Machining and Fabrication Equipment in Workplaces

Increasingly well-developed workplace acoustic standards have resulted in more consistent outcomes across projects and normalized occupant expectations of acoustic quality, enhancing productivity and satisfaction. Yet these standards are often not developed for or applied to R&D and manufacturing spaces that include traditional workplace room types and uses; design criteria is limited to OSHA-assessment for noise-at-work violations. Hybrid office buildings incorporating prototyping and maker spaces are common today and often contain high-noise equipment traditionally found in dedicated machine shops. As these facilities are incorporated alongside traditional offices, noise and vibration levels generated by fabrication equipment should be accurately quantified to avoid compromised workplace acoustics. While sound data is available for most large construction equipment, available data for smaller fabrication machines typically found in machine shops is often non-standardized and difficult to obtain. Field measurement of existing equipment installations can ground an acoustical analysis with real-world data and be highly valuable in evaluating potential noise and vibration impacts and applying cost-effective mitigation during design. This case study will present measurements obtained during a noise and vibration assessment of an existing machine shop located within an office building. The discussion will include limitations of the data and an assessment of potential for disruptions.

A Qualitative Tool Condition Monitoring Framework Using Convolution Neural Network and Transfer Learning

Tool condition monitoring is one of the classical problems of manufacturing that is yet to see a solution that can be implementable in machine shops around the world. In tool condition monitoring, we are mostly trying to define a tool change policy. This tool change policy would identify a tool that produces a non-conforming part. When the non-conforming part producing tool is identified, it could be changed, and a proactive approach to machining quality that saves resources invested in non-conforming parts would be possible. The existing studies highlight three barriers that need to be addressed before a tool condition monitoring solution can be implemented to carry out tool change decision-making autonomously and independently in machine shops around the world. First, these systems are not flexible enough to include different quality requirements of the machine shops. The existing studies only consider one quality aspect (for example, surface finish), which is difficult to generalize across the different quality requirements like concentricity or burrs on edges commonly seen in machine shops. Second, the studies try to quantify the tool condition, while the question that matters is whether the tool produces a conforming or a non-conforming part. Third, the qualitative answer to whether the tool produces a conforming or a non-conforming part requires a large amount of data to train the predictive models. The proposed model addresses these three barriers using the concepts of computer vision, a convolution neural network (CNN), and transfer learning (TL) to teach the machines how a conforming component-producing tool looks and how a non-conforming component-producing tool looks.

Advanced Design For Manufacturing of Integrated Sustainability “Off-Shore” and “Off-Site” Prototype - MVP “S2_HOME”

The "S2_Home" research project - double safety home - the double safety of living (seismic and social / environmental), pursues the development and research strategy of the De Masi Mechanical Industries of Antonino De Masi, on the themes of innovation related to technologies of automated mechanics, applied to the realization of systems and components at the service of health and quality of life of users. S2_Home pursues the integrated sustainability model between "off-shore" and "off-site" processes. "Off-site" because it applies solutions inspired by robotic automation and advanced manufacturing for the components of a building system between machine shops and off-site. a laboratory for the assembly of systems and services; "off-shore" because it initiates processes of "energy transition" for small and medium-sized user communities. The design process transfers the housing energy-environmental performance of the standard module to the whole integrated supply system, up to the realization of a superior energetic functional model entrusted to the "smart grid". The S2_Home housing module is realized through mobile and self-mounting living systems, that meet the demand for emergency settlements, focusing on the quality of living, the efficiency of operation and usage, and the versatility of construction for different climates and sites sensitive, to the innovation of technological systems and supplies, that are able to characterize the module and make it available to aggregation settlement systems. To realize the economic value through optimizing energy and service operations, as well as the economy of scale on the production chain, using techniques and processes of the company's machine shops.

