Papers by Keyword: Production

Abstract: The importance of iron and steel to any nation’s economy cannot be overstressed. This paper X-rays the importance of iron and steel to the development of any nation’s economy with reference to China, South Africa and Nigeria. It discusses that iron and steel companies are needed to provide high-quality and efficient services. Benefits that can be derived from iron and steel which includes; revenue generation for the sustenance of nation’s economy, employment generation, industrialization are discussed. Government policy, lack of commitment on the part of policy makers of this country among others have been outlined as barriers that militate against the development of iron and steel in the country. Commitment, implementation of every policy formulated for the industry and partnership with experienced private sector was identified as among the solution to move the sector forward. Keywords: Industry, Iron and Steel, Economic, Production, Consumption, Policy

Abstract: Capacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. Production capacity planning is generally based on all capabilities determining that wireless production is stable, with no fluctuations in machine downtime, variable processing times, defective products, etc., and use the mean for cycle time. However, actual production not only has many fluctuations in human resources that affecting the production time on each stage, but also affected by defective products leading to inaccurate planning. Therefore, planning production capacity under uncertain conditions is essential for any manufacturing enterprise. This paper proposes a model of capacity planning in uncertain conditions using real-time observation and then distributing observation time from which to analyze production capacity. Uncertainty factor as labor and defective products will be considered in this model.

Abstract: Critical investigation of strength properties of materials is required in Engineering practice to ensure an enhanced service life. Globally, industrialists are struggling to increase cost savings from lost production due to the failure of machine, while customers are concerned about the safety and reliability of the products. Hammer mills are prone to various modes of failure like chemical failure, erosive failure, abrasive failure and fatigue failure. The effect of these failure modes is always detrimental to the operation of the machine and its efficiency. Hence, forensic investigation is essential to determine the failure modes and their effects on hammer mills for bone crushing. Field investigation was carried out to monitor the hammer mill in operation for 12 months with a production of 20 bags per hour. The total production per day for 8 hours is expected to be 160 bags at a given speed. Thus, the cost of machine downtime on production is huge. The Pareto method was used to determine the effect of downtime on revenue and production for a period of one year. The hours of failure were between 1 to 2 hours per day. The loss in revenue was calculated using the variation of number of failure with time, as obtained from hammer mill. The outcome showed that hammers investigated failed as a result of abrasive wear, fatigue, impact, and chemical wear, respectively. The cost of downtime was found to be $ 37,745,809,920.00 CAD for the period of study. Based on findings, wide ranging factors are required to evaluate the performance of the hammer mill for improved productivity and efficiency. These are proper material selection, design and appropriate operational parameters. However, there is need for optimisation of the hammer material via heat treatment methods as this will reduce the yearly cost of production, downtime of the milling machine for bone crushing as well as improvement in productivity.

Abstract: Based on magnesium carbonate and antimony oxide (V), MgO•Sb₂O₅ was obtained. In the formulation of fire-resistant cable PVC-plasticate, antimony (III) oxide was replaced by MgO•Sb₂O₅ and the fire resistance and physical and mechanical properties of the resulting compound were investigated. It is shown that the replacement of antimony (III) oxide in the composition of PVC cable compound MgO•Sb₂O₅ leads to the production of a compound that is not inferior in its characteristics to the original plastic compound. In particular, the fire resistance of cable PVC-plasticate, standard industrial formulation and with the obtained MgO•Sb₂O₅, is practically the same (OI=32%). It has been established that the physical and mechanical characteristics of the cable compound, when replacing antimony oxide (III) with MgO•Sb₂O₅ in the formulation, remain at the level of the original compound, while MgO×Sb₂O₅ will have a less negative impact on the environment.

Abstract: Over the past few years, the development of lithium (Li)-ion batteries has been extensive. Several production approaches have been adopted to meet the global requirements of Li-ion battery products. In this paper, we propose a scaled-up process for the LiNi_0.6Mn_0.2Co_0.2O₂ (NMC622) cathode material for high performance Li-ion batteries. During each synthesis step, the structural and morphological characteristics of the products were comprehensively examined. The performance of the samples was evaluated directly using an 18650 full-cell-type battery. Commercial graphite and LiPF₆ electrolyte were used as the anode and electrolyte, respectively. Based on the obtained data, increasing the production scale of NCM622 reduces the overall performance. Nevertheless, a simple post-treatment technique can be used to enhance the overall capacity.

