Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 786

Abstract: Sewing is one of the oldest textile arts which are still popular among the masses of India. Beyond being an art work, sewing serves as a source of livelihood for millions of people. In modern India the major part of the sewing industry is confined to the rural villages spread across the north and the north eastern states of India. Most of these villages are still to receive electricity and those of whom have, are sustaining on the verge of energy poverty. The operation of a sewing machine can be harnessed to produce electricity for small scale purposes. This can be used for charging batteries, mobile phones, lamps, emergency lights. The rotational aspect of the sewing machine wheel can be used to generate power. Power generation is facilitated by using an Alternator. The usage of an Alternator over a DC Motor or Dynamo has added advantages which are described in detail in due course. This paper is intended to present a method to generate power by effectively harnessing the rotational capability of a sewing machine wheel. The paper also deals with the advantages of using an alternator over other electricity generating devices.

Abstract: In Cellular manufacturing industries are producing similar products using cells, or groups of team members, workstations, or equipment, to make easy operations by eliminating setup and unnecessary costs between operations, Cells might be designed for a specific process, part, or a complete product. There is a strong propensity towards the effectiveness of manufacturing system, proper scheduling (determining the sequence of operations is to be performed) of jobs is essential for the flourishing operation of a shop. Group technology has become a more and more popular concept in manufacturing, which is designed to take advantage of mass production layout and techniques in smaller batch production system. Since the conventional scheduling methods need more computation time. In this paper, an effort has been made in two parts from the first part of this work is to optimize scheduling in different types of products in the job-shop environment are identified and grouping of cells is performed using Rank Order Clustering Method. In the second part, optimization procedure has been developed for the scheduling problem for processing in the machine cells. Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithm are used in this paper for explore the optimum schedule by minimizing the total penalty cost due to the delay in meeting the due date. Better scheduling is obtained by comparing the two methods.

Abstract: The behavior of thin plate subjected to impact loading is still an interesting field to study. This paper studies about Aluminum thin plate perforation. It focused on the experimental result of thin plate perforation. The thin plates are tested using blunt and conical strikers on a instrumented impact testing machine. Two different thicknesses of was used to observed the maximum work done with four impact velocities. The result indicated that the maximum work done increased proportionally with impact velocities. In addition, an elastic FEM analysis is carried out to confirm the experimental result by using ANSYS software. Both experimental and numerical results showed a close agreement.

Abstract: — A metaheuristic is an iterative process that guides and updates the operations of subordinate heuristics to efficiently produce better quality solutions. It is used in cases where exact methods are not sufficient to provide a solution so that the method of manipulation of a single solution or a collection of solutions at each iteration is deployed. This paper addresses the application of generic algorithm for a parallel machine flow line scheduling problem using the algorithm proposed for minimizing the makespan. Makespan is an important requirement to achieve effective production from process planning. As the problem chosen is NP-hard, genetic algorithm is adopted as it is one of the proven methods to search for a feasible optimal solution to the chosen objective function. The methodology is based on creating a group of random solutions for the randomly generated samples and applying the operators of cross over and mutation to improve the solutions till an acceptable fitness level is reached. The computational experiments deployed indicate that the proposed methodology and procedures are helping to arriving at better solutions faster.Keywords: Scheduling-Parallel machine – Flow shop scheduling– GA.

Abstract: Bone replacements for congenital defects, cancer resections, and traumas are typically performed using bone grafting. However, due to scarcity of the source material, synthetic materials for bone replacements are sometimes used instead. Unfortunately, the ability to engineer anatomically correct pieces of viable and functional human bone are difficult and time-consuming through conventional manufacturing methods. This paper proposes an alternative route which incorporates the use of AM technology for fabricating patient-specific implants. The implants were computer-aided design (CAD) from a stereolithography (STL) file of a mandible. AM method was combined with lost wax casting (LWC) technology to produce the customised A-W glass-ceramic implants. An initial study of sintered A-W was performed on cylindrical samples show on average 19.8% porous with on average 75% of the porosity being open and an average flexural strength of 82.6 MPa. The A-W scaffolds display a degree of macro-and micro porosity. The geometrical shape of the A-W implants shows a close resemblance to the required implant. Additive manufacturing assisted fabrication of A-W glass-ceramic provides a promising method for manufacturing customised medical implants.

