Process Control and Optimisation

Keywords: 3-D printing, gas metal arc weld, GMAW, metal inert gas welding, MIG welding, additive manufacturing, metal printing Open-source hardware RepRap Welder Welding Metal 3-D printing, low cost metal 3-D printer, open-source metal 3-D printer, GMAW 3-D printing Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing WAAM a b s t r a c t Low-cost high-resolution metal 3-D printing remains elusive for the scientific community. Low-cost gas metal arc wire (GMAW)-based 3-D printing enables wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) for near net shape applications, but has limited resolution due to the complexities of the arcing process. To begin to monitor and thus control these complexities , the initial designs of the open source GMAW 3-D printer have evolved to include current and voltage monitoring. Building on this prior work, in this study, the design, fabrication and use of the open source arc analyzer is described. The arc analyzer is a multi-sensor monitoring system for quantifying the processing during WAAM, which includes voltage, current, sound, light intensity, radio frequency, and temperature data outputs. The open source arc analyzer is tested here on aluminum WAAM by varying wire feed rate and measuring the resultant changes in the sensor data. Visual inspection and microstructural analysis of the printed samples looking for the presence of porosity are used as the physical indicators of quality. The value of the sensors was assessed and the most impactful sensors were found to be the light and radio frequency sensors, which showed arc extinction events and a characteristic ''good weld" peak frequency.

Dieses Paper beschreibt den Einsatz von ITIL zur Optimierung von Arbeitsprozessen im Rechenzentrum der Hochschule Harz am Beispiel des Release Managements. Es wird dargestellt, wie die vorhandenen Prozesse als Teil des process life cycle im Ist-Zustand erfasst und anhand des ITIL-“Best Practice”-Framework in den Soll-Zustand überführt werden. Dabei wird ein Projektfazit gezogen und ein Ausblick auf den zukünftigen Einsatz von ITIL im Rechenzentrum der Hochschule Harz gegeben.

In an electroplating process plant, the continuous maintenance of the optimum condition of process solution in the process tanks along the production line is essential for achieving the final desired quality in products. Parameters such as current density, temperature, agitation system, bath pH, bath concentration and plating time are known to have important role in determining the quality of the plating products and the productivity of the plating process plant. This paper presents the works being carried out by the authors in developing smart sensors and smart actuators for measurement and control of values of these parameters, and use of these smart devices for transforming the process tanks into smart tank stations to enable the tanks to monitor the condition of process solution along the line and maintain the desired process solution condition for achieving specific quality in plating products. The paper explains the ways the smart devices installed in or used around the tank stations and the use of ThingSpeak in developing smart tank stations.

Slag eye formation due to gas bubbling in metallurgical processes like steelmaking is a frequently encountered phenomenon, which can significantly hamper the efficiency of steel production process. Control over occurrence of slag eye thus becomes essential to obtain better product quality. The present study aims to revisit past investigations into slag eye formation. It looks at various models developed to quantify this phenomenon and the justifications behind their formulation in order to establish the important parameters involved in slag eye formation. It then proceeds to review the more recently developed models in detail by testing their applicability against a range of data obtained from different experiments and plant measurements. The effect of viscosity is explored and models with and without viscous considerations are compared in specific context of steelmaking ladles. It is observed that the models developed for well-developed eye sizes may not be well suited for scenarios involving smaller or critical eye sizes. Models are also restricted by the systems as well as slag thickness range to which they are applicable. Viscosity is observed to have minor effect on eye-size prediction. A modified form of an available expression is suggested for better prediction of eye-area for available plant data. INTRODUCTION AND PAST INVESTIGATIONS Gas bubbling is an important part of multiple metallurgical processes, one major application being in steelmaking. It is the primary method for recirculation of metal bath. In addition to temperature homogenization of the bath, it also enables removal of inclusions from the metal as well as homogenization of composition, allowing a controlled and uniform quality of final product. During continuous casting process, argon bubbling allows to prevent clogging of the SEN (Submerged Entry Nozzle).

