Grinding wheel

Grinding wheels are wheels that contain abrasive compounds for grinding and abrasive machining operations. Such wheels are also used in grinding machines.
The wheels are generally made with composite material. This consists of coarse-particle aggregate pressed and bonded together by a cementing matrix (called the "bond" in grinding wheel terminology) to form a solid, circular shape. Various profiles and cross sections are available depending on the intended usage for the wheel. They may also be made from a solid steel or aluminium disc with particles bonded to the surface. Today most grinding wheels are artificial composites made with artificial aggregates, but the history of grinding wheels began with natural composite stones, such as those used for millstones.
The manufacture of these wheels is a precise and tightly controlled process, due not only to the inherent safety risks of a spinning disc, but also the composition and uniformity required to prevent that disc from exploding due to the high stresses produced on rotation.
Grinding wheels are consumables, although the life span can vary widely depending on the use case, from less than a day to many years. As the wheel cuts, it periodically releases individual grains of abrasive, typically because they grow dull and the increased drag pulls them out of the bond. Fresh grains are exposed in this wear process, which begin the next cycle. The rate of wear in this process is usually very predictable for a given application, and is necessary for good performance.
Characteristics.
There are five characteristics of a cutting wheel: abrasive material, grain size, wheel grade, grain spacing, and bond type. They are indicated by codes on the wheel's label.
Abrasive Material.
The abrasive aggregate is selected primarily according to the hardness of the material being cut. Chemical compatibility is also a concern. For example because carbon alloys with iron, silicon carbide is not suitable for use with iron-based metals like steel.
Grinding wheels with diamond or CBN grains are called superabrasives. Grinding wheels with aluminum oxide (corundum), silicon carbide, or ceramic grains are called conventional abrasives.
Grain size.
From 10 (coarsest) to 600 (finest), determines the average physical size of the abrasive grains in the wheel. A larger grain will cut freely, allowing fast cutting but poor surface finish. Ultra-fine grain sizes are for precision finish work.
Generally, grain size of grinding wheels are 10-24 (coarse), 30-60 (medium), 80-200 (fine), and 220-600 (very fine).
Wheel grade.
From A (soft) to Z (hard), determines how tightly the bond holds the abrasive.
A to H for softer structure,
I to P for moderately hard structure and
Q to Z for hard structure. Grade affects almost all considerations of grinding, such as wheel speed, coolant flow, maximum and minimum feed rates, and grinding depth.
Grain spacing.
Spacing or structure, from 1 (densest) to 17 (least dense). Density is the ratio of bond and abrasive to air space. A less-dense wheel will cut freely, and has a large effect on surface finish. It is also able to take a deeper or wider cut with less coolant, as the chip clearance on the wheel is greater.
Wheel bond.
How the wheel holds the abrasives; affects finish, coolant, and minimum/maximum wheel speed.
Types.
Straight wheel.
To the right is an image of a straight wheel. These are by far the most common style of wheel and can be found on bench or pedestal grinders. They are used on the periphery only and therefore produce a slightly concave surface ("hollow ground") on the part. This can be used to advantage on many tools such as chisels.
Straight Wheels are generally used for cylindrical, centreless, and surface grinding operations. Wheels of this form vary greatly in size, the diameter and width of face naturally depending upon the class of work for which is used and the size and power of the grinding machine.
Cylinder or wheel ring.
Cylinder wheels provide a large, wide surface with no center mounting support (hollow). They can be very large, up to 12" in width. They are used only in vertical or horizontal spindle grinders.
Cylinder or wheel ring is used for producing flat surfaces, the grinding being done with the end face of the wheel.
Tapered wheel.
A straight wheel that tapers outward towards the center of the wheel. This arrangement is stronger than straight wheels and can accept higher lateral loads.
Tapered face straight wheel is primarily used for grinding thread, gear teeth ...
Straight cup.
Straight cup wheels are an alternative to cup wheels in tool and cutter grinders, where having an additional radial grinding surface is beneficial.
Dish cup.
A very shallow cup-style grinding wheel. The thinness allows grinding in slots and crevices. It is used primarily in cutter grinding and jig grinding.
Saucer wheel.
A special grinding profile that is used to grind milling cutters and twist drills. It is most common in non-machining areas, as sawfilers use saucer wheels in the maintenance of saw blades.
Diamond wheels.
"Diamond wheels" are grinding wheels with industrial diamonds bonded to the periphery.
They are used for grinding extremely hard materials such as carbide cutting tips, gemstones or concrete. The saw pictured to the right is a slitting saw and is designed for slicing hard materials, typically gemstones.
Mounted points.
"Mounted points" are small grinding wheels bonded onto a mandrel. Diamond mounted points are tiny diamond rasps for use in a jig grinder doing profiling work in hard material. Resin and vitrified bonded mounted points with conventional grains are used for deburring applications, especially in the foundry industry.
Mounted points is a small handle with a general name, used in electric mill, hanging mill, hand drill. Many of the main types of ceramic mounted points, rubber mounted points, diamond mounted points, emery cloth and so on.
Ceramic mounted points: granular sand (usually corundum, white jade, chrome corundum, silicon carbide) made of ceramic binder sintering, the central supplemented by metal handle. Mainly grinding all kinds of metal, for the diameter of the inner wall of the grinding, mold correction.
Rubber mounted points: finer particle size sand combined by rubber binder
Into, for the polishing of the mold.
sandpaper mounted points:
Multi-piece rectangular sand cloth, bonding around the metal handle. Granularity is generally in the 60 # -320 #, for the diameter of the inner wall of the polishing.
Diamond mounted points: A grinding tool for non-metallic materials such as stone, porcelain and the like, and more particularly to a grinding tool using a diamond alloy as a grinding body comprising a substrate and a plurality of grinding bodies, And the substrate is preferably made of an adhesive material having a certain toughness, and the grinding body is preferably made of a diamond alloy material, and the substrate is preferably made of a diamond alloy material, The utility model has the characteristics of high grinding performance, simple manufacture and low cost, high grinding quality and can be applied to large-scale grinding.
Cut off wheels.
"Cut off wheels", also known as "parting wheels", are self-sharpening wheels that are thin in width and often have radial fibres reinforcing them. They are often used in the construction industry for cutting reinforcement bars (rebar), protruding bolts or anything that needs quick removal or trimming. Most handymen would recognise an angle grinder and the discs they use.
Use.
To use the grinding wheel it must first be clamped to the grinding machine. The wheel type ("e.g." cup or plain wheel below) fit freely on their supporting arbors, the necessary clamping force to transfer the rotary motion being applied to the wheels side by identically sized flanges (metal discs). The paper blotter shown in the images is intended to distribute this clamping force evenly across the wheels surface.
Dressing.
Grinding wheels are self-sharpening to a small degree; for optimal use they may be dressed and trued by the use of wheel or grinding dressers. "Dressing" the wheel refers to removing the current layer of abrasive, so that a fresh and sharp surface is exposed to the work surface. "Trueing" the wheel makes the grinding surface parallel to the grinding table or other reference plane, so that the entire grinding wheel is even and produces an accurate surface.
Testing for grinding tools.
Grinding wheels and grinding tools are used extensively in industry and manual trades for treating surfaces and for separating and cutting objects and have to withstand massive mechanical stress. Mostly centrifugal forces can cause a break, but also flexural and shear forces. Since a break or failure of the grinding tool can present a severe hazard to people and machinery due to the high levels of energy released, high standards are placed on the mechanical and breaking strength of grinding tools in the European safety standards. The Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance conducts tests based on the "Rules of Procedure for Testing and Certification carried out by the Testing and Certification Bodies in DGUV Test".


Grinding dresser

A grinding dresser or wheel dresser is a tool to dress (slightly trim) the surface of a grinding wheel. Grinding dressers are used to return a wheel to its original round shape (to true it up), to expose fresh grains for renewed cutting action (including cleaning away clogged areas), or to make a different profile (cross-sectional shape) on the wheel's edge. Utilizing pre-determined dressing parameters will allow the wheel to be conditioned for optimum grinding performance while truing and restoring the form simultaneously.
Purpose.
The objective of "dressing the wheel" is to:
Types.
Also an abrasive wheel type that has a small "grinding wheel" in a holder that is held against the spinning grinding wheel to dress and clean the face of the grinding wheel.
Grinding complex shapes.
Four types of dressers are used to dress the wheels of CNC grinders used for grinding complex shapes. This type of dresser is mainly in use on CNC grinding machine tools to automatically dress the grinding wheel via computer control in specialist areas requiring complex shapes such as grinding bearing raceways.
Wheel Conditioning
Proper wheel conditioning is a critical part of any grinding process. The condition of the wheel will determine the wheel's ability to meet the part finish requirements and metal removal rate capabilities. The grains in the wheel can be sheared to create a smooth condition or fractured to create a course open condition utilizing dressing parameters.
Skate sharpening.
Grinders used for sharpening skate blades typically have one or more thin grinding wheels mounted on vertical spindles, with a single-diamond dresser mounted on a gymbal with a horizontal axis level with the centerline of the wheel, so it can swing above and below the plane of the wheel, producing a convex grinding surface of a predetermined radius. This allows the blade to be sharpened to a specified hollow, typically very deep for hockey skates, very shallow for skates used for school figures, and moderate for skates used for freestyle skating.