Abstract: Finite volume method (FVM) based simulation of 3D fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of stacked chip package during the encapsulation process of moulded underfill (MUF) in different aspect ratio is presented in this paper. The 3D model of flip chip package is built and meshed using ANSYS ICEM, and simulated by FLUENT software. Castro–Macosko viscosity model and volume of fluid (VOF) technique are applied for flow front tracking of the encapsulant. Curing kinetics is taken into consideration in the simulation using Kamal’s equation. To solve the Castro–Macosko and Kamal models, suitable user defined functions (UDFs) are developed using MS VISUAL STUDIO.NET software and incorporated into the FLUENT. The parameter such as different aspect ratio of stacked die of mold cavity on the flow front behaviour is mainly studied. Mechanical stresses experienced by the silicon die will also be monitored for risk of die cracking. The visualisation of the 3D stacking-chip package encapsulation process was presented at different filling times. The encapsulation model aided a clear visualisation and improved fundamental understanding of the design of a 3D integrated circuit encapsulation. The proposed analysis is expected to be a reference and guide in the design and improvement of 3D integration packages.

Abstract: Programmable logic controller (PLC) is a basic and essential element in the engineering of industrial automation. Therefore, basic knowledge of the early stages of PLC plays an important role, especially for mechatronics and manufacturing engineering students. However, due to limited equipment available, high cost equipment, high trainer student ratios, and low reliability of existing equipment, many educational institutions do cannot provide the sufficient resources necessary to help students to become proficient with PLC technology. To alleviate these main problems, the PLC Trainer Kit Simulator is to be developed and used in the Automation Lab at Polytechnic of Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah (POLIMAS). The PLC Trainer Kit Simulator will be used to help student on PLC applications for basic course in JF506 Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. This study is a descriptive study with a quantitative approach. Evaluation will be determined based on pre-test and post-test. This paper reviews the necessity of the simulation kit prior to its implementation. It is expected that, the teaching and learning processes could become more effective thus contribute to positive impacts on students’ interest in learning PLC.

Abstract: Articulated robotic arm is used for handling and separating waste in waste management facility. In the proses of designing the robotic arm, an analysis such as simulation of finite element analysis would very helpful in the early stage of the design. The result of the analysis will show the strength or weakness of the design before the stage of redesign and fabrication. This project focuses on thorough analysis on the design project of robotic arm for waste management application. The CAD software, SolidWorks is used to model the detail design of the robotic arm, and to simulate the motion of the device. The analysis included force analysis on the structure of the robotic arm and motion simulation on the robotic arm. The robotic arm used four servomotors for overall operation; three for its joints, and one for the gripping mechanism. The gripper was designed and fabricated using aluminium sheet due to the high strength-to-density ratio of the material. Based on the results, a better design of robotic arm with different gripping mechanism is proposed. The difference between two designs is clearly brought a large development where the ability of the robotic arm to lift up a larger weight of object is considered as a success. The method and materials of the project is detailed in the paper.

Abstract: This research work is targeted at building and analyzing a robotic arm which mimics the motion of the human arm of the user. The propsed system monitors the motion of the user’s arm using a Kinect. Using the “Kinect Skeletal Image” project of Kinect SDK, a skeletal image of the arm is obtained which consists of 3 joints and links connecting them. 3-D Coordinate Geometry techniques are used to compute the angles obtained between the links. This corresponds to the angles made by the different segments of the human arm. In this work we present the capturing of human hand gestures by Kinect and analyzing it with suitable algorithms to identify the joints and angles. Also the arduino based microcontroller used for processing Kinect data is presented.

Abstract: Nowadays, research on dynamic behavior of structural components is becoming one of the important parts in the design process for any mechanical system. In order to determine the dynamic behavior of a vibrating structure, measurements of the dynamic properties of structure are essential. Free vibration analysis is one of the approaches that apply the finite element method in determining the structure modes of vibration. Each mode is defined by its natural frequency and mode shape. In this paper, the free vibration analysis of grass trimmer was performed using commercial finite element software, such as Ansys®. The importance of determining these vibration characteristics are crucial as grass trimmer is a common machine that exposed to the dynamic and static forces coming from the engine and rotating blade. A long term exposure of grass trimmer's operator may or potentially suffering a risk of hand arm vibration syndrome. The preliminary results of free vibration analysis demonstrated that the grass trimmer experienced a global first bending mode for 1st natural frequency, a global second bending mode for 2nd natural frequency, a local first torsion mode for third natural frequency, and a combination of global and local bending mode for 4th natural frequency. Later, the analyses were further carried out on the modification of the grass trimmer.