The urban public transport systems deal with dynamic environments and evolve over time. Frequently, we dispose of a lot of correlated information that is not well exploited to improve the public transport quality service, especially in perturbation cases where a regulation system should be used in order to maintain the public transport scheduled time table. The quality service should be measured in terms of public transport key performance indicator (KPI) for the wider urban transport system and issues like regularity, punctuality and correspondence criteria. In fact, in the absence of a set of widely accepted performance measures and transferable methodologies, it is very difficult for public transport to objectively assess the effects of specific regulation system and to make use of lessons learned from other public transport systems. Unfortunately, most of the existing traffic regulation systems do not take into consideration part or most of the performance criteria when they propose a regulation maneuver. Therefore, the applicability of these models is restricted only to specific contexts. This paper sets the context of performance measurement in the field of public traffic management and presents the regulation support system of public transportation (RSSPT). The aim of this regulation support system is (i) to detect the traffic perturbation by distinguishing the non-equability of scheduled and the current time table of vehicle passage at the station (ii) and to find the regulation action by optimizing the performance of the service quality of the public transportation. We adopt a multi-agent approach to model the system. The validation of our model is done by simulating two scenarios on Abu Dhabi transport system and shows the efficiency of our system when we want to use many performance indicators to regulate a disturbance situation.

Spherical three Degree-of- Freedom (DOF) is controlled by model-base fuzzy computed torque controller. The spherical motor has three revolute joints allowing the corresponding parts to move horizontally and vertically. When developing a controller using conventional control methodology (e.g., feedback linearization methodology), a design scheme has to be produced, usually based on a system‟s dynamic model. The work outline in this research utilizes soft computing applied to new conventional controller to address these methodology issues. Computed torque controller (CTC) is influential nonlinear controllers to certain systems which this method is based on compute the required arm torque using nonlinear feedback control law. When all dynamic and physical parameters are known, CTC works superbly; practically a large amount of systems have uncertainties and fuzzy feedback Inference Engine (FIS) is used to reduce this kind of limitation. Fuzzy logic provides functional capability without the use of a system dynamic model and has the characteristics suitable for capturing the approximate, varying values found in a MATLAB based area. Based on this research model- base fuzzy computed torque controller applied to spherical motor is presented to have a stable and robust nonlinear controller and have a good result compared with conventional and pure fuzzy logic controllers.

The managerial process is the process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling applied by an organization to guarantee the supply of the needs of its operating environment. The more this procedure is practiced and known by an organization, the greater its effectiveness. This study aimed to assess whether the managerial process can be considered effective in a unit of a federal institution of education, science and technology that operates in the northern region of Brazil. It used the survey method in a sample composed of 50 professors and 50 administrative technicians, through a closed questionnaire containing the analytical categories of the managerial process, whose data were analyzed and interpreted through fashion, median and standard deviation, to understand the demographic characteristics of respondents and Student's T, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests to test the hypotheses that the managerial process is effective in the institution and that there are no evaluative differences arising from the respondents' demographic conditions. The results showed that the managerial process is not effective in the institution and that there is no difference in assessment between the different demographic strata of its employees. The conclusion shows that the institution does not have an effective planning, organization, direction, and control system. RESUMO O processo gerencial é o processo de planejar, organizar, dirigir e controlar aplicado por uma organização para garantir o suprimento das necessidades de seu ambiente de operação. Quanto mais esse procedimento é praticado e conhecido por uma organização, maior a sua efetividade. Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar se o processo gerencial pode ser considerado efetivo em uma unidade de uma instituição federal de educação, ciência e tecnologia que atua na região Norte do Brasil. Utilizou o método de levantamento em uma amostra composta por 50 docentes e 50 técnicos administrativos, através de um questionário fechado contendo as categorias analíticas do processo gerencial, cujos dados foram analisados e interpretados por meio da moda, mediana e desvio padrão, para compreender as características demográficas dos respondentes e os testes T de Student, Kolmogorov-Smirnov e Shapiro-Wilk para testar as hipóteses de que o processo gerencial é efetivo na instituição e de que não há diferenças avaliativas decorrentes das condições demográficas dos respondentes. Os resultados mostraram que o processo gerencial não é efetivo na instituição e que não há diferença de avaliação entre os diferentes estratos demográficos dos seus servidores. A conclusão mostra que a instituição não tem um sistema de planejamento, organização, direção e controle efetivo. Palavras-chave: Processo gerencial, Processo de planejamento, Processo de Organização, Processo de direção, Processo de controle.