Application of an improved mining complex for opencast mining of ore deposits

The purpose of the study is reducing the loss of mineral raw materials and increasing the efficiency of mining operations using a mining complex through the introduction of a new design and engineering solution that improves the equipment functionality. The study involves the analysis of known designs of mining equipment capable of providing the transformation of cyclic scooping of rock mass into its continuous loading, as well as screening of fine fractions from the ore mass. High productivity mining complexes are referred to a promising direction of mining equipment development. The article proposes an improved design of the mining complex, which allows to combine the extraction and loading process and ore mass grading. The improved mining complex is equipped with an annular conveyor with vibrating grids through which fines are screened into the accumulation hopper. From the accumulation hopper the small fractions are sent by means of a pneumatic conveying system to the bunker sections of a special-purpose hauler while the oversize product is loaded into a dump truck by a dump conveyor. The fine fractions of substandard ore collected in the bunker sections are sent for heap leaching. The fine fractions of conditioned ore are sent to the concentration plant to be processed. The proposed design and engineering solution employing an improved mining complex will reduce the cost of works and increase the recovery factor of mineral raw materials in the development of complex-structured deposits of ores characterized by natural concentration of small classes. Removal of fine ore fractions directly during the excavation and loading process can significantly reduce the dusting and decrease the loss of mineral raw materials from blowing and spilling of fine fractions.

Square Waveguide Polarizer with Diagonally Located Irises for Ka-Band Antenna Systems

This article presents the results of development and optimization of a new square waveguide polarizer with diagonally located square irises. The application of suggested geometrical modification of irises form and location instead of a standard wall-to-wall irises configuration allows to exclude 45-degree twists between wideband waveguide polarizer and orthomode transducer of a dual-polarized antenna feed system. In addition, a waveguide polarizer and polarization duplexer can be manufactured by milling technology as two single details, which makes the proposed engineering solution reliable, simple for simulation, development and application. Suggested new polarizer design was developed for the satellite operating Ka-band. It contains 12 irises, which are symmetrically located in the diagonal corners of a square waveguide. Obtained optimal polarization converter provides excellent matching and polarization performance. The maximum level of VSWR is less than 1.04 for both orthogonal polarizations. Values of cross-polarization discrimination are higher than 32 dB in the operating Ka-band. Developed square waveguide polarizer with diagonally located irises can be applied in modern wideband satellite antennas.

ANALYSIS OF RELIABILITY OF AUTOMATIC CORE PROTECTION FUNCTION OF THE REACTOR V-412 IN RESPONSE TO LOCAL PARAMETERS: MAXIMUM LINEAR POWER, DEPARTURE FROM NUCLEATE BOILING RATIO

The research subject is finding an engineering solution for V-412 core automatic protection during operation in both steady-state and transient conditions within ICIS using local parameters (i.e. maximum linear power, departure from nucleate boiling ratio). Such engineering solution will be implemented by safety system software-hardware (PTK-Z) on the basis of signals coming from in-core neutron flux detectors, temperature sensors, primary coolant flow and coolant pressure transducers. Calculated survey of possibility to use Kalman filters or corrective filter to eliminate time delay in SPND signals was carried out. The inaccuracy in the method of maximum linear power monitoring was determined. This work shows that the solution was found using the practice of in-core instrumentation, and ICIS designing and operation with improved metrology, reliability and time parameters and using advanced data communication technologies intended for important challenges of the world market, and as a response to standards.

Engineering solution of control over the driver's condition.

The analysis of the need to use devices for monitoring the state of the driver in transport is carried out. It is noted that the driver may not notice short-term attention gaps. It is necessary to exclude such failures that may lead to serious consequences on the road. On the basis of a mathematical model, it is shown that it is important to take into account both the reliability of the monitoring system to recognize the loss of the driver's efficiency, and its ability to quickly initialize the driver if necessary. It is shown that the use of systems that detect a decrease in the level of vigilance with a sufficiently high reliability will provide an increase in the overall level of road safety. An example of such a system is given.

Artificial Intelligence in Predicting Abnormal States in a Robotic Production Stand

The aim of the described study is an engineering solution to the problem of the implementation of artificial intelligence methods in predicting abnormal, extremely emergency states in robotic production stands. This task results from the need to improve the operational reliability of automated and robotic production lines, thus rationalizing the utility and cost values of these lines. The available hardware solutions as well as the existing and newly introduced new procedures and IT platforms are described. In the hardware part of the work, electric servo drives and gears of a multi-chain tripod robot were used, configured with the Festo Automation Suite software, programmed with the KEBA controller and the developed KeStudio application program.

