Developments

What’s missing from your Lean initiative?

Most business owners and general managers recognise just how critically important proper equipment maintenance is, particularly in an asset-oriented work environment. Simply put, poorly maintained equipment leads to production downtime, lost revenue, dissatisfied customers, and low morale. Yet, in the context of lean initiatives, debates crop up regarding the role of preventive and predictive maintenance versus Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Are preventive and predictive maintenance tactics sufficient? Isn’t TPM a separate initiative, a secondary consideration, or just plain extraneous to a primary lean implementation? Or, should lean and TPM be interconnected? In too many companies, equipment initiatives stop with preventive and predictive maintenance. TPM is a capability built on total asset reliability – and total employee involvement. More than traditional preventive maintenance, it is a systematic, data-driven process that fosters an efficient partnership between production, maintenance, and engineering, and that engages those closest to the work. It results in an organization’s ability to transition from reactive to proactive maintenance and to create low cost, even free capacity. More importantly, TPM has a dramatic impact on your organisational culture, overall operations – and your bottom line. It frees up valuable production capacity without the drain of capital investment. The direct and measureable results are better performance, increased capacity, improved quality, decreased scrap and waste, and increased reliability and efficiency. Without TPM, achieving lean flow is not possible; therefore TPM should be an integral part of any lean transformation. TPM in a Nutshell In essence, TPM is a strategy that empowers employees by enlisting equipment operators to participate actively in the design, selection, correction, and maintenance of equipment. The objective: to ensure that every machine or production process is always able to perform its required tasks without interrupting or slowing down defect-free production. Operators share. ‘Ownership’ for the equipment with which they work. TPM is viewed as ‘beginning-to-end maintenance’ that is critically important to business success. Downtime […]

Advanced hydraulics library for MapleSim

With the MapleSim Hydraulics Library, engineers can seamlessly incorporate industry-tested hydraulics components while continuing to take full advantage of all the modelling, analysis, and simulation abilities of MapleSim. MapleSim offers a modern approach to physical modelling and simulation, dramatically reducing model development and analysis time while producing fast, high-fidelity simulations. MapleSim enables modelling at the system level, so engineers can combine hydraulic subsystems with other domains and analyse their interactions. The MapleSim Hydraulics Library includes over 200 components for modelling pumps, motors, cylinders, restrictions, valves, hydraulic lines, lumped volumes, and sensors. It enables engineers to produce very high-fidelity models by accounting for compressible oil and cavitation effects, resulting in an extremely accurate view of system dynamics. Hydraulics systems are notoriously difficult to model with high accuracy, but so important to understanding system-level behaviour. The Hydraulics Library demonstrates the power of the Modelica standard platform for the systems engineering community.

Valeo confident of Chinese market

Valeo has officially inaugurated the Valeo Nanjing expansion plant in Yangtze Delta Region, Nanjing, one of China’s major automotive manufacturing bases. This inauguration marks a milestone in Valeo’s strategy of continuous development in Asia and consolidates its position as a global leader in transmission systems. Reducing CO2 emissions and boosting the Group’s presence in Asia and emerging countries are the two pillars of Valeo’s global strategy. The Nanjing plant extension is a further step to accompany the company’s growth in China, alongside their 22 existing plants, four new plants and two other extensions being built this year. On top of current activity for clutches and torque converters, the Nanjing plant will also be the first site in the world for Valeo to produce double-clutch systems. In order to meet the increasing global demand for CO2 emission reduction, auto suppliers are developing advanced transmission technologies. Valeo double clutch system is able to improve energy efficiency during power transmission which leads to better fuel economy. In 2011, Valeo Nanjing was awarded by the Jiangning Environment Bureau ‘Green Company’ certification for its outstanding environmental behavior. It has also been recognized by Shanghai GM for its excellent work in the Green Supply Chain Project. Valeo has received strong support from Nanjing Municipal People’s Government since its establishment. Valeo’s footprint in China can be traced back to 1994. In line with its ‘Becoming Chinese in China’ philosophy, Valeo China has been playing an important role in the local market. Based on its know-how and rich experience, Valeo is gradually improving the production capacity in China. Today it includes 22 sites. In 2012, three new plants were opened (Guangzhou, Wuhu and Huadu). In 2013, three plants are being extended (Foshan, Wuhan and Nanjing) and four other new ones are under construction. Valeo is an independent industrial […]

