Evolution of properties of parts during MIM and sintering of recycled oxide particles

Metal injection moulding (MIM) is an established process for high volume production of complex shaped metallic parts using commercially available feedstocks. The characteristics of parts after moulding, debinding, and sintering cannot be simply predictable from raw materials because the properties get altered with the process parameters and the corresponding levels of porosity during processing steps. In this study, physical properties, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the MIM parts have been characterised to understand the evolution of strength during various steps in MIM processing. Feedstocks with different binder loading show a considerable difference in physical as well as mechanical characteristics. During sintering of parts which have solid loading of grinding sludge, simultaneous in situ reduction and densification takes place, whereas only densification occurs in carbonyl iron parts. It is, therefore, possible to make complex shaped parts of different levels of porosity from downgraded shop floor metallic waste.     

vMES: Virtualization aware manufacturing execution system

The large scale emergence in the last decade of various cloud solutions, ranging from software-as-a-service (SaaS) based solutions for business process management and implementation to very sophisticated private cloud solutions capable of high performance computing (HPC) and efficient virtualization, constitute the building blocks for engineering the next generation of flexible enterprise systems that can respond with great agility to changes in their environment. These new technologies are adopted at a certain level by manufacturing enterprises in order to advance in a new era of mass customization where flexibility, scalability and agility are the differentiating factors. In this context, this paper introduces the virtualized manufacturing execution system (vMES), an intermediate layer in the manufacturing stack, and discusses the advantages and limitations offered by this approach for manufacturing enterprises. A classification of MES workloads based on the ISA-95 function model is presented, focusing on the virtualization techniques suitable for each workload, considering the algorithms and technologies used and the virtualization overhead. A pilot vMES implementation using a parallel process for smart resource provisioning and automatic scaling is also presented. The pilot implementation using six Adept robots and one IBM CloudBurst 2.1 private cloud and an ISA-95 based MES is described; the virtualization sequence is analyzed in several scenarios of resource workload collocation on physical cloud blades with and without perturbations.     

Energy-Aware Production Scheduling in Flow Shop and Job Shop Environments Using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

The energy-aware scheduling problem is a multi-objective optimization problem where the main goal is to achieve energy savings without affecting productivity in a manufacturing system. In this work, we present an approach for energy-aware flow shop scheduling problem and energy-aware job shop scheduling problem considering the process speed as the main energy-related decision variable. This approach allows one to set the appropriate process speed for every considered operation in the corresponding machine. When the speed is high, the processing time is short but the energy demand increases, and vice versa. Therefore, two objectives are worked together: a production objective, paired with an energy efficiency objective. A generic elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm was implemented to solve both problems. Results from a simple comparative design of experiments and a nonparametric test show that it is possible to smooth the energy demand profile and obtain reductions that average 19.8% in energy consumption. This helps to reduce peak loads and drops on applied energy sources demand, stabilizing the conversion units operational efficiency across the entire operational time with a minimum effect on the production maximum completion time (makespan).     

MES环境下作业车间多级动态调度方法研究

作业车间存在着许多不确定信息干扰生产,为有效解决制造执行系统环境下作业车间的动态调度问题,设计了一种基于实时数据采集的多级作业车间动态调度方法。在静态调度基础上,根据车间生产中实际情况,考虑了紧急插单、加工延时、机器停工等影响排产的扰动因素,建立作业车间动态调度模型,设计了缓冲吸收、调度修复及完全重调度相融合的调度方法。以交货期为目标,通过算例演算,实现了对动态扰动因素的满意处理,验证了方法的有效性。     

针对作业调度问题的遗传选择算子性能分析

针对作业调度问题,通过变形遗传算法实验,对轮盘赌、随机联赛、随机遍历抽样和确定式采样等选择算子进行了比较分析.以FT06典型车间作业调度问题为实例,比较了这几种常用选择算子在解决车间作业调度问题时的性能优劣程度;从全局收敛性和收敛速度两个方面,分析总结了这些选择算子对算法的全局搜索能力的影响程度.实验结果表明随机遍历抽样算子的整体性能要优于其他几种选择算子.     

基于遗传算法的作业车间提前/拖期调度问题

针对带有交货期窗口硬约束并对提前/拖期零件进行惩罚的一类作业车间调度问题,设计了一种改进型遗传算法,该算法采用＂逆向后推＂和＂顺向前拉＂相结合的两阶段求解策略。针对部分染色体在解码过程中违反交货期窗口硬约束而产生非法解的问题,采用基于关键路径的染色体修复方法来调整染色体基因序列,以期实现在满足交货期窗口硬约束的同时降低零件拖期成本;在保持第一调度阶段拖期成本不变的基础上,采用基于逆向重调度的目标值修订方法来延迟零件开工时间,以降低在制品流动成本和成品提前库存成本。通过80组调度测试用例的仿真结果表明,该算法在降低调度总成本和拖期成本方面具有一定的优势。     

基于准时交货的批量生产FJSP多目标优化

为解决客户准时交货要求与企业快速生产要求之间的矛盾,提出了一种基于准时交货的批量生产柔性作业车间调度多目标优化方法。将准时交货要求映射为基于模糊交货期的加权平均隶属度,将快速生产要求映射为流程时间价值总量,构建了一类以加工批次完工时刻的加权平均隶属度最大及加工批次流程时间价值总量最小为目标函数的批量生产柔性作业车间多目标调度优化模型;提出并设计了一种改进的非支配排序遗传算法对模型进行求解。算法引入面向对象技术处理复杂的实体逻辑关系,采用三段式分段编码技术,分别对加工子批最早允许开工时刻、加工顺序、加工设备进行编码,采用三段式分段交叉和变异的混合遗传算子实现遗传进化,采用三种精细化调度技术进行解码以缩短流程时间。通过案例分析验证了研究成果的有效性和实用性。     

基于改进粒子群算法的车间作业排序的优化设计

兼顾车间作业排序中的制造周期和机器利用率,建立了以最小化最大完工时间为主目标、以最大化机器利用率为从目标的优化模型。设计了引入自适应技术的惯性权重,使基本粒子群算法的学习因子可动态变化地改进粒子群算法,并用该改进后的算法对车间作业排序进行了优化设计。实例研究表明：改进后的粒子群算法在收敛速度和收敛可靠性上均优于未改进的粒子群算法,在求解车间作业排序问题的应用中具有更高的求解质量。     

求解Job Shop调度问题的自适应遗传算法设计

针对标准遗传算法中交叉概率Pc和变异概率Pm固定不变带来的局限性,以及M.Sr-invivas自适应遗传算法的缺点,提出了根据适应值集中程度,自适应地变化整个种群的Pc和Pm的一种改进的自适应遗传算法,文中系统地介绍了算法的改进及算法的流程,并将算法应用于求解JSP问题,最后用一个典型的测试例子,对本文设计的算法的求解效果进行了测试,并对测试结果进行了分析.     

基于ILOG平台的求解动态车间作业调度问题优化算法研究

研究了基于约束规划和启发式搜索算法结合求解动态车间作业调度的问题。以最小化制造周期费用与总拖期惩罚费用之和为优化目标,通过建立调度模型、分析问题的优化特性,提出了基于约束规划的禁忌搜索启发式算法,根据与另外两种算法的比较结果,验证了此算法的有效性。