements involves the use of a plastic infiltrant during machining. After machining, the infiltrant is baked and the cathode pellet is impregnated. In this context, cryogenic machining is …