Alstom inaugurates hydropower industrial site in Tianjin, China

Alstom’s largest hydropower industrial site was inaugurated in Tianjin, China on September 17 in the presence of Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of Alstom. With an investment of 100 million on this new facility, Alstom aims to further tap into China’s increasing hydropower needs and grow its hydropower business throughout the region. The inauguration of Tianjin’s new site marks the completion of an upgrade programme, without interruption of the production. It includes an upgrade of the existing hydropower industrial facility and the construction of a new production area as well as a global technology centre (GTC). Today, the Tianjin site is equipped with first class facilities and covers an overall area of 250,000 square meters. It houses approximately 2,000 Alstom employees including over 400 engineers. Alstom supplied recently, from its Tianjin site, four 800 MW class units to China’s Xiangjiaba hydropower plant. The most powerful hydroelectric generating units in the world were delivered in a record time for such large machines – at an average of one unit every two months. Alstom is the only manufacturer who delivered such powerful units already in commercial operation. Thanks to the completion of the Phase II project, the new site has 19 critical heavy machines including two new and state-of-the-art gantries. It will be able to deliver on an annual basis up to 26 turbine and generator units. The new global technology centre will address the research and development needs of the Asian market for all types of hydropower equipment. Its major activities include R&D in mechanics, hydraulics and electrical disciplines for hydropower turbines and generators as well as scale model tests of Francis and Kaplan turbines. The new GTC in Tianjin is part of Alstom’s global R&D network and closely linked with its European teams notably in Grenoble (France). The new workshop […]

Foldable micro electric car

PIC CAP Armadillo-T is a small and light pure-electric car that can fold in half for convenient parking. DAJEON, KOREA: Looking for a parking space for hours at a busy shopping mall or being stuck on roads jammed with cars releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide are all-too-familiar scenes for city dwellers. A group of researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently developed a possible solution to such problems: a foldable, compact electric vehicle that can be utilised either as a personal car or part of the public transit system to connect major transportation routes within a city. In-Soo Suh, Associate Professor of the Graduate School for Green Transportation at KAIST and his research team introduced a prototype micro electric car called ‘Armadillo-T,’ whose design is based on a native animal of South America, the armadillo, a placental mammal with a leathery armour shell. The research team imitated the animal’s distinctive protection characteristic of rolling up into a ball when facing with threat from predators. Just as armadillos hide themselves inside the shell, Armadillo-T tucks its rear body away, shrinking its original size of 2.8 meters (110 inches) down to almost half, 1.65 meters (65 inches), when folding. Armadillo-T is a four-wheel-drive, all-electric car with two seats and four in-wheel motors. Since the motors are installed inside the wheels, and the 13.6 kWh capacity of lithium-ion battery pack is housed on the front side, the battery and motors do not have to change their positions when the car folds. This not only optimizes the energy efficiency but also provides stability and ample room to drivers and passengers. Once folded, the small and light (weighs 450 kg) electric vehicle takes up only one-third of a 5-meter parking space, the standard parking size in Korea, allowing three […]

Electric buses recharged right from the road

DAEJON, KOREA: The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) is an electric vehicle that can be charged while stationary or driving, thus removing the need to stop at a charging station. Likewise, an OLEV tram does not require pantographs to feed power from electric wires strung above the tram route. Following the development and operation of commercialized OLEV trams (at an amusement park in Seoul) and shuttle buses (at KAIST campus), respectively, the City of Gumi in South Korea, beginning on August 6th, is providing its citizens with OLEV public transportation services. Two OLEV buses will run an inner city route between Gumi Train Station and In-dong district, for a total of 24 km roundtrip. The bus will receive 20 kHz and 100 kW (136 horsepower) electricity at an 85% maximum power transmission efficiency rate while maintaining a 17cm air gap between the underbody of the vehicle and the road surface. OLEV is a groundbreaking technology that accelerates the development of purely electric vehicles as a viableÊoptionÊfor future transportation systems, be they personal vehicles or public transit. This is accomplished by solving technological issues that limit the commercialization of electric vehicles such as price, weight, volume, driving distance, and lack of charging infrastructure. OLEV receives power wirelessly through theÊapplicatioÊof the ÒShaped Magnetic Field in Resonance (SMFIR)Ó technology. SMFIR is a new technology introduced by KAIST that enables electric vehicles to transfer electricity wirelessly from the road surface while moving. Power comes from the electrical cables buried under the surface of the road, creating magnetic fields. There is a receiving device installed on the underbody of the OLEV that converts these fields into electricity. The length of power strips installed under the road is generally 5%-15% of the entire road, requiring only a few sections of the road to be rebuilt with the […]

A 3D mouse for your fingertips

We all go through phases where we feel like we’ve seen every possible Kickstarter project that we’d ever want. And then one like Mycestro comes along and reminds us that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a 3D mouse that you strap to one of your fingers and it looks like it could become a huge asset for multi-tasking. If you think about how you use your computer, be it a desktop or laptop, you know that your hands move from the keyboard to the trackpad or mouse constantly, over and over again. It’s wasted movement for the most part, especially when you see the possibilities that Mycestro unlocks. The only thing left is for it to get funded, because it looks like all of the prototypes work perfectly. Features include touch buttons that allow you to navigate your computer without the need for moving your entire hand to a dedicated area on a computer, thanks to 3D technology and space recognition: Specifications for the 3D Mouse: – Size of a wireless earpiece. – Light, weighing next to nothing. – Internal battery can be charged via USB. – Battery life is estimated to be eight hours depending on usage. – Two different replaceable clip sizes. This isn’t a completely perfect situation though, as you’ll have to re-learn how to use a mouse. The other thing is that if you’re in a coffee shop or somewhere in public, people are going to look at you like you have some issues. The thing is called the Mycestro for a reason; it looks like you’re conducting your own private orchestra. In other words, you’re going to look weird. If you’re okay with that, then the benefits outweigh the public shame and looks you might receive. The device works from 30 […]

