Evaluating the performance of a discrete manufacturing process using RFID: A case study

The material flow is a major focus point in improving productivity in today’s product diversified manufacturing organizations. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of efficient methods to control material flow through manufacturing processes in cases where multi-item tracking is difficult to achieve. This paper presents an RFID-based RTLS (Real-Time Location System) solution for obtaining multi-item work-in-process visibility within a manufacturer. It delivers detailed performance metrics through RTLS data analysis in order to evaluate workflow performance and to obtain a lean process. We pre-filter the RTLS data through the development of a middleware data collection method to acquire near real-time performance evaluation. A case study illustrates the complete process including measurements before and after a workflow redesign. The increased level of detail from RFID measurements yields new insights into shop floor actions and the real effects of redesign efforts.     

Self-diffusion of ions in an ethylene oxide oligomer using the gelsectioning technique

The gel-sectioning technique has been used to measure the radiotracer diffusion coefficients of Na⁺ and SCN^? ions in solutions of sodium thiocyanate in tetra(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether (‘tetraglyme’), a liquid system which can be used as a model polymer electrolyte. Measurements were made at 298 K over the molar concentration range tetraglyme-NaSCN between 2.5 and 50. At all concentrations the diffusion coefficients of both ions were virtually identical and decreased markedly at high salt concentrations. Comparison of the diffusion results with conductivity measurements on the same samples gives evidence for the aggregation of ions at low salt concentrations (tetraglyme-NaSCN > 20). At higher salt concentrations aggregation does not need to be invoked to explain the results. The implications for other polyether electrolytes are discussed.     

Controlled Preparation and Characterization of Nigella Sativa Electrospun Pad for Controlled Release

Silicon - Nigella sativa (NS) oil is an anti-inflammatory agent in the traditional medicine. In the present study, novel electrospun mats contained NS oil/polyacrylonitrile as a sustained release...     

Bearing and misalignment fault detection in induction motors by using the space vector angular fluctuation signal

This paper describes the use of the space vector angular fluctuation (SVAF) method for bearing and misalignment fault diagnosis in induction motors. The theoretical background for SVAF is presented and it is shown how bearing and misalignment faults can be effectively diagnosed by the use of this non-invasive method. The proposed algorithm uses only stator currents as the input, without any other sensors. Both simulation and experimental results carried out on different motors show that these faults could be easily detected and differentiated from each other by fault-related frequencies, which occur in the spectrum of the SVAF.     

Quench performance and mechanical behavior of the first Fermilab-built prototype high gradient quadrupole for the LHC interaction regions

As part of the US LHC program to provide high gradient superconducting quadrupoles for the LHC interaction regions, a 5.5 meter long prototype magnet has been built and tested horizontally in a production type cryostat at Fermilab. This prototype magnet was used to validate the mechanical and magnetic design, production fabrication and assembly tooling. The first prototype magnet has met the LHC requirements of operating at 215 T/m with excellent magnetic field harmonics. This paper summarizes the test results of this magnet, including quench tests and mechanical behavior over several thermal cycles.     

Low-power multi-core ATPG to target concurrency

A function-based automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) tool for embedded core testing is presented that reduces test cost and considers test power dissipation of system-on-chip (SoC). Cores are tested concurrently with the use of test functions, as opposed to simple patterns, and by I/O pin allocation on the test access mechanism (TAM) during a compact ATPG process. Turnaround time benefits from pre-existing test vectors, or test functions supplied by the provider of each core. The presented method also targets low-power dissipation by considering the switching activity on the SoC inputs. Experimental results show a significant reduction in the test application time due to the achieved level of concurrency.     

Study of Kapton insulated superconducting coils manufactured forthe LHC inner triplet model magnets at Fermilab

Fermilab has constructed a number of 2 m model quadrupoles as part of an ongoing program to develop and optimize the design of quadrupoles for the LHC Interaction Region inner triplets. The quadrupole design is based upon a two layer shell type coil of multi-filament NbTi strands in Rutherford cable, insulated with Kapton film. As such, the coil size and mechanical properties are critical in achieving the desired prestress and field quality targets for the agent. Throughout the model magnet program, different design and manufacturing techniques have been studied to obtain coils with the required mechanical properties. This paper summarizes the structural material and coil mechanical properties, coil design optimization results and production experience accumulated in the model R&D program     

A survey on the Metaheuristics for Cryptanalysis of Substitution and Transposition Ciphers

This paper presents state-of-art cryptanalysis studies on attacks of the substitution and transposition ciphers using various metaheuristic algorithms. Traditional cryptanalysis methods employ an exhaustive search, which is computationally expensive. Therefore, metaheuristics have attracted the interest of researchers in the cryptanalysis field. Metaheuristic algorithms are known for improving the search for the optimum solution and include Genetic Algorithm, Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, Particle Swarm Optimization, Differential Evolution, Ant Colony, the Artificial Bee Colony, Cuckoo Search, and Firefly algorithms. The most important part of these various applications is deciding the fitness function to guide the search. This review presents how these algorithms have been implemented for cryptanalysis purposes. The paper highlights the results and findings of the studies and determines the gaps in the literature.     

Integrated vendor–buyer cooperative inventory model with controllable lead time, ordering cost reduction, and service-level constraint

In this study, an integrated vendor–buyer inventory model is proposed. The vendor produces a product in a batch environment and delivers it to a buyer facing normally distributed demand. In the current study, several assumptions are used that the combination of these assumptions has not been studied in previous papers. Here is the list of these assumptions: service-level constraint instead of shortage cost is used; ordering cost reduction is allowed, and decreasing lead time by a cost dependent on two factors including shortened lead time and ordering quantity is considered. An algorithm is developed to obtain the optimal solution of the proposed model. A numerical example is included to illustrate the results of the model. Also, the effects of assumptions used in this paper are evaluated and discussed.