Local on-demand fabrication: microfactories and online manufacturing platforms

PurposeThis article explores a particular on-demand fabrication unit, the microfactory (MF). It identifies and contrasts several MFs and proposes a taxonomy. This research also explores online manufacturing platforms (OMP) that complement certain MFs.Design/methodology/approachThis research implements a multiple case study (71 cases in 21 countries), triangulating data available on the web with interviews, virtual/physical tours and experiential research.FindingsThe results suggest that automation and openness are the main dimensions that differentiate the MFs. Using these dimensions, a taxonomy of MFs is created. MFs with relatively low automation and high openness tend to be innovation-driven microfactories (IDMFs). MFs with high automation and low openness levels tend to be customization-driven microfactories (CDMFs). And MFs with relatively low automation and low openness tend to be classic machine shops (MSs). There are two types of OMP: closed (COMPs) and multisided (MOMPs). MOMPs can be low-end or high-end.Practical implicationsIn a world where online platforms are becoming central to the reinvention of manufacturing, multisided online platforms and small fabricators will become strongly symbiotic.Originality/valueThis paper offers a clearer conceptualization of MFs and OMPs, which may help to better understand the reality of local on-demand fabrication. Moreover, it explores a new type of experiential research, which tries to describe and interpret firms through transactional activities. Many details of a firm that are difficult to capture via interviews and netnography can be revealed this way.

DESIGN, MANUFACTURING AND PROBLEM ANALYSIS OF AN ENTIRELY FDM 3D PRINTED LINEAR PNEUMATIC ACTUATOR

Urgency of the research. Currently, manufacturing of pneumatic components is reserved only to well-equipped manufacturing plants and machine shops. The ability to reliably manufacture pneumatic components on a FDM 3D printer would enable the creation of low-cost custom-made pneumatic actuators with novel properties. This, in turn, could increase the speed and lower the cost of development of prototypes that use pressure air as their power source. Target setting. Today cost-effective 3D printers can be found both in manufacturing plants and small machine shops andhobbyist workshops. Hawing the possibility to make reliable pneumatic components like pneumatic actuators on such machines could be beneficial and lead to opening new applications for them. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Currently most research on using additive manufacturing to construct a pneumatic actuator focuses mainly on bellows type actuators. Research on 3d printing of classical pneumatic actuators is scarce and often presents a rough overview of the design process and immediately presenting a functional prototype without focusing and studying the design hurdles thoroughly. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. Parts for firm pneumatic actuators manufactured by FDM 3D printing exhibit properties that have detrimental effects on the optimal working of such actuators. The question is on the magnitude of these effects whether these effects can be tolerated and how to design such a firm pneumatic actuator without the need to postprocess all the components. The research objective. The aim of these research was to manufacture an early prototype of full plastic 3d printed not postprocessed linear actuators and make a preliminary analysis of encountered problems therefore pointing the way for further research in this field. The statement of basic materials. The analysis consists of an attempt to manufacture a simple prototype of full plastic 3d printed linear actuators without the use of postprocessing techniques and establishing a baseline for further research. Conclusions. In this paper the design of three iterations of FDM 3D printed pneumatic cylinders are presented. The problems arising from not using any postprocessing on either of the parts and using only 3d printed parts for the construction is also discussed. In the final chapter the design hurdles for the design and manufacturing of such an actuator are presented..

Distilling in the Ohio River Valley

Industrial-scale distilling required superior transport access to grains and coal, as well as complementary industries such as machine shops, coppersmiths, coopers, lumberyards, stockyards, and slaughterhouses. By the last third of the nineteenthcentury, most of the state’s largest industrial centers were Ohio and Kentucky River cities: Maysville, Covington, Louisville, Owensboro, and Frankfort. City distilleries were located on low-lying river floodplains, and the surrounding streets and railroad tracks were hives of activity, with wagons and railcars delivering grains, barrel staves, and coal and hauling away spent grains and whiskey. Distillery employees often lived in neighborhoods adjacent to the clustered industrial works. Intact remnants of this landscape are rare today, but those that remain are part of the distilling industry’s heritage. Several distilling-related structures are on the National Register of Historic Places.