Adoption of an E-service Innovation and its Effects on Customer Service Processes in Forest Industry

Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää miten asiakkaille suunnattu Internet –pohjainen palvelu muuttaa asiakaspalvelua metsäteollisuudessa, ja mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat tällaisen palvelun omaksumiseen. Tutkimuksesta ilmenee että muutokset asiakaspalvelussa ovat olleet asiakkaiden mielestä pääasiassa positiivisia. Selvisi, että uuden sovelluksen laatuun ollaan tyytyväisiä, mutta että kaikki asiakkaat eivät pidä sen etuja huomattavina verrattuna vanhoihin toimintatapoihin. Esimerkkiyrityksen oma henkilöstö ei keskimäärin koe sovellusta kovin hyödylliseksi oman työnsä kannalta. Jotta sovelluksen käyttöä ja mahdollisia hyötyjä esimerkkiyritykselle saataisiin lisättyä, on sovellukseen tehtävien parannusten lisäksi panostettava tehokkaampaan kommunikointiin ja lisäkoulutukseen asiakkaille. Lisäksi on löydettävä keinoja, joiden avulla asiakkaat kokisivat sovelluksen käytön itselleen edullisemmaksi kuin pitäytymisen vanhoissa toimintatavoissa. Edellä mainitun saavuttaminen edellyttää esimerkkiyrityksen asiakaspalvelu-henkilöstön ja operatiivisen johdon sitoutumista sovelluksen aktiiviseen markkinointiin asiakkaiden suuntaan. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin haastatteluilla ja asiakkaille suunnatulla kyselylomakkeella käyttäen pääasiassa kvalitatiivisia menetelmiä. Haastatteluja tehtiin kahdessa esimerkkiyrityksen yksikössä, kolmessa myyntikonttorissa sekä kahden asiakasyrityksen yhteensä neljässä eri yksikössä. Kyselylomake lähetettiin 215 asiakaskäyttäjälle, joista 30 palautti lomakkeen. Palautusprosentiksi tuli 14.

The Early Phases of Innovation Process - Case: New Wireless E-Business Opportunities in Forest Industry

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli soveltaa innovaatioprosessiteorioita käytäntöön konteksti huomioonottaen, koska langattoman sähköisen liiketoiminnan nopeat muutokset, metsäteollisuuden erityispiirteet ja ei-kaupallisuus asettavat erityistarpeita innovoinnille. Painopiste on prosessin aikaisissa vaiheissa, koska ne ovat kriittisiä koko innovaatioprosessin menestymisen kannalta. Tähtäimenä oli löytää yrityssektorille uusia langattomia sähköisen liiketoiminnan mahdollisuuksia, jotka hyödyttävät tutkimuksessa mukanaolevaa yritystä. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin konstruktiivista tutkimusotetta ja metodeina sähköistä aivomyrskyä, tarkistuslistaa sekä GDSS- ja postikyselyä.Tutkimuksen tuloksena on esitetty innovaatioprosessin aikaiset vaiheet kirjallisuudesta, metsäteollisuuden erityispiirteet ja innovaatioprosessisovellus. Lisäksi tämä tutkimus tuotti uusia sähköisen liiketoiminnan ideoita, suoritti niille seulonnan ja kävi läpi alustavan tutkimuksen.

Offset-print mottling measurement using machine vision

Mottling is one of the key defects in offset-printing. Mottling can be defined as unwanted unevenness of print. In this work, diameter of a mottle spot is defined between 0.5-10.0 mm. There are several types of mottling, but the reason behind the problem is still not fully understood. Several commercial machine vision products for the evaluation of print unevenness have been presented. Two of these methods used in these products have been implemented in this thesis. The one is the cluster method and the other is the band-pass method. The properties of human vision system have been taken into account in the implementation of these two methods. An index produced by the cluster method is a weighted sum of the number of found spots, and an index produced by band-pass method is a weighted sum of coefficients of variations of gray-levels for each spatial band. Both methods produce larger indices for visually poor samples, so they can discern good samples from the poor ones. The difference between the indices for good and poor samples is slightly larger produced by the cluster method. 11 However, without the samples evaluated by human experts, the goodness of these results is still questionable. This comparison will be left to the next phase of the project.