Remanufacturing PIC Singapore establishes PIC

Remanufacturing Centre established

The Advanced Remanufacturing & Technology Centre will drive value-added manufacturing activities here through private-public R&D collaborations. SINGAPORE: The establishment has occurred of the Advanced Remanufacturing & Technology Centre (ARTC), the first centre in Asia to look into research and development (R&D) to develop technologies for remanufacturing that can be readily adopted by industry. These technologies will enable companies and businesses to translate end-of-life products into ‘good as new’ ones for the market through a sustainable process, contributing to greater cost and materials savings and, potentially, higher profit margins. Six industry leaders, namely Boeing, Rolls-Royce plc, Siemens Industry Software, ABB, FUCHS Lubricants and Carl Zeiss, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre to look into collaborative R&D to bridge technological gaps in remanufacturing for the aerospace, oil & gas, marine, energy, automotive and engineering industries. In doing so, ARTC will tap on A*STARÍs Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology’s (SIMTech) R&D expertise in automation, manufacturing systems and processes, as well as the strong capabilities of local universities such as Nanyang Technological University, to carry out R&D in production-ready technologies in the areas of repair and restoration, surface enhancement and product verification. Eight local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have also joined the Centre to co-develop technologies along with leading multinational corporations (MNCs). By engaging local SMEs and MNCs, ARTC is encouraging leading companies to develop new high value manufacturing activities in Singapore while cultivating the local supply chain in this new growth area. Said Dr Raj Thampuran, Executive Director of the Science and Engineering Research Council, A*STAR, ‘The Advanced Remanufacturing & Technology Centre will help industries realise remanufacturing’s economic and environmental potential through public-private collaborative R&D. Member companies can leverage on our spectrum of relevant capabilities, advanced infrastructure and high quality talent, while at the same time contribute to value-added […]

Input/Output modules achieve faster speeds

Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 24vdc I/O modules, used with the ControlLogix 5570 family of PACs, can significantly improve total System Response Time (SRT) through new hardware technology and peer-to-peer communication capabilities that significantly reduce the time it takes for modules to communicate with the controller. Since SRT equates to the time required for input module response, controller processing and output module response, reducing I/O latency results in higher machine speeds for increased parts production. For even faster performance, the new modules also function in peer-to-peer mode, bypassing the controller entirely by establishing in-chassis connections that allow I/O modules to communicate directly with each other. Shifting task management to the I/O modules can relieve a controller of the overhead required to process and direct I/O modules, helping improve reliability in program execution and throughput. In peer-to-peer mode, input to output response time can be less than 100 microseconds.The peer-to-peer capabilities are ideal for applications with fast detect-energize sequences, such as high-speed parts rejection. OEMs are tasked with building faster machines as manufacturers seek to increase productivity and throughput. PACs are getting faster, but a controller’s processing capacity is not the only factor influencing throughput. For end users and machine builders with high-speed sequential control applications, our new I/O can increase the speed at which machines can function, resulting in higher parts production per shift for the customer.

Robots gesturing for control

Many works of science fiction have imagined robots that could interact directly with people to provide entertainment, services or even health care. Robotics is now at a stage where some of these ideas can be realized, but it remains difficult to make robots easy to operate. One option is to train robots to recognize and respond to human gestures. In practice, however, this is difficult because a simple gesture such as waving a hand may appear very different between different people. Designers must develop intelligent computer algorithms that can be ÔtrainedÕ to identify general patterns of motion and relate them correctly to individual commands. Now, Rui Yan and co-workers at the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore have adapted a cognitive memory model called a localist attractor network (LAN) to develop a new system that recognize gestures quickly and accurately, and requires very little training. “Since many social robots will be operated by non-expert users, it is essential for them to be equipped with natural interfaces for interaction with humans,”says Yan. “Gestures are an obvious, natural means of human communication. Our LAN gesture recognition system only requires a small amount of training data, and avoids tedious training processes.” Yan and co-workers tested their software by integrating it with ShapeTape, a special jacket that uses fibre optics and inertial sensors to monitor the bending and twisting of hands and arms. They programmed the ShapeTape to provide data 80 times per second on the three-dimensional orientation of shoulders, elbows and wrists, and applied velocity thresholds to detect when gestures were starting. In tests, five different users wore the ShapeTape jacket and used it to control a virtual robot through simple arm motions that represented commands such as forward, backwards, faster or slower. The researchers found that 99.15% of gestures were correctly […]

«‹ 74 75 76 77 ›»

News Ticker

Developments