Abstract: Coffee pulp biomass waste can easily be found anywhere in Indonesia, considering it is the fourth world's largest coffee exporter. The utilization of coffee pulp is very limited and is categorized as a source of pollutants in water bodies and soils. In contrast, coffee pulp waste is very potential because 63% of the main compound is cellulose. Microbial utilization of this waste for enzyme production purposes, especially cellulase, is a breakthrough that may lead to reduce production costs. Initial investigations showed that Aspergillus sp. VTM1 through solid-state fermentation (SSF) could produce cellulases. Optimal cellulase could be produced if 10 g coffee pulp with 10% moisture is inoculated using 10⁸ spores/mL of Aspergillus sp. VTM1 for 48 hours at 30 °C. Hydrolysis of 1% carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) substrate in 50 mM acetate buffer pH 5 by this cellulase showed that the enzyme activity reached up to 1.18 U/mL. The optimum pH of the enzyme was 5 and stable at 3-3.5 and 4-7. The success of the first step of this investigation will be a cheap way of producing cellulases.

Abstract: In recent years, the oil field chemical A-cyanoacrylate mixed adhesive has been used in rock preparation and preparation to a certain extent, and its role has been paid more and more attention due to the solidification of the rock surface in the rock thin section, the early embedding of the rock, and the adhesion of the thin side of the rock to the slide surface, etc. This paper introduces the preparation and application development of a-cyanoacrylate mixed adhesive in geological experiment, and the development of a-cyanoacrylate mixed adhesive in oilfield geological experiment.

Abstract: This research work mainly focuses on the flexibility and productivity improvement through the execution of different lean techniques in the valve assembly of medium scale manufacturing unit. The different types of wastes percentage are determined to find out the waste which mainly affects the productivity. The major wastes of motion waste by about 30% and unwanted distance of 250 square foot were reduced by implementation of kaizen in the valve assembly area. Value stream mapping was used to identify the bottleneck process and by eliminating the bottleneck process results in the reduction of excess motion and non-value added activity by 45%. Work-in-process aging and work-in-process inventory cost was calculated and the production level was estimated by using 95th Percentile calculation. The total lead time was reduced about 54minutes with reduction of transportation time 2.7minutes after the implementation of lean techniques and the productivity of the valve assembly was also increased to about 6% after reducing the non-value added activities.

Abstract: Modern metal melting includes of cast iron production in different types furnaces with specific characteristics. Furnaces usually adopted are cupola and induction furnaces. Casting cast iron is a manufacturing process characterized by its energy-intensive nature (ie, the use of large amounts of energy per unit of product for main activities) and a long tradition. An example of the energy balance in a foundry is the design of procedures to reduce energy consumption. The most important is the consumption of energy in the production of hot metals (52%), therefore reducing the cost of preparing hot metal is especially important by reducing the energy consumption of metal melting. The most important energy cost practices are the consumption of hot metal to produce 1mt of high quality castings (often 1700 kg) and reduce the energy consumption of hot metal production that varies over a wide range (from 500 to 1300 kWh/mt). Although scientific and technological aspects are now well established, new studies seem to be needed to describe "foundry of the future", where energy and material efficiency is of great importance to ensure competitiveness alongside environmental protection. The paper presents specific procedures for reducing both economically important indicators in cupola and electric induction furnaces.

Abstract: Vacuum residue (VR) is potential to be used as a feedstock for mesophase pitch (MP) production because of its low cost and aromatic content. MP, which is a liquid-crystalline state of VR, may be used as precursor of activated carbon (AC). Gum rosin containing conjugated double bonds may be added to and can improve crystallinity and pore surface area in further processes of carbonisation and activation. In the present study, co-pyrolysis was carried out in a stirred tank reactor at 450°C with holding time for 120 minutes. The amount of gum rosin mixed with VR was varied 0, 5, 10 and 15% wt of VR. The precursor products had C/H mole ratio of about 2.43, 2.37, 2.28, and 2.01 by increasing gum rosin added. Subsequently, this precursor underwent carbonization at 700°C with holding time for 120 minutes under N₂ flow and activation. KOH solution was used as activating agent to the precursor of activated carbon. Activated carbon gave higher surface area and lower C/H atom ratio with increasing gum rosin added during co-pyrolysis. With gum rosin addition, surface areas of ACs were 120.81, 194.56, 312.36, dan 462.19 m²/g, respectively, and crystallite sizes increased from 8 to 22 Å.