Multiaxis machining

Multiaxis machining is a manufacturing process that involves tools that move in 4 or more directions and are used to manufacture parts out of metal or other materials by milling away excess material, by water jet cutting or by laser cutting. This type of machining was originally performed mechanically on large complex machines. These machines operated on 4, 5, 6, and even 12 axes which were controlled individually via levers that rested on cam plates. The cam plates offered the ability to control the tooling device, the table in which the part is secured, as well as rotating the tooling or part within the machine. Due to the machines size and complexity it took extensive amounts of time to set them up for production. Once computer numerically controlled machining was introduced it provided a faster, more efficient method for machining complex parts.
Typical CNC tools support translation in 3 axis; multiaxis machines also support rotation around one or multiple axis. 5-axis machines are commonly used in industry in which the workpiece is translated linearly along three axes (typically x, y, and z) and the tooling spindle is capable of rotation about an addition 2 axes.
There are now many CAM (computer aided manufacturing) software systems available to support multiaxis machining including software that can automatically convert 3-axis toolpaths into 5-axis toolpaths. Prior to the advancement of Computer Aided Manufacturing, transferring information from design to production often required extensive manual labor, generating errors and resulting in wasted time and material.
There are three main components to multiaxis machines:
Multiaxis machines offer several improvements over other CNC tools, at the cost of increased complexity and price of the machine:
The number of axes for multiaxis machines varies from 4 to 9. Each axis of movement is implemented either by moving the table (into which the workpiece is attached), or by moving the tool. The actual configuration of axes varies, therefore machines with the same number of axes can differ in the movements that can be performed.
Applications.
Multiaxis CNC machines are used in many industries including:
Multiaxis machining is also commonly used for rapid prototyping as it can create strong, high quality models out of metal, plastic, and wood while still being easily programmable.
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software.
CAM software automates the process of converting 3D models into tool paths, the route the multiaxis machine takes to mill a part (Fig. 1). This software takes into account the different parameters of the tool head (in the case of a CNC router, this would be the bit size), dimensions of the blank, and any constraints the machine may have. The tool paths for multiple passes can be generated to produce a higher level of detail on the parts. The first few passes remove large amounts of material, while the final, most important pass creates the surface finish. In the case of the CNC lathe, the CAM software will optimize the tool path to have the central axis of the part align with the rotary of the lathe. Once the tool paths have been generated, the CAM software will convert them into G-code, allowing the CNC machine to begin milling.
CAM software is currently the limiting factor in the capabilities of a multiaxis machine with ongoing development. Recent breakthroughs in this space include:


Pogo pin

A pogo pin or spring-loaded pin is a type of electrical connector mechanism that is used in many modern electronic applications and in the electronics testing industry. They are used for their improved durability over other electrical contacts, and the resilience of their electrical connection to mechanical shock and vibration.
The name "pogo pin" comes from the pin's resemblance to a pogo stickthe integrated helical spring in the pin applies a constant normal force against the back of the mating receptacle or contact plate, counteracting any unwanted movement which might otherwise cause an intermittent connection. This helical spring makes pogo pins unique, since most other types of pin mechanisms use a cantilever spring or expansion sleeve.
A complete connection path requires a mating receptacle for the pin to engage, which is termed a "target" or "land". A pogo target consists of a flat or concave metal surface, which unlike the pins, has no moving parts. Targets may be separate components in the complete connector assembly, or in the case of printed circuit boards, simply a plated area of the board.
Spring-loaded pins are precision parts fabricated with a turning and spinning process which does not require a mold, thus allowing the production of smaller quantities at a lower cost.
Structure.
A basic spring-loaded pin consists of 3 main parts: a "plunger", "barrel", and "spring". When force is applied to the pin, the spring is compressed and the plunger moves inside the barrel. The shape of the barrel retains the plunger, stopping the spring from pushing it out when the pin is not locked in place.
In the design of electrical contacts, a certain amount of friction is required to hold a connector in place and retain the contact finish. However, high friction is undesirable because it increases stress and wear on the contact springs and housings. Thus, a precise normal force, typically around 1 newton, is required to generate this friction. Since a spring-loaded pin needs to have a slight gap between the plunger and barrel so that it can slide easily, momentary disconnections can happen when there is vibration or movement. In order to counter this, the plunger usually has a small tilt to ensure a continuous connection.
Many manufacturers have created their own proprietary variations on this design, most commonly by varying the interface between the plunger and spring. For example, a ball may be added between the two components, or the plunger may have an angled or countersunk tip.
Materials.
The plunger and barrel of pogo pins usually use brass or copper as a base material on which a thin layer of nickel is applied.
As common in electrical connectors, manufacturers often apply a gold plating that improves the durability and contact resistance.
The springs are usually made of copper alloys or spring steel.
Applications.
Spring-loaded connectors are used for a wide variety of applications, in both industrial and consumer electronics:
Connector arrangement.
When pogo pins are used in a connector, they are usually arranged in a dense array, connecting many individual nodes of two electrical circuits. They are commonly found in automatic test equipment in the form of a bed of nails, where they facilitate the rapid, reliable connection of the devices under test (DUTs). In one extremely high-density configuration, the array takes the form of a ring containing hundreds or thousands of individual pogo pins; this device is sometimes referred to as a "pogo tower".
They can also be used for more permanent connections, for example, in the Cray-2 supercomputer.
When used in the highest-performance applications, pogo pins must be very carefully designed to allow not only high reliability across many mating/unmating cycles but also high-fidelity transmission of the electrical signals. The pins themselves must be hard, yet plated with a substance (such as gold) that provides for reliable contact. Within the body of the pin, the plunger must make good electrical contact with the body lest the higher-resistance spring carry the signal (along with the undesirable inductance that the spring represents). The design of pogo pins to be used in matched-impedance circuits is especially challenging; to maintain the correct characteristic impedance, the pins are sometimes arranged with one signal-carrying pin surrounded by four, five, or six grounded pins.
Combination with magnets.
Spring-loaded connectors may be combined with magnets to form a strong and reliable connectiona technique which has been employed extensively for consumer electronics such as 2-in-1 PCs and high-frequency data transfer. One notable example of this is Apple's MagSafe connector.
Commercial products.
Although often used as a generic name, "pogo pin" is a registered trademark of Everett Charles Technologies (ECT).


Manufacturing resource planning

Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) is a method for the effective planning of all resources of a manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units, financial planning, and has a simulation capability to answer "what-if" questions and is an extension of closed-loop MRP (Material Requirements Planning).
This is not exclusively a software function, but the management of people skills, requiring a dedication to database accuracy, and sufficient computer resources. It is a total company management concept for using human and company resources more productively.
Key functions and features.
MRP II is not a single specific proprietary software system and can thus take many forms. It is almost impossible to visualize an MRP II system that does not use a computer, but an MRP II system can be based on either purchased–licensed or in-house software.
Almost every MRP II system is modular in construction. Characteristic basic modules in an MRP II system are:
together with auxiliary systems such as:
and related systems such as:
The MRP II system integrates these modules together so that they use common data and freely exchange information, in a model of how a manufacturing enterprise should and can operate. The MRP II approach is therefore very different from the "point solution" approach, where individual systems are deployed to help a company plan, control or manage a specific activity. MRP II is by definition fully integrated or at least fully interfaced.
MRP and MRPII.
History and evolution.
Material requirements planning (MRP) and manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) are predecessors of enterprise resource planning (ERP), a business information integration system. The development of these manufacturing coordination and integration methods and tools made today's ERP systems possible. Both MRP and MRPII are still widely used, independently and as modules of more comprehensive ERP systems, but the original vision of integrated information systems as we know them today began with the development of MRP and MRPII in manufacturing.
MRP (and MRPII) evolved from the earliest commercial database management package developed by Gene Thomas at IBM in the 1960s. The original structure was called BOMP (bill-of-materials processor), which evolved in the next generation into a more generalized tool called DBOMP (Database Organization and Maintenance Program). These were run on mainframes, such as IBM/360.
The vision for MRP and MRPII was to centralize and integrate business information in a way that would facilitate decision making for production line managers and increase the efficiency of the production line overall. In the 1980s, manufacturers developed systems for calculating the resource requirements of a production run based on sales forecasts. In order to calculate the raw materials needed to produce products and to schedule the purchase of those materials along with the machine and labor time needed, production managers recognized that they would need to use computer and software technology to manage the information. Originally, manufacturing operations built custom software programs that ran on mainframes.
Material requirements planning (MRP) was an early iteration of the integrated information systems vision. MRP information systems helped managers determine the quantity and timing of raw materials purchases. Information systems that would assist managers with other parts of the manufacturing process, MRPII, followed. While MRP was primarily concerned with materials, MRPII was concerned with the integration of all aspects of the manufacturing process, including materials, finance and human resources.
Like today's ERP systems, MRPII was designed to tell us about a lot of information by way of a centralized database. However, the hardware, software, and relational database technology of the 1980s was not advanced enough to provide the speed and capacity to run these systems in real-time, and the cost of these systems was prohibitive for most businesses. Nonetheless, the vision had been established, and shifts in the underlying business processes along with rapid advances in technology led to the more affordable enterprise and application integration systems that big businesses and many medium and smaller businesses use today.
General concepts.
Material requirements planning (MRP) and manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) are both incremental information integration business process strategies that are implemented using hardware and modular software applications linked to a central database that stores and delivers business data and information.
MRP is concerned primarily with manufacturing materials while MRPII is concerned with the coordination of the entire manufacturing production, including materials, finance, and human resources. The goal of MRPII is to provide consistent data to all members in the manufacturing process as the product moves through the production line.
Paper-based information systems and non-integrated computer systems that provide paper or disk outputs result in many information errors, including missing data, redundant data, numerical errors that result from being incorrectly keyed into the system, incorrect calculations based on numerical errors, and bad decisions based on incorrect or old data. In addition, some data is unreliable in non-integrated systems because the same data is categorized differently in the individual databases used by different functional areas.
MRPII systems begin with MRP, material requirements planning. MRP allows for the input of sales forecasts from sales and marketing, or of actual sales demand in the form of customers orders. These demands determine the raw materials demand. MRP and MRPII systems draw on a master production schedule, the breakdown of specific plans for each product on a line. While MRP allows for the coordination of raw materials purchasing, MRPII facilitates the development of a detailed production schedule that accounts for machine and labor capacity, scheduling the production runs according to the arrival of materials. An MRPII output is a final labor and machine schedule. Data about the cost of production, including machine time, labor time and materials used, as well as final production numbers, is provided from the MRPII system to accounting and finance.
For the companies that want to integrate their other departments with their manufacturing management, ERP software are necessary.
Benefits.
MRP II systems can provide:
For design / engineering:
For financial and costing:
Criticism.
Authors like Pochet and Wolsey argue that MRP and MRP II, as well as the planning modules in current APS and ERP systems, are actually sets of heuristics. Better production plans could be obtained by optimization over more powerful mathematical programming models, usually integer programming models. While they acknowledge that the use of heuristics, like those prescribed by MRP and MRP II, were necessary in the past due to lack of computational power to solve complex optimization models, this is mitigated to some extent by recent improvements in computers.


Toyota Sportivo Coupe

The Toyota Sportivo Coupe is a concept car developed by Toyota Australia. The car is most notable for not only its decidedly high-tech design, but that it was designed by a group of teenagers (ages 14–18). Key design elements include a speedometer in which the speed limit always occupies the 12 o'clock position. It also features GPS, Bluetooth, and a Driver I.D. system which automatically configures the car to the drivers settings saved on the card. The entire vehicle was built in 30 weeks using CAD and rapid prototyping. The vehicle is built on top of a modular Toyota frame using a modified drive train from the Camry and RAV4.


Office of Production Management

The Office of Production Management was a United States Government agency that existed from January 1941 to centralize direction of the federal procurement programs and quasi-war production during the period immediately proceeding the United States' involvement in World War II. After the United States formally entered World War II, the War Production Board superseded the Office of Production Management in January 1942 and the office ceased to exist shortly thereafter. It was established and distestablished by Executive Order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.


Press brake

A press brake is a machine used for bending sheet metal and metal plate, most commonly sheet metal. It forms predetermined bends by clamping the workpiece between a matching top tool and bottom die.
Typically, two C-frames form the sides of the press brake, connected to a table at the bottom and on a movable beam at the top. The bottom tool is mounted on the table, with the top tool mounted on the upper beam.
Types.
A brake can be described by basic parameters, such as the force or tonnage and the working length. Additional parameters include the stroke length, the distance between the frame uprights or side housings, distance to the back gauge, and work height. The upper beam usually operates at a speed ranging from 1 to 15 mm/s.
There are several types of press brakes including nut-stop hydraulic, synchro hydraulic, electric and hybrid.
Hydraulic presses operate by means of two synchronized hydraulic cylinders on the C-frames moving the upper beam. Servo-electric brakes use a servo-motor to drive a ballscrew or belt drive to exert tonnage on the ram.
Historically, a mechanical press entailed with energy that was added to a flywheel with an electric motor. A clutch engages the flywheel to power a crank mechanism that moves the ram vertically. Accuracy and speed are two advantages of the mechanical press.
Until the 1950s, mechanical brakes dominated the world market. The advent of better hydraulics and computer controls have led to hydraulic machines being the most popular.
Todays press brakes are controlled by two types of controls, NC (Numeric Controlled) or CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled). NC is a basic controller where the CNC is the high end controller although the initial outlay might be more than a NC, a CNC controller can be more effective, keeping cost down in the long run.
Pneumatic and servo-electric machines are typically used in lower tonnage applications. Hydraulic brakes produce accurate high quality products, are reliable, use little energy and are safer because, unlike flywheel-driven presses, the motion of the ram can be easily stopped at any time in response to a safety device, e.g. a light curtain or other presence sensing device.
Recent improvements are mainly in the control and a device called a backgauge. A back gauge is a device that can be used to accurately position a piece of metal so that the brake puts the bend in the correct place. Furthermore, the back gauge can be programmed to move between bends to repeatedly make complex parts. Early brakes relied on the tooling to determine the bend angle of the bend. The animation to the right shows the operation of the back gauge, setting the distance from the edge of the material or previous bend to the center of the die.
Press brakes often include multi-axis computer-controlled back gauges. They allow operators to position material correctly and sequence the bends step-by-step until completed. Optical sensors allow operators to make adjustments during the bending process. These sensors send real-time data about the bending angle in the bend cycle to machine controls that adjust process parameters.
Dies.
Press brakes can be used for many different forming jobs with the right die design. Types of dies include:


Ball spline

Ball splines (Ball Spline bearings) are a special type of linear motion bearing that are used to provide nearly frictionless linear motion while allowing the member to transmit torque simultaneously. There are grooves ground along the length of the shaft (thus forming splines) for the ball bearings to run inside. The outer shell that houses the balls is called a nut rather than a bushing, but is not a nut in the traditional sense—it is not free to rotate about the shaft, but is free to travel up and down the shaft. For a shaft travel of any significant length the nut will have channels that recirculate the balls, operating in the same way as a ball screw.
By increasing the contact area of the ball bearings on the shaft to approximately 45 degrees, the side load and direct load carrying capabilities are greatly increased. Each nut can be individually preloaded at the factory to decrease the available radial play to ensure rigidity. This process not only increases the contact area, increasing direct loading capabilities, but it also restricts any radial movement, increasing the overhung moment capabilities. This creates a sturdier structure that can handle a very strenuous working environment.


List of ventilator manufacturers

This is a list of notable ventilator manufacturers and businesses that manufacture ventilator components for the healthcare industry.


Die (integrated circuit)

A die, in the context of integrated circuits, is a small block of semiconducting material on which a given functional circuit is fabricated. Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon (EGS) or other semiconductor (such as GaAs) through processes such as photolithography. The wafer is cut (diced) into many pieces, each containing one copy of the circuit. Each of these pieces is called a die.
There are three commonly used plural forms: "dice", "dies," and "die". To simplify handling and integration onto a printed circuit board, most dies are packaged in various forms.
Manufacturing process.
Most dies are composed of silicon and used for integrated circuits. The process begins with the production of monocrystalline silicon ingots. These ingots are then sliced into disks with a diameter of up to 300 mm.
These wafers are then polished to a mirror finish before going through photolithography. In many steps the transistors are manufactured and connected with metal interconnect layers. These prepared wafers then go through wafer testing to test their functionality. The wafers are then sliced and sorted to filter out the faulty dies. Functional dies are then packaged and the completed integrated circuit is ready to be shipped.
Uses.
A die can host many types of circuits. One common use case of an integrated circuit die is in the form of a Central Processing Unit (CPU). Through advances in modern technology, the size of the transistor within the die has shrunk exponentially, following Moore's Law. Other uses for dies can range from LED lighting to power semiconductor devices.


Head-in-pillow defect

In the assembly of integrated circuit packages to printed circuit boards, a head-in-pillow defect (HIP or HNP) is a failure of the soldering process. For example, in the case of a ball grid array (BGA) package, the pre-deposited solder ball on the package and the solder paste applied to the circuit board may both melt, but the melted solder does not join. A cross-section through the failed joint shows a distinct boundary between the solder ball on the part and the solder paste on the circuit board, rather like a section through a head resting on a pillow.
The defect can be caused by surface oxidation or poor wetting of the solder, or by distortion of the integrated circuit package or circuit board by the heat of the soldering process. This is particularly a concern when using lead-free solder, which requires higher processing temperature.
Since the warping of the circuit board or integrated circuit may disappear when the board cools, an intermittent fault may be created. Diagnosis of head-in-pillow defects may require use of X-rays or EOTPR (Electro Optical Terahertz Pulse Reflectometry), since the solder joints are hidden between the integrated circuit package and the printed circuit board.


Cloud-based design and manufacturing

Cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) refers to a service-oriented networked product development model in which service consumers are able to configure products or services and reconfigure manufacturing systems through Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Adapted from the original cloud computing paradigm and introduced into the realm of computer-aided product development, Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing is gaining significant momentum and attention from both academia and industry.
Cloud-based design and manufacturing includes two aspects: cloud-based design and cloud-based manufacturing. Another related concept is cloud manufacturing that is more general and popular.
Cloud-Based Design (CBD) refers to a networked design model that leverages cloud computing, service-oriented architecture (SOA), Web 2.0 (e.g., social network sites), and semantic web technologies to support cloud-based engineering design services in distributed and collaborative environments.
Cloud-Based Manufacturing (CBM) refers to a networked manufacturing model that exploits on-demand access to a shared collection of diversified and distributed manufacturing resources to form temporary, reconfigurable production lines which enhance efficiency, reduce product lifecycle costs, and allow for optimal resource allocation in response to variable-demand customer generated tasking.
The enabling technologies for Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing include cloud computing, Web 2.0, Internet of Things (IoT), and service-oriented architecture (SOA).
History.
The term cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) was initially coined by Dazhong Wu, David Rosen, and Dirk Schaefer at Georgia Tech in 2012 for the purpose of articulating a new paradigm for digital manufacturing and design innovation in distributed and collaborative settings. The main objective of CBDM is to further reduce time and cost associated with
maintaining information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures for design and
manufacturing, enhancing digital manufacturing and design innovation in distributed and collaborative environments, and adapting to rapidly changing
market demands.
In 2014, the same research group also published the worldwide first two books on the subjects of Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing (CBDM) and Social Product Development (SPD) with Springer, edited by Dirk Schaefer.
Characteristics.
CBDM exhibits the following key characteristics:
CBDM differs from traditional collaborative and distributed design and manufacturing systems such as web-based systems and agent-based systems from a number of perspectives, including (1) computing architecture, (2) data storage, (3) sourcing process, (4) information and communication technology infrastructure, (5) business model, (6) programming model, and (7) communication.
Service models.
Similar to cloud computing, CBDM services can be categorized into four major deployment models: the public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud.


3D printer extruder

A 3D printer extruder is a filament feeding mechanism used in many fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers. There are several types of 3D printer extruders. A Bowden extruder is a type of extruder that pushes filament through a long and flexible PTFE (Teflon) tube to the hot end. An alternative type of extruder which is also widely used in filament 3D printers is the direct-drive extruder, which sits closer to the extruder hot end.
Bowden extruder.
Bowden type extruders are easier to swap since they are outside the print head. They also have less chance of tangling the filament while it unwinds from the spool. Additionally, they reduce the mass of the extrusion carriage because it doesn't have to hold a stepper motor. This allows for faster changes in print head movement direction, increased print speed, increased accuracy, and decreased instances of artifacting or ghosting along the x and y axes.
One disadvantage is that because Bowden extruders push filament through a long and curved tube, more friction must be overcome compared with direct drive extruders. To partially mitigate these friction forces, the tube is made of PTFE, which has a low coefficient of friction. Flexible filaments do not print well because the filament flexes inside the tube and clogs up the machine.
Another disadvantage is that the feeding distance is relatively long, and thus the resistance is high, meaning the stepping motor of extrusion is required to have a higher torque.
Direct-drive extruder.
With a direct-drive extruder, the motor pushing the filament is installed by the hotend and pushes the filament directly into the nozzle. Direct-drive designs have several advantages, and typically give better extrusion, faster retraction, are able to print more types of filaments, and can use a smaller and lighter motor due to the short distance to the nozzle. One typical disadvantage of direct-drive extruders is the added mass to the hotend, compared to a typical Bowden extruder, which may cause more vibrations so that the direct-drive printhead has to move slower, which can affect print speed. Another typical disadvantage is more complex maintenance due to tight packaging of many components in the hotend.


Heyco

Heyco is a German tool manufacturing company which manufactures tools for the automotive industry. Heyco manufactures custom tooling for many German automotive production companies such as BMW, Audi, VW, and Mercedes Benz. Heyco also provides industrial automotive production support in the manufacturing of polymer parts, plastic foils, aluminum laminated fiberglass textures, long glass composites, synthetic leather and polyurethane foam parts.
Heyco also manufactures electrical connector and wire protection systems for use in industrial and automotive applications.
History.
Heyco was founded in 1937 by Max and Ernst Heynen and started off manufacturing hand tools for the early automotive industry in Remscheid, Germany. After World War II, Heyco began production of tools for assembly line automobile production. Heyco expanded to Tittling/Bavaria, Germany in 1961, and to Derschen/Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany in 1981. Heyco Production facilities also operate in the Czech Republic, and Ireland.
OEM Tool Kits.
Heyco manufactures tools used in many TÜV European automobile tool kits, such as those found in Volkswagens, Opels, Fords, Volvos, BMWs, Mercedes Benzs, Rovers, Land Rovers and Rolls-Royces.


1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup

The 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Montpellier, Juventus, and West Ham United. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup.
First round.
Second leg.
"Ventspils won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Sint-Truiden won 8–1 on aggregate."
"Polonia Warsaw won 4–0 on aggregate."
"4–4 on aggregate. Pobeda won 4–3 on penalties."
"2–2 on aggregate, Rudar Velenje won on away goals rule."
"MŠK Žilina won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Ararat Yerevan won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Varteks won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Vasas won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Neuchâtel Xamax won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ won 2–0 on aggregate."
"1–1 on aggregate, Gomel won 3–1 on penalties."
"Newry Town won 2–1 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Qarabağ won on away goals rule."
"Cementarnica 55 won 8–2 on aggregate."
"Basel won 6–0 on aggregate."
"Jedinstvo Bihać won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Floriana won 4–3 on aggregate."
"ÍA won 6–3 on aggregate."
"Jokerit won 7–1 on aggregate."
Second round.
Second leg.
"Perugia won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Duisburg won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Basel won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Rostselmash won 3–2 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate; Varteks won 5–4 on penalties"
"Austria Lustenau won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Lokeren won 6–2 on aggregate."
"Metz won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Polonia Warsaw won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Hammarby won 6–2 on aggregate."
"Kocaelispor won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Kocaelispor won 9–0 on aggregate."
"Sint-Truiden won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Vasas won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Jokerit won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ won 5–2 on aggregate."
Third round.
Second leg.
"Montpellier won 4–1 on aggregate."
"1–1 on aggregate, Juventus won on away goals rule."
"The game was abandoned in the 114th minute of extra time due to some objects being thrown on the pitch, some even hitting the referee. UEFA banned Perugia and awarded a 3–0 win to Trabzonspor."
"Trabzonspor won 4–2 on aggregate."
"West Ham United won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Heerenveen won 4–0 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Rennes won on away goals rule."
"3–3 on aggregate, Hamburg won on away goals rule."
"Austria Wien won 3–2 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Rostselmash won on away goals rule."
"Duisburg won 3–0 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate, Metz won on away goals rule."
"Polonia Warsaw won 4–1 on aggregate."
Semi-finals.
Second leg.
"Montpellier won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Hamburger SV won 6–3 on aggregate."
"Juventus won 9–1 on aggregate."
"Rennes won 4–2 on aggregate."
"West Ham United won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Metz won 6–2 on aggregate."
Finals.
Second leg.
"2–2 on aggregate; Montpellier won 3–0 on penalties"
"West Ham United won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Juventus won 4–2 on aggregate."


Two-liter bottle

The two-liter bottle is a common container for soft drinks, beer, and wine. These bottles are produced from polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET plastic, or glass using the blow molding process. Bottle labels consist of a printed, tight-fitted plastic sleeve. A resealable screw-top allows the contents to be used at various times while retaining carbonation.
In the United States, the two-liter bottle is one of the few cases where a product is sold by a round number of metric units. Since very few other beverages are sold in this exact quantity, the term "two-liter" in American English almost invariably refers to a soft drink bottle. Other common metric sizes for plastic soft drink bottles include 500 milliliters, 1 liter, and 3 liters.
History.
PepsiCo introduced the first two-liter sized soft drink bottle in 1970. Motivated by market research conducted by new marketing vice president John Sculley (who would later be known for heading Apple Inc. from 1983 to 1993), the bottle and the method of its production were designed by a team led by Nathaniel Wyeth of DuPont, who received the patent in 1973. In 1985, a three-liter bottle appeared on supermarket shelves. The design is still used to this day by some bottlers.
Most modern-day two-liter bottles are one piece of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) with a base that is molded with a radial corrugation to provide strength for the bottom and the ability to stand upright. Most early two-liters had a separate opaque base glued to the hemispherical bottom of the clear PET flask. This base had a coaxial corrugation and drain holes.
Recycling.
Used two-liter bottles see new life in a variety of uses including carpeting, boat hulls, polyester fabric, filling for jackets, sleeping bags, mattresses, pillows, recycling bins, artificial floating islands, scouring pads, and, on an increasing scale, new soft drink bottles.
Specifications.
Typical dimensions:


Tecnomatix

Tecnomatix Technologies, Ltd. (formerly NASDAQ: TCNO) is a provider of Manufacturing Process Management and Product lifecycle management software to the electronics, automotive, aerospace and heavy equipment industries, currently owned by Siemens AG. Tecnomatix's eMPower is a suite of end-to-end Manufacturing Process Management solutions for the collaborative development and optimization of manufacturing processes across the extended enterprise and supply chain.
History.
Founded in Israel in 1983, the Tecnomatix Corporation provided Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) solutions for the automotive, electronics, aerospace and other manufacturing and processing industries. The Tecnomatix products suite offered software and services in all process monitoring and control, production management and execution.
Shlomo Dovrat was the founder of Tecnomatix and served as CEO and President from its inception until 1995. In 1993, Dovrat led Tecnomatix's IPO on the NASDAQ (TCNO). He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1995 until December 2001. In 1994, Dovrat was succeeded as CEO by Harel Beit-On (also the company's President. In 2001 Beit-On was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, and served as Chairman until the company's acquisition in 2005.
In 1999, Tecnomatix acquired Unicam Software Inc., a provider of production engineering software to the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly market.
In 2003, Tecnomatix acquired USDATA Corporation. USDATA was the creator of the supervisory-level control (SCADA) product FactoryLink, and the manufacturing execution systems (MES) product Xfactory.
In 2005, Tecnomatix was acquired by the UGS Corporation and the Tecnomatix product was combined with UGS' existing MPM solutions. The current Tecnomatix software line includes Part Manufacturing, Assembly Planning, Resource Planning, Plant Simulation, Human Performance, Quality, Production Management, Manufacturing Data Management.
In January 2007 UGS was purchased by Siemens AG, and today the Tecnomatix solutions are available from Siemens Digital Industries Software. Siemens Digital Industries Software announced Tecnomatix version 9 in June 2009.


ColdHeat

ColdHeat was an American company founded to develop and market products using the proprietary graphite-like compound Athalite. The composite material is claimed by the manufacturer to have the unusual ability to conduct large amounts of heat and return to room temperature in a short amount of time.
Soldering iron.
The first two products were soldering irons powered by alkaline batteries. The manufacturer claims this soldering iron is unique in that its Athalite tip undergoes a temperature change from ambient temperature to approximately and back to ambient within three seconds when the tip is removed from the work.
The tip of this apparatus is split into two sections that completes an electrical circuit when a low electrical resistance is placed across the tip; e.g. metallic contacts, or solder. With a current flowing, the resistance of both the solder and the tip produces enough heat to increase the temperature beyond the melting point of solder. For the light-duty work it was designed for, the Athalite tip heats just enough and can cool very rapidly; however, if applied to something with large thermal capacity such as a metal chassis, the tip can become extremely hot and can take over a minute to cool in an extreme case.
It is thought that the irons cannot be used indiscriminately for all work; the voltage across and current through the tip can damage electronic circuits being soldered. When not in contact with a joint, the split tip has 6 or more volts across it, enough to destroy semiconductor p-n junctions on contact "if the iron accidentally touches multiple closely spaced pads". This is not static-electricity damage; any voltage over about 0.7V capable of delivering high current can destroy a semiconductor junction.
According to ColdHeat:
It's a common misunderstanding that high current in the joint causes the heat. The heat is generated by resistance within the tip. Heat is then conducted to the joint just as in traditional solder tools. Also, current in the joint is limited to the small region between the two tip halves and doesn't pass through the part being soldered. There is a tiny transient voltage when the tool is applied or removed, but it is orders of magnitude below the levels that cause static-electricity damage.
Criticism.
The tip is reported to be very easily damaged mechanically. The unit does not have enough power for effective desoldering of many board- and chassis-mounted components. The design of the tip is incompatible with some soldering techniques such as dragging or continuous-flow soldering (a popular technique for hand-soldering high-pin-count SMT packages, based on the principles of wave soldering).
One thorough review of the ColdHeat soldering iron noted:
Athalite.
Athalite is a highly malleable, yet fragile, composite material. The name is derived from "Accelerated THermal Action". It is most likely composed of graphite. It might also be formed by other materials containing semiconductive elements such as germanium or silicon, as stated in the patent application. A nickel-chromium or other resistive alloy is another possibility listed in the application, but is unlikely to have been used.
Other products.
Prior to the website's closure, ColdHeat featured products other than the soldering tool that use the same technology, including a cordless hot-melt glue gun called Freestyle. It heats up much more quickly than others (but not instantly like the solder tool.) It comes with a built-in stand, a pack of mini glue sticks, rechargeable battery, battery charger with its AC adapter, and an instructional manual and a book with different project ideas. However, much like the soldering tool, the Freestyle also had quality issues, usually related to the battery charge, and the heating element. There is a model that runs on AA batteries, for those who prefer their convenience.
ColdHeat had recently released a cordless heated seat, as well as a selection of heated pet beds.
Current status.
ColdHeat signed a licensing deal with Weller/Cooper Tools in November 2005. Weller sold the ColdHeat Pro as the Weller CHT100.


Virtual manufacturing network

A Virtual Manufacturing Network is a manufacturing network which is not owned by a simple company, but it is built with the use of ICT for bringing together different suppliers and alliance partners creating in such a way a virtual network which is able to operate as a solely owned supply network.
A Virtual Manufacturing Network is in this way a Collaborative network of manufacturing enterprises (from OEMs to Suppliers), which are connected by means of ICT for configuring, managing and monitoring the manufacturing process.
Many companies have adopted a philosophy of acquiring worldwide resources through a virtual network for minimizing expenses in their whole operation, focusing on core competences and relying to other companies with specific expertise to take over the parts of the manufacturing process they cannot perform by themselves.
The evolution of a Virtual Manufacturing Network is a Dynamic Manufacturing Network, which describes a more flexible and agile manufacturing network, that is able to be instantiated or dissolved quite rapidly, in order to meet emerging market needs and business opportunities.


Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT) is one of Toyota's vehicle production bases in Europe. It is located in Adapazarı, Sakarya, Turkey, and has been manufacturing the Corolla (since 1994), the Corolla Verso, the Verso (2009–2018), the Auris (2007–2012), and the Toyota C-HR (2016–present). A majority of the production is exported to over 30 countries, most of which are in Europe.
TMMT, owned by Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA (90%), and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (10%), has a total investment of , and currently employs around 5,400 people.
Today, with an annual production capacity of 280,000 units, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT) is one of Toyota's biggest plants in Europe operations, and one of Turkey's biggest manufacturing companies.


Keithley Instruments

Keithley Instruments is a measurement and instrument company headquartered in Solon, Ohio, that develops, manufactures, markets, and sells data acquisition products, as well as complete systems for high-volume production and assembly testing.
In September, 2010, the company agreed to sell itself to the Danaher Corporation, a Washington, D.C.-based conglomerate, for $21.60 per share. It was soon merged with Tektronix, Inc, which had been acquired by Danaher in 2007, and now exists wholly as a brand of Tektronix.
History.
Joseph F. Keithley founded Keithley Instrument in 1946. His first product, the "Phantom Repeater," amplified low-level electric signals so that they could be measured by more standard equipment. The device was used by physicists, chemists, and engineers in the development of hearing aids and amplifiers. The product enjoyed some success in sales, but it was the next product, an electrometer, that clinched the future for Keithley's fledgling company.
General.
The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets electronic instruments and systems geared to the specialized needs of electronics manufacturers for production testing, process monitoring, product development, and research.
The company has approximately 500 products used to source, measure, connect, control or communicate direct current (DC), radio frequency (RF), or optical signals. Product offerings include integrated systems solutions, instruments, and personal computer (PC) plug-in boards that can be used as system components or as stand-alone solutions.
The company's markets are engineers, technicians, and scientists in manufacturing, product development, and research functions.
Keithley operates throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. It develops new solutions for the broader electronics industry, as well as electronic manufacturing production test, semiconductor, telecommunications/wireless and research/education.
Products.
Keithley Instruments' major product lines included testing and measurement products such as electrometers, voltmeters, signal generators, data acquisition, and production and benchtop parametric testers and analyzers.


Spin casting

Spin casting, also known as centrifugal rubber mold casting (CRMC), is a method of utilizing inertia to produce castings from a rubber mold. Typically, a disc-shaped mold is spun along its central axis at a set speed. The casting material, usually molten metal or liquid thermoset plastic, is then poured in through an opening at the top-center of the mold. The filled mold then continues to spin as the metal (or thermoset plastic) solidifies.
General description.
The two defining characteristics of spin casting are semi-permanent (non-expendable) rubber molds, and the use of inertial force. These make the process relatively unique compared to machined die-based and expendable mold casting methods. These qualities enable operators to design original models using media such as polymer clay that has an easy to carve Plasticine like consistency that when heated using a conventional oven, it hardens enough to hold up under the vulcanization process, producing an original mold where models are then cast for the production mold. These qualities also encourage operators to use casting materials specially formulated for low melting points and viscosities. Most spin casting is done with pewter and zinc alloys or thermoset plastics.
Silicone molds.
The spin casting process typically uses vulcanized silicone or organic rubber as the mold-making substrate. Vulcanization is an integral step that occurs halfway through the mold-making process. Prior to vulcanization, the mold rubber is a soft and malleable solid-like fluid, in many ways very similar to Silly Putty. Because of the clay-like nature at this stage, the mold is easily cut or shaped to accommodate irregular models. Vulcanization serves two purposes: establishing the negative space inside the mold as well as hardening the rubber so it will remain strong and rigid during casting.
After vulcanization, before it is usable, the mold must undergo gating and venting. This involves carving channels to ensure proper air and material flow during the casting process. Gating and venting is typically done by hand using a sharp knife or scalpel and varies in time depending upon the complexity of the mold. The final product is a cured rubber mold, which can withstand anywhere from hundreds to over a thousand casting cycles before replacement is needed.
Casting materials.
Metal.
Generally, the casting materials used for competing processes like metal die casting and injection molding are similar, but not suitable for spin casting. For example, a typical zinc die-casting alloy such as Zamak 3 can be used but will solidify too rapidly from a molten state when cast with centrifugal force. This typically results in incomplete filling of the mold as well as a rough, porous finish, called orange peel. Zamak 2, of a slightly different composition, was originally developed as a gravity-cast alloy with greater finished strength but was found to work well with spin-casting. Its extra copper content encourages the eutectic behaviour and gives a lower freezing point. It has become known as 'Kirksite' and has given rise to a range of dedicated spin-casting alloys, some with additional components, such as magnesium, to control the surface finish.
To ensure replicable casting cycles of accurate reproductions with a high quality finish, the spin casting process requires casting materials with the following qualities, for the following reasons:
Plastic.
Aside from the aforementioned metal alloys, thermoset resins and plastics work well with spin casting as they can be introduced as liquids and will set or solidify while the mold spins. In general, spin casting encourages the use of casting materials that are liquid upon introduction to the mold and solidify at a slow, uniform rate during the spin cycle.
Equipment.
Spin caster.
During the casting process, the finished mold spins along its central axis for anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes depending upon the chosen casting material. Internally, a spin casting machine or spin caster consists of a motor and pressure clamping system, which holds and positions the mold properly while it spins at a steady rate. These components are placed inside of a machine body, which shields against flashing of molten metal or liquid plastic that is inadvertently ejected from the mold during the spinning process. Without the proper containment, hot melted flashing can be a serious hazard to nearby persons.
Commercial spin casting machines are available in two different types, front-loading and top-loading. Owing to the weight and bulkiness of spin casting molds, front loading machines tend to offer several advantages regarding ease of use and time savings. Rubber molds can become quite heavy, especially at larger diameters and when casting metal. Because loading and unloading the caster is performed by hand, it is easiest and less fatiguing to manipulate the mold at waist level in one fluid motion as allowed by a front-loading spin caster. This is important in production spin casting, to maximize the number of casting cycles per hour.
Top loading machines tend to be cheaper and theoretically have less of a restriction on maximum mold thickness.
Vulcanizer.
Vulcanization is a necessary step to prepare the uncured silicone mold for spin casting. Under controlled heat and pressure the silicone slowly cures to a heat-resistant, flexible, permanent mold. The vulcanizing press or vulcanizer uniformly compresses the mold while exposing it to heat for several hours. The vulcanizer consists of a pair of parallel heated platens mounted on a hydraulic press. Smaller or home-made vulcanizers may compress the mold via screws or a heavy duty clamp instead of hydraulic pressure. Some spin casting operations choose to forgo running their own vulcanizer and procure molds from a supplier.
Melting furnace.
A melting furnace is necessary only when spin casting metal. The metal must be molten prior to introduction into the mold. It is necessary for a spin casting furnace to have a temperature controller, as there is an optimal range for each metal. For example, a particular zinc alloy is typically cast between 775 and 800 °F, whereas it actually melts much lower around 500 °F. If the metal is introduced to the mold at a higher temperature (in this case, above 800 °F), it will wear the silicone prematurely, shortening the mold life. If the metal is introduced at significantly lower temperatures (below 775 °F), its solidification time will similarly be shortened resulting in incomplete or low quality castings. Spin casting metal requires a furnace with fine temperature control, and knowledge of proper casting temperature.
Similar processes.
Spin casting is a favored method for fabricating items in the specified materials – low temperature metals and thermoset plastics. Compared to the two main competing processes, injection molding and (zinc) die-casting, spin casting has significant advantages in terms of startup cost and ease of use. In some cases, spin casting can also be an alternative to sand casting, plaster mold casting or investment casting. These three techniques (sand, plaster and lost wax) are not directly comparable as each utilizes an expendable mold.
The remarkable disparity in tooling cost and lead time is a result of the expensive and time-consuming machining required to produce the precision metal molds (dies) used with die-casting and plastic injection molding. The precision tooling and resilient nature of the machined metal die yields an extremely long-lasting mold and slight improvements to casting tolerances. Thermoplastics and die casting metal alloys are in wider use than their specialized spin casting analogs, and are typically cheaper.
Applications.
Spin casting is commonly used for the manufacture of the following types of items:
Because of low start up costs and ease of use, spin casting is available to individuals and businesses unable to make the deep investments required by die casting, injection molding or similar processes. These users include smaller business and design houses that would normally contract their work to production "job" shops, as well as hobbyists producing unique items for personal enjoyment. Thus, spin casting is accessible to a broader range of applications than competing technologies.


Enterprise control

Enterprise control is the ability to combine control, intelligence and process management to enable business optimization that is inclusive of business and production operations. It combines the strength of both business processes and production operations processes. It is the deliberate act of synchronizing business strategy with operational execution in real-time to enable closed loop business control across an enterprise.
Key elements.
Interoperating enterprise and industrial service-oriented architectures (SOA) provide industrial companies with the potential for problem solutions that cover entire plants and entire industrial enterprises. This enterprise-wide system can be developed using systems and technologies previously installed. The resulting system, consisting of multiple vendor products acquired over many years working as a single system, is what is referred to as an enterprise control system.
The enterprise control strategy is built around the premise that manufacturing needs an enterprise control system to integrate business systems and manufacturing in real-time. The concept of the enterprise control system encompasses everything from sensors and people in manufacturing to the ERP system.
An enterprise control system is the open architecture framework to integrate control systems with the enterprise while adding functions to improve business performance including MES, optimization, workflow, quality management, and asset management.
History.
A distributed control system gave way to process automation systems which lead the way for the concept of collaborative automation process systems developed by ARC Advisory Group
Later, enterprise control systems became key terminology in the marketplace.
ANSI/ISA-95 Enterprise-Control System Integration, or ISA-95 (known internationally as IEC 62264) is an international standard for developing an automated interface between enterprise and control systems. This standard has been developed for global manufacturers. There are five levels and It was developed to be applied in all industries, and in all sorts of processes, like batch processes, continuous and repetitive processes.
ISA95 “levels” for enterprise integration.
Purdue Reference Model, “95” provides a model that end users, integrators and vendors can share in integrating applications at key layers in the enterprise. This model influenced the ISA-95 (International Society of Automation) enterprise-control integration standards, which expanded on the terms of the Purdue Reference Model and describes the interface between enterprise and control systems.


Lean product development

Lean product development (LPD) is a lean approach to counter the challenges of product development, notably:
History of lean product development.
Toyota started its journey with lean product development at Toyota Loom Works (see History of Toyota). Their early approach is notably different from Lean manufacturing that became famous through the book "The Machine that changed the world".
When Toyota started manufacturing cars, there was a difference in manufacturing conditions between Japan and the USA. Toyota had few educated engineers and little prior experience. Car companies in US employed a well-educated work force in the cities and benefited from the research and student skill-sets of established engineering schools. To tackle this shortfall in knowledge and experience, Toyota conducted an incremental approach to development that built on their existing knowledge and became the basis of the lean systems Toyota uses today.
Allen Ward studied Toyota’s lean product development system and found parallels with the US airplane industry. For instance, the Wright brothers’ method of constructing their airplanes became one of the legacies they passed on to the aviation industry. This approach enabled the USA to create one of World War II's most successful fighter planes from scratch in the short span of six months. After the war, Toyota incorporated many of the airline industry's findings into its own product development methodology.
Differences between lean product development and lean production.
While some basic principles and guidelines are applicable across Lean product development and Lean production (such as waste reduction), many applications of lean process for development have focused more on the production approach.
The purpose of production is to manufacture products reliably within margins of control. The flow of value is physically evident, and the link between cause and effect is easy to see. For example, feedback on adjusting the speed of production is immediately realized in an increase or decrease in rejected items. Any decisions made must be based on best practice.
On the other hand, the purpose of product development is to design new products that improve the lives of customers. This is a complex space where the flow of value can only be discerned at an abstract level and where cause and effect might be separated by time and space. For example, feedback on the decision to design a certain feature will not be received until the product has been built and is in the hands of the customer. This means that decisions are made on short-cycle experimentation, prototyping, set-based design, and emergent practice. A premium is placed on creating reusable knowledge and reducing risk at handover points.
An essential point about these differences is summarized in the advice Jim Womack gives Harley Davidson: "Don't try to bring lean manufacturing upstream to product development. The application of Lean in product development and manufacturing are different. Some aspects may look similar, but they are not! Be leery of an expert with experience in lean manufacturing that claims to know product development"
The most common high level concepts associated with lean product development are:
Results of lean product development.
Lean product development has been claimed to produce the following results:
Companies such as Toyota can attribute their success to lean product development. In 2000, Toyota launched 14 new products, a larger product line than GM's entire product offering. At that point, Toyota had just 70,000 employees while GM had more than five times as many.
Applicability of lean product development.
Researchers divide product development projects accordingly to their need drivers:
For example, the mobile phone was a "Wanted" product in the 1990s because it was on the leading edge of technology. Today it is regarded as a "Needed" product. It is common in the market. There is enough knowledge in the public domain so that even small companies can make a good mobile phone.
Product development methods can be classified according to whether they are focused on handling stable or non-stable conditions. Lean product development is a dynamic method of product development that handles unstable conditions.
The influence of need drivers and stability (or lack of stability) on product development are illustrated in the table below.
Notes and references.
Exchange ref 12 with:
Ottosson, S. (2016): Developing Sustainable Product Innovations, page 112


Mandrel

A mandrel, mandril, or arbor is a tapered tool against which material can be forged, pressed, stretched or shaped (e.g., a ring mandrel - also called a triblet - used by jewellers to increase the diameter of a wedding ring), or a flanged or tapered or threaded bar that grips a workpiece to be machined in a lathe. A flanged mandrel is a parallel bar of a specific diameter with an integral flange towards one end, and threaded at the opposite end. Work is gripped between the flange and a nut on the thread. A tapered mandrel (often called a plain mandrel) has a taper of approximately 0.005 inches per foot and is designed to hold work by being driven into an accurate hole on the work, gripping the work by friction. A threaded mandrel may have a male or female thread, and work which has an opposing thread is screwed onto the mandrel.
On a lathe, mandrels are commonly mounted between centres and driven by a lathe dog (typically flanged or tapered mandrels), but may also be gripped in a chuck (typically threaded mandrels) where the outer face of work is to be machined. Threaded mandrels may also be mounted between centres.
In addition to lathes, mandrels, more usually referred to as “arbours” are used to hold buffing wheels, circular saws, and sanding discs. Typically, such mandrels consist of a cylinder that is threaded on one end. There are many different types of mandrels for specialised applications. Examples include live chuck mandrels, live bull ring mandrels, and dead bull ring mandrels.
Variants.
In machining.
An example of one type of mandrel is a shaped bar of metal inserted in, or next to, an item to be machined or bent in a certain pattern, e.g. in drawing metal tubing. Exhaust pipes for automobiles are frequently bent using a mandrel during manufacture. The mandrel allows the exhaust pipes to be bent into smooth curves without undesirable creasing, kinking, or collapse. Molten glass may also be so shaped.
A chuck is used on a lathe to hold pieces of wood, metal or plastic to be machined as they are turned. In this way, rods can be threaded, furniture legs are turned to a desired shape, and irregularly-shaped objects can be given a round shape. Several types of mandrel are used with lathes. Original expanding mandrels have a slightly tapered wedge that will expand to hold the item.
A third type of mandrel is that which is used to hold circular saw blades, buffing wheels (used for polishing), and sanding discs onto drills, circular saws, and similar power tools. A mandrel of this type generally consists of a cylinder, threaded on one end, with a washer brazed onto the threaded end and an accompanying screw and second washer used to clamp the circular saw blade, sanding media, or other rotary tool onto the mandrel.
While most mandrels are driven by direct connection to an electric motor or other engine, other mandrels may be driven by attachment to a bearing-supported, pulley-driven shaft.
In jewelry.
A 'triblet' is a type of mandrel found in jewelry manufacturing that is not inserted into or held by a machine. Such mandrels vary in sizes and shapes, from small tapered metal rods (ring mandrels) to free-standing metal conic sections (used for making bracelets). Unlike with mechanical mandrels, the process is performed by hand. When shaping a ring or bangle with a triblet, it is typical to bend and solder the metal into a rough loop, then place it over the thinner end of the mandrel. Once done, the next step is to strike the work in a downward motion with a hammer or other tool to push it towards the wider end. This forces the metal to adopt a true ring-shape. Triblets with measurements cut into them (called 'ring size sticks') can also be used as a quick way of measuring the final size of a ring. A triblet can also be used to make a ring slightly bigger by gently tapping it in order to force it down the cone - thus stretching the metal. Triblets are also used to repair squashed or damaged rings.
In music.
A type of mandrel is also used in making reeds for double reed instruments such as the bassoon or oboe.
Uses.
Mandrels are also used in industrial composite fabrication such as in filament winding. During the manufacturing process, resin-impregnated filaments are wound around a mandrel to create a composite material structure or part. The structure is cured and the mandrel is removed. One problem with this type of process is difficulty in removing the mandrel from the completed work. A mandrel with a changeable shape can be more easily extracted. When heated above a certain temperature, the mandrel becomes elastic and can be manipulated into the desired shape and then cooled to become rigid again in the new shape. It can then be used in the filament winding process. Once the composite part is cured, the mandrel can be reheated until elastic and easily removed from the cured part. These types of mandrels can be used repeatedly.
In the production of steel core used for flexible drives, the center wire upon which the subsequent layers are wound is referred to as a Mandrel. This "center wire" may itself be composed of either a single wire or layers, depending on the sizing of the finished product.
A hole saw usually attaches to a mandrel, the latter being basically a drill bit with threads to secure the saw.
History.
Mandrels are not recent inventions. Metal machining utilizing the spinning process has been recorded as far back as ancient Egyptian times. In metal spinning, a wood or metal spinning mandrel is used, the form of which corresponds with the internal contour of the part to be produced. This method securely clamps the raw material and allows for accurate machining into the desired final form. Since the material is clamped internally, there is no interference to the operator from the lathe/mandrel assembly during production.
The "traversing mandrel" was introduced around 1700, and instantiated the design of a lathe mandrel able to slide axially in its bearings under the control of the operator, so that components having short lengths of thread could be produced, such as screws. The traversing mandrel was primarily employed by watchmakers and ornamental turners during this era. Eventually the device was superseded by a mandrel-driven device called a leadscrew, which uses a train of gears that can be altered as required for the turning application.


Product-service system

Product-service systems (PSS) are business models that provide for cohesive delivery of products and services. PSS models are emerging as a means to enable collaborative consumption of both products and services, with the aim of pro-environmental outcomes.
Description.
Product service systems, put simply, are when a firm offers a mix of both products and services, in comparison to the traditional focus on products. As defined by (van Halen, te Riele, Goedkoop) "a marketable set of products and services capable of jointly fulfilling a user's needs", PSSes can be realized by smart products.
The initial move to PSS was largely motivated by the need on the part of traditional manufacturing firms to cope with changing market forces and the recognition that services in combination with products could provide higher profits than products alone. Faced with shrinking markets and increased commoditization of their products, these firms saw service provision as a new path towards profits and growth.
While not all product service systems result in the reduction of material consumption, they are more widely being recognized as an important part of a firm's environmental strategy. In fact, some researchers have redefined PSS as necessarily including improved environmental improvement. For example, Mont defines PSS as "a system of products, services, supporting networks, and infrastructure that is designed to be competitive, satisfy customers' needs, and have a lower environmental impact than traditional business models." Mont elaborates on her definition as follows: A PSS is a pre-designed system of products, services, supporting infrastructures, and necessary networks that is a so-called "dematerialized" solution to consumer preferences and needs. It has also been defined as a "self-learning" system, one of whose goals is continual improvement.
This view of PSS is similar to other concepts commonly seen in the environmental management literature, such as "dematerialization" and "servicizing".
PSS has been used to create value for customers beyond selling products as functions. Typically, there are four approaches to PSS design.
There are many methodologies on PSS design. Dominant Innovation system uses an Innovation Matrix to identify gaps from customer's fear, not needs based on scenario-based path finding. A new value-chain ecosystem can be further developed to link these gaps between two invisible spaces. For example, John Deere developed Agric Service business based on the customers' worries on soil related issues. It integrates sensors with GPS to develop cognitive site map about soil content to optimize crop yields. Several peer-reviewed scientific articles have reviewed and give an overview of the PSS design research field.
In recent years, PSS has been further integrated with big data analytics for accelerated innovation. Other technologies such as prognostics, health management and cyber-physical systems have further created service innovation technologies for PSS. For example, Alstom has been developing Train Tracer technologies since 2006 and is implementing Health Hub system for its transport fleets.
Servicizing.
"Servicizing" is a transaction through which value is provided by a combination of products and services in which the satisfaction of customer needs is achieved either by selling the function of the product rather than the product itself, or by increasing the service component of a product offer. The concept is based on the idea that what customers want from products is not necessarily ownership, but rather the function that the product provides or the service the product can deliver. This means that the provider of "servicizing solutions" may get paid by the unit-of-service (or product function) delivered, as opposed to the (more traditional) unit-of-products sold. "See service economy for more on the servitization of products."
One type of servicizing solutions is based on transactions where payment is made—not for the "product"—but for the "product-service package" (part of PSS) which has been sold to the customer. This servicized purchase extends the buying transaction from a one-time sale (product acquisition), to a long-term service relationship (such as in the case of a long-term maintenance-free service contract).
Another type of servicizing may be a strategy for providing access to services for people who cannot afford to buy products outright. For example, in the case where auto ownership is economically unfeasible, creative servicizing offers at least three possible solutions: one in which transportation can be achieved "simultaneously" (as in car-pooling); one in which transportation can be achieved "sequentially" (as in car-sharing); and one in which transportation can be achieved "eventually" (rent-to-own).
Types.
There are various issues in the nomenclature of the discussion of PSS, not least that services are products, and need material products in order to support delivery, however, it has been a major focus of research for several years. The research has focussed on a PSS as system comprising tangibles (the products) and intangibles (the services) in combination for fulfilling specific customer needs. The research has shown that manufacturing firms are more amenable to producing "results", rather than solely products as specific artefacts, and that consumers are more amenable to consuming such results. This research has identified three classes of PSS:
This typology has been criticized for failing to capture the complexity of PSS examples found in practice. Aas et al. for example proposed a typology with eight categories relevant in the digital era, whereas Van Ostaeyen et al. proposed an alternative that categorizes PSS types according to two distinguishing features: the performance orientation of the dominant revenue mechanism and the degree of integration between product and service elements. According to the first distinguishing feature, a PSS can be designated as "input-based (IB)", "availability-based (AB)", "usage-based (UB)" or "performance-based (PB)". The performance-based type can be further subdivided into three subtypes:
According to the second distinguishing feature, a PSS can be designated as segregated, semi-integrated, and integrated, depending on to what extent the product and service elements (e.g. maintenance service, spare parts) are combined into a single offering.
Examples.
The following existing offerings illustrate the PSS concept:
Case study.
In the framework of the European research program of TURAS (Transitioning towards urban resilience and sustainability), a study, in Belgium, explored new hybrid-combinations between products and services systems in order to develop new creative and sustainable business opportunities (both economically viable and creating new jobs) for the Brussels-Capital Region.
Five workshops have been organized on the following topics:
After 5 co-creation workshops, with more than 50 different stakeholders, and the use of specifics tools, 17 PSS inspiring and promising ideas were identified. After a selection process 4 were chosen for further development of their business models through a series of tools (debugging, light experimentation, simulation, etc.). The study led to the development of a practical toolkit (freely downloadable): PSS Toolkit – Development of innovative business models for product-service systems in an urban context of sustainable transition.
Impact.
Several authors assert that product service systems will improve eco-efficiency by what is termed "factor 4", i.e. an improvement by a factor of 4 times or more, by enabling new and radical ways of transforming what they call the "product-service mix" that satisfy consumer demands while also improving the effects upon the environment.
van Halen et al. state that the knowledge of PSS enables both governments to formulate policy with respect to sustainable production and consumption patterns, and companies to discover directions for business growth, innovation, diversification, and renewal.
Tietze and Hansen discuss the impact of PSS on firms' innovation behavior identifying three determinants. First, product ownership is not transferred to the customers, but remains with the PSS operating firm. Second, the purpose of a product is different if it is used within PSS solutions than compared to the purpose of products in classical transaction based business models. When offering PSS, products are used as a means for offering a service. Third, the profit function of PSS operating firms differs substantially from profit functions of firms that develop, manufacture and sell their products.
From a manufacturer's perspective, the business potential of a PSS is determined by an interplay of four mechanisms: cost reduction, increased customer value, changes to the company's competitive environment and an expansion of the customer base.


EPLaR

Electronics on Plastic by Laser Release (EPLaR) is a method for manufacturing flexible electrophoretic displays using conventional AM-LCD manufacturing equipment, avoiding the need to build new factories. The technology can also be used to manufacture flexible OLED displays using standard OLED fabrication facilities.
The technology was developed by Philips Research and uses standard display glass as used in TFT-LCD processing plants. It is coated with a layer of polyimide using a standard spin-coating procedure used in the production of AM-LCD displays. This polyimide coating can now have a regular TFT matrix formed on top of it in a standard TFT processing plant to form the plastic display, which can then be removed using a laser to finish the display and the glass reused, thus lowering the total cost of manufacture.
The EPLaR process is licensed by Philips for use by Taiwan's Prime View International in its TFT manufacturing plants for manufacture of flexible plastic displays.


Aeolus (motorcycle 1903–1905)

The Aeolus was manufactured in England by the Bown Manufacturing Company between 1903 and 1905, and featured a 492cc single-cylinder engine with shaft drive to the rear wheel. Production was on a limited scale.


Aeolus (motorcycle 1914–1916)

The Aeolus was manufactured between 1914 and 1916 with a 147cc two-stroke engine by the Bown Manufacturing Company, between 1919 and 1924 the machine was branded as Bownian


Sculpteo

Sculpteo is a French company specialized in 3D printing in the cloud. Sculpteo offers an online 3D printing service, for rapid prototyping and production using technologies such as laser sintering, stereo lithography, Multi Jet Fusion, FDM, Polyjet, DLS, DLP/LCD, SLM/DMLS or Binder Jetting. The company was founded in June 2009 by Eric Carreel (co-founder of Inventel, acquired by Technicolor in 2005, and Withings), Clement Moreau and Jacques Lewiner. Sculpteo offers online 3D printing services, particularly in Europe and North America The company was acquired in 2019 by the German multinational chemical company BASF.
Purpose.
The company markets an online 3D printing service and the manufacture of objects from 3D files for individuals, businesses and manufacturers. The customer can upload his 3D model to the site and get his quote automatically.
The parts are then manufactured in Sculpteo's ISO 9001-certified factories.
Sculpteo offers a rapid prototyping service, manufacturing on demand, or contract manufacturing, thanks to various manufacturing technologies such as: selective laser sintering, HP Multi Jet Fusion, stereolithography, FDM, etc. These prototyping and production services are aimed at all industries, including the drone, medical, electronics, robotics and luxury sectors.
The price depends on the order, the price is calculated according to the volume of material used, the size and the number of pieces.
History and background.
The company was created in June 2009. Two years after, in January 2011, "Sculpteo" launches their online 3D printing service for the general public by allowing users to make your own avatar from simple 2D photos modeled in 3D. In March 2011, the company launches "Pro.Sculpteo", an online 3D printing service for professionals. In June 2011, Sculpteo and 3DVIA announce a direct printing service provided by "Sculpteo" via the 3Dvia portal.
In January 2012, "Sculpteo" launches the 3D printing Cloud Engine and the Sculpteo app at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The app transforms human data into a 3D printed object using an iOS device. In September 2012, "Sculpteo" launches "3DPCase", the first smartphone app able to generate the 3D file of an iPhone case directly from the smartphone. For the app, "Sculpteo" is granted the Prize of Best Innovator at CES 2013. This new approach of unit production highlights the flexibility of the online 3D manufacturing process and allows the company to commercialize iPhone 5 cases before the launch of the iPhone 5.
In December 2012, Sculpteo raises 2 million euros thanks to XAnge"," branch of the French bank Banque Postale, business angels and founders.
In March 2013, "Sculpteo" commercializes Lighting plug connectors manufactured in 3D printing. Late 2013, La Poste launches a 3D printing service in post offices, in partnership with Sculpteo.
In January 2014, at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, "Sculpteo" unveils "3D Batch Control", a cloud 3D printing service designed for professionals and businesses in need of short-run manufacturing. It allows users to upload a 3D file, change the size and dimensions of the object directly within the browser, select a printing material and order their design to be 3D printed and shipped. In May 2014, Sculpteo seeks to reduce 3D printing costs and material squandering by optimizing the quantity of used material. In this light, the company launches a free service named "Hollowing". The same month, designers conceive innovative 3D objects that Amazon, in partnership with "Sculpteo", proposes in a dedicated online store opened in July 2014. In June 2014, the company continues its pursuit in democratizing 3D technology and integrates its printing service in the Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud thus rendering the process of 3D manufacture more simple. In November 2014, "Sculpteo" launches a free service named "Thickening" aimed to reinforce the robustness of fragile parts without having to use a modelling software.
In January 2015, at Consumer Electronics Show, "Sculpteo" reveals FinalProof, a tool that allows users to apprehend the final result of the object file before printing. In April of the same year, "Sculpteo" announces a 5 million euros fundraising thanks to Creadev, investment fund of Mulliez family, and Xange, well known investor. In November, the computer Sprout by HP integrates the 3D printing service of Sculpteo.
In January 2016, "Sculpteo" launches a new material for additive manufacturing that is more flexible than the others TPU. Several branches are targeted, such as medical branch and the fashion industry. In March, a partnership with Carbon allows "Sculpteo" to offer the 3D printing technology "CLIP".
In November 2019, "Sculpteo" was acquired by BASF. The international group said to have purchased the company to market new industrial 3D printing materials more quickly for its 3D printing subsidiary. In June 2022, "Sculpteo" announced Alexandre d’Orsetti as its new CEO.