Promoting Wired Links in Wireless Mesh Networks: An Efficient Engineering Solution

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) cannot completely guarantee good performance of traffic sources such as video streaming. To improve the network performance, this study proposes an efficient engineering solution named Wireless-to-Ethernet-Mesh-Portal-Passageway (WEMPP) that allows effective use of wired communication in WMNs. WEMPP permits transmitting data through wired and stable paths even when the destination is in the same network as the source (Intra-traffic). Tested with four popular routing protocols (Optimized Link State Routing or OLSR as a proactive protocol, Dynamic MANET On-demand or DYMO as a reactive protocol, DYMO with spanning tree ability and HWMP), WEMPP considerably decreases the end-to-end delay, jitter, contentions and interferences on nodes, even when the network size or density varies. WEMPP is also cost-effective and increases the network throughput. Moreover, in contrast to solutions proposed by previous studies, WEMPP is easily implemented by modifying the firmware of the actual Ethernet hardware without altering the routing protocols and/or the functionality of the IP/MAC/Upper layers. In fact, there is no need for modifying the functionalities of other mesh components in order to work with WEMPPs. The results of this study show that WEMPP significantly increases the performance of all routing protocols, thus leading to better video quality on nodes.

Promoting Wired Links in Wireless Mesh Networks: An Efficient Engineering Solution

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) cannot completely guarantee good performance of traffic sources such as video streaming. To improve the network performance, this study proposes an efficient engineering solution named Wireless-to-Ethernet-Mesh-Portal-Passageway (WEMPP) that allows effective use of wired communication in WMNs. WEMPP permits transmitting data through wired and stable paths even when the destination is in the same network as the source (Intra-traffic). Tested with four popular routing protocols (Optimized Link State Routing or OLSR as a proactive protocol, Dynamic MANET On-demand or DYMO as a reactive protocol, DYMO with spanning tree ability and HWMP), WEMPP considerably decreases the end-to-end delay, jitter, contentions and interferences on nodes, even when the network size or density varies. WEMPP is also cost-effective and increases the network throughput. Moreover, in contrast to solutions proposed by previous studies, WEMPP is easily implemented by modifying the firmware of the actual Ethernet hardware without altering the routing protocols and/or the functionality of the IP/MAC/Upper layers. In fact, there is no need for modifying the functionalities of other mesh components in order to work with WEMPPs. The results of this study show that WEMPP significantly increases the performance of all routing protocols, thus leading to better video quality on nodes.

Improvement of the Method for Restoring the Bearing Supports of Steel Crankshaft

In the science of car repair, the problem of restoring worn-out crankshafts is very relevant. The engineering solutions proposed in the article will provide an increase in the technical and economic indicators of repair: an increase in the quality of coating by a gas-flame method with a finishing non-abrasive antifriction treatment. At the same time, the engineering solution consisting in the formation of one groove on each journal of the crankshaft, brazing of a copper wire, followed by flame spraying of a coating, sealed by a disk, and grinding of the journals (the bearing supports), provides a non-wear effect. So, thanks to the coil of copper wire, the resource of the crankshaft increases and the cost of repaired crankshafts are reduced in comparison with new ones.

Dry Mixes for Casting Manufacturing in Single and Small-Scale Production

The paper considers the possibility of using unified dry mixes for machine-building enterprises with small-scale and single-piece production of castings. Dry mixes for production of expendable molds and rods have been developed. Their distinctive feature is that cladded CMC high-silica sand is used as a filler, and powder-like LST are used as a binder. All the ingredients of the mix are products of domestic and Russian production, are not scarce, are not expensive in price, are simple and safe to use. Experimental-industrial tests of the proposed dry mixes were carried out, and a pilot batch of castings was produced in the amount of 5 tons of good casting (small shaped cast-iron casting). Taking into account the specificity of the foundries at enterprises with single-piece and small-scale production, the features of their technical equipment, an engineering solution, focused directly on this segment, has been developed and proposed. The engineering solution relates to the manufacturing processes of casting molds and rods production, and consists in the development of formulations for dry foundry mixes. A distinctive feature of the formulations is: simplicity in use, versatility in functionality, reliance on the domestic resource base, which means that it is affordable, not expensive, and environmentally friendly, safe both for production personnel and for the environment, in the area where the industrial enterprise is located.