The high-speed induction motor: calculating the effects of solid-rotor material on machine characteristics

A method for the analysis of high-speed solid-rotor induction motors in presented. The analysis is based on a new combination of the three dimensional linear method and the transfer matrix method. Both saturation and finite length effects are taken into account. The active region of the solid rotor is divided into saturated and unsaturated parts. The time dependence is assumed to be sinusoidal and phasor quantities are used in the solution. The method is applied to the calculation of smooth solid rotors manufactured of different materials. Six rotor materials are tested: three construction steels, pure iron, a cobaltiron alloy and an aluminium alloy. The results obtained by the method agree fairly well with the measurement quantities.

High-Speed Solid-Rotor Induction Machine – Electromagnetic Calculation and Design

Within the latest decade high-speed motor technology has been increasingly commonly applied within the range of medium and large power. More particularly, applications like such involved with gas movement and compression seem to be the most important area in which high-speed machines are used. In manufacturing the induction motor rotor core of one single piece of steel it is possible to achieve an extremely rigid rotor construction for the high-speed motor. In a mechanical sense, the solid rotor may be the best possible rotor construction. Unfortunately, the electromagnetic properties of a solid rotor are poorer than the properties of the traditional laminated rotor of an induction motor. This thesis analyses methods for improving the electromagnetic properties of a solid-rotor induction machine. The slip of the solid rotor is reduced notably if the solid rotor is axially slitted. The slitting patterns of the solid rotor are examined. It is shown how the slitting parameters affect the produced torque. Methods for decreasing the harmonic eddy currents on the surface of the rotor are also examined. The motivation for this is to improve the efficiency of the motor to reach the efficiency standard of a laminated rotor induction motor. To carry out these research tasks the finite element analysis is used. An analytical calculation of solid rotors based on the multi-layer transfer-matrix method is developed especially for the calculation of axially slitted solid rotors equipped with wellconducting end rings. The calculation results are verified by using the finite element analysis and laboratory measurements. The prototype motors of 250 – 300 kW and 140 Hz were tested to verify the results. Utilization factor data are given for several other prototypes the largest of which delivers 1000 kW at 12000 min-1.

Harvesteripään karsintaterän ennenaikaiseen vaurioitumiseen johtavien syiden analysointi

Viimeisten vuosien ja jopa viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana on metsäkoneiden valmistusta kehitetty aiemmasta, jopa täydellisestä omavalmistuksesta yhä enemmän alihankintatoimittajien suuntaan. Koneen valmistaja keskittyy usein vain varsin kapean osuuden esim. loppukokoonpanon suorittamiseen. Samalla on yhä enemmän luotettu alihankinnan suorittamaan laadunvalvontaan ja – varmistukseen. Toimintatapa edellyttää toimivaa laatujärjestelmää koneen valmistajan ja kaikkien alihankkijoiden toiminnassa. Lisäksi tuotantohenkilöstön ammattitaidon tulee olla sitä tasoa, että laatujärjestelmissä oleva laatuvaatimus saavutetaan kaikissa olosuhteissa. Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena on selvittää, kuinka metsäkoneen harvesteripään karsintaterän luotettavuutta voidaan parantaa. Kuormitusten selvittämisen menetelmänä käytettiin venymäliuskamittausta. Analysoinnissa on käytetty nimellisen jännityksen- ja tehollisen lovijännityksen menetelmää. Em. menetelmän tulokset ovat laskettu FEM-laskennalla. Nykyiset terät on analysoitu em. menetelmien käytöstä saaduilla tuloksilla. Analysoinnin tuloksista voitiin tehdä johtopäätös, että terien lujuutta tulee lisätä luotettavuuden parantamiseksi. Saatuja mittaus- ja suunnittelutietoja voidaan tulevaisuudessa hyödyntää uusien terien suunnittelussa.

Design of flywheel generator for a diesel hybrid working machine

The aim of this work is to design a flywheel generator for a diesel hybrid working machine. In this work we perform detailed design of a generator. Mobile machines are commonly used in industry: road building machines, three harvesting machines, boring machines, trucks and other equipment. These machines work with a hydraulic drive system. This system provides good service property and high technical level. Manufacturers of mobile machines tend to satisfy all requirements of customers and modernized drive system. In this work also a description of the frequency inverter is present. Power electronics system is one of the basic parts for structures perform in the project.

Utilisation of biomass for energy production in the North-West Russian forest industry

Traditionally, fossil fuels have always been the major sources of the modern energy production. However prices on these energy sources have been constantly increasing. The utilization of local biomass resources for energy production can substitute significant part of the required energy demand in different energy sectors. The introduction of the biomass usage can easily be started in the forest industry first as it possesses biomass in a large volume. The forest industry energy sector has the highest potential for the fast bioenergy development in the North-West Russia. Therefore, the question concerning rational and effective forest resources use is important today as well as the utilization of the forestry by-products. This work describes and analyzes the opportunities of utilising biomass, mainly, in the form of the wood by-products, for energy production processes in general, as well as for the northwest Russian forest industry conditions. The study also covers basic forest industry processes and technologies, so, the reader can get familiar with the information about the specific character of the biomass utilization. The work gives a comprehensive view on the northwest forest industry situation from the biomass utilisation point of view. By presenting existing large-scale sawmills and pulp and paper mills the work provides information for the evaluation of the future development of CHP investments in the northwest Russian forest industry.

Electrical machine in a Hybrid Electrical Vehicle

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) have attracted very much attention during the latest years. Increasing environmental concern and an increase in fuel prices are key factors for the growing interest towards the HEV. In a hybrid electric vehicle the power train consists of both a mechanical power system and an electric power transmission system. The major subsystems in the mechanical power system are the internal combustion engine which powers the vehicle; electric power transmission including an energy storage, power electronic inverter, hybrid control system; the electric motor drive that runs either in the generating mode or in the motoring mode to process the power flow between the energy storage and the electrical machine. This research includes two advanced electric motors for a parallel hybrid: induction machine and permanent magnets synchronous machine. In the thesis an induction motor and a permanent magnet motor are compared as propulsion motors. Electric energy storages are also studied.

Salient Pole Synchronous Machine Modelling in an Industrial Direct Torque Controlled Drive Application

Synchronous motors are used mainly in large drives, for example in ship propulsion systems and in steel factories' rolling mills because of their high efficiency, high overload capacity and good performance in the field weakening range. This, however, requires an extremely good torque control system. A fast torque response and a torque accuracy are basic requirements for such a drive. For large power, high dynamic performance drives the commonly known principle of field oriented vector control has been used solely hitherto, but nowadays it is not the only way to implement such a drive. A new control method Direct Torque Control (DTC) has also emerged. The performance of such a high quality torque control as DTC in dynamically demanding industrial applications is mainly based on the accurate estimate of the various flux linkages' space vectors. Nowadays industrial motor control systems are real time applications with restricted calculation capacity. At the same time the control system requires a simple, fast calculable and reasonably accurate motor model. In this work a method to handle these problems in a Direct Torque Controlled (DTC) salient pole synchronous motor drive is proposed. A motor model which combines the induction law based "voltage model" and motor inductance parameters based "current model" is presented. The voltage model operates as a main model and is calculated at a very fast sampling rate (for example 40 kHz). The stator flux linkage calculated via integration from the stator voltages is corrected using the stator flux linkage computed from the current model. The current model acts as a supervisor that prevents only the motor stator flux linkage from drifting erroneous during longer time intervals. At very low speeds the role of the current model is emphasised but, nevertheless, the voltage model always stays the main model. At higher speeds the function of the current model correction is to act as a stabiliser of the control system. The current model contains a set of inductance parameters which must be known. The validation of the current model in steady state is not self evident. It depends on the accuracy of the saturated value of the inductances. Parameter measurement of the motor model where the supply inverter is used as a measurement signal generator is presented. This so called identification run can be performed prior to delivery or during drive commissioning. A derivation method for the inductance models used for the representation of the saturation effects is proposed. The performance of the electrically excited synchronous motor supplied with the DTC inverter is proven with experimental results. It is shown that it is possible to obtain a good static accuracy of the DTC's torque controller for an electrically excited synchronous motor. The dynamic response is fast and a new operation point is achieved without oscