Mechanical Engineering

A typical manufacturing plant has number of diverse activities interacting with each other. Facilities layout consists of the production areas and personnel areas within the building. Plant layout design is one of the strategic fields that determine the long run efficiency of operation. Facility Layout Problem involves the positioning of cells within a given area so as to minimize the material flow costs between cells. The Layout Design Problem is both tactically and strategically important since the layout plays a large role in determining the efficiency and flexibility of the manufacturing plant. Flexible Plant Layout algorithm is used to minimize the material handling cost and deal with the changes in future. In this project CRAFT (Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique) algorithm is used for designing of plant layout. CRAFT algorithm is one of the most developed and used algorithm for design or optimizing a facility layout which mainly emphasis on the material handling cost and the layout cost.

This paper discusses the performance characteristics of a single cylinder four stroke diesel engine using lean coconut biodiesel blended with diesel fuel. The experiments were carried out for the various biodiesel-diesel blends i.e., B5, B10, B15, and B20. Results were compared with the neat diesel. The blended biodiesel is being injected to cylinder and tested up to 20% blended biodiesel. The experiment ensures that up to 20% biodiesel blended with diesel can be used without any modification in the diesel engine and enhancement of combustion, FC, BSFC, efficiency and the overall performance of the engine.

The use of non edible oils blend in direct injection diesel engine shows its potential to reduce or control the NOx emissions. Combustion analysis of non edible and non edible blends revealed that the blends had a shorter ignition delay than diesel alone, at both full and light load, and a lower premixed burn fraction at full load. However, the diffusion burn rates were similar. The shorter ignition delay due to high cetane number of non edible oil blends has been suggested as being one of the causes of NOx increase the peak pressure and temperature increase in flame temperature in either pre mixed or diffusion burn has been followed by subsequent increase in NOx emission. This was due to reduction of carbonaceous soot concentration. The performance characteristics of an engine such as brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption, brake power and engine torque were not much affected, up to a blend of 20% with neat diesel. The Co and particulate emissions were found to be decreasing with the % increase in blend with a subsequent increase of NOx. Thus the blending of fuel is being limited to 20% in majority of cases to obtain optimum performance and emission characteristics. This paper suggests about by using various types of non edible oils as fuel and blends directly in diesel engines by modifying properties by injecting or Trans-esterification.

One of the most sensitive features of the sheet metal forming is the elastic recovery during unloading called springback. Sheet metals are prone to some amount of springback depending on elastic deformation. Obtaining the desired size and design of die depends on the knowledge of the amount of this springback. So the accurate prediction of the springback is very important. The springback is affected by the factors such as sheet thickness, material properties, tooling geometry etc. In this paper the effect of various parameters such as sheet thickness, ratio of die radius to sheet thickness, strength coefficients on springback are studied. Also a Neural Network prediction model is prepared and the results of FEA and NN model are compared for springback.

Seats are one of the most important components of automotives. In recent years, customer expectations for automotive comfort are increasing, and the development of seats that cause little fatigue, even for long distance driving, has been required. Automotive manufacturers recognize comfort as one of the major selling point, as it is thought to play an important role for buyers as well. This literature review incorporates previous studies related to automotive seating comfort and discomfort. It summarizes key literature related to seating design and criteria and reviews comfort issues in automotive seating. The aim of this paper is to describe the measurement methods that are used to improve the physiological comfort of automotive driver’s seat. The paper has 3 sections. First, we explain the nature of sitting comfort and discomfort. Secondly, we describe the subjective and objective measurement methods that are used to evaluate the automotive seat. Thirdly, we propose a methodology for the development of comfortable driver’s seats.

A compressor is the heart of vapour compressor system. The function of refrigerator compressor, being an integral part of the system, is related to relate to other components. Hence its capacity, life, breakdown, etc. are very much influenced by the performance of other components like condenser, evaporator, throttling device etc. in this present paper the reciprocating compressor is being replaced by a screw compressor. The performance analysis is conducted and further a comparison analysis is done. It has been found that the screw compressor with certain limitation is more effective and saves the power.

It will impossible to attain competitiveness capability without using IT and communications; thus enterprises require redefining what they are as regards this technology and finding a new architecture for their own organization. The country's auto part manufacturing industry needs a model whereby various aspects of enterprise architecture are appropriately expanded and upon which suitable strategies for implementing an integrated system is created. This paper seeks to offer a reference model for preparing and formulating an appropriate enterprise architecture regarding the implementation of integrated systems in auto parts manufacturing firms. To design model, principles of Axiomatic designing and generalized enterprise reference architecture and methods are applied. With the identification of 120 pieces of requirements and conversion of them to business capabilities, the recommended reference model, based on a service-oriented architecture consists of 6 layers of architecture, 17 components and 71 business capabilities.

Manufacturing industries aims at the reduction in usage of cutting fluids to combat Environmental and Ecological issues towards which new techniques are being explored. Hard turning with minimum quantity lubrication is one such technique which can abate the pollution problems associated with the cutting fluids. The present paper deals with the experimental investigation in turning of hardened AISI D3 steel with CVD coated indexable inserts under minimum quantity lubrication using vegetable oils as cutting fluids. An orthogonal array, analysis of variance(ANOVA) and Deng’s index are applied to study the performance of input parameters such as insert style, cutting fluid, cutting speed, feed and depth of cut by considering quality characteristics such as surface roughness, material removal rate, interface temperature, specific energy and flank wear. Finally a clear presentation is made for Deng’s method

CNC Wire Electric Discharge Machining is the process of material removal using electrical discharge erosion action, with a wire electrode travelling longitudinally through the work piece. The work piece and wire electrode both are immersed in a dielectric fluid. The relative moving passage between the wire electrode and work piece is controlled by a CNC system that is pre-programmed. The Wire Electrical Discharge Machining performance mainly depends on various machining parameters like generator parameters, drawing parameters and user parameters. But the most prominent parameters are generator parameters as they are very important for sparking principles. Reference Voltage (V), Pulse on-time (Ton), Pulse off-time (Toff) fluid injection pressure mode (Inj), Wire tension (WB), Wire velocity (WS) are the crucial machining process parameters which has influence on the machining performance characteristics such as Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (Ra), Spark Gap (SG) and Dimensional Deviation (DD) while processing / slicing of ingot. Variation in machining performances causes both functional, profit and loss for any manufacturing organisation. Hence, an attempt has been made to study and optimize these machining parameters for minimizing the variations in multiple machining performances and process model (empirical relationship/regression model) between the process parameters (V, Ton, Toff, Inj, WB, WS) and the performance characteristics (MRR, Ra, SG and DD) has been developed. These process model can predict the level of performance that the machine would render for a given set of process parameters, thereby providing prior knowledge of desired machining performance before actually producing the part. The process model is able to show the dependency of machining performance on process parameters, which will be useful for both machine designers and the machine users.

Since the inception industrial revolution, a continuous attempt is being made to recover and minimize the waste heat. With the time various waste heat recovery system is developed. In the present research paper an exhaustive review on heat pipe is done. Various aspects and application is described and the view of authors is presented here. Further, the wide application of heat pipe to recover waste heat from the exhaust of IC engine id discussed and salient conclusion is drawn which indicates that, a wide scope is available for further research on heat pipe and especially in the relation of IC engine exhaust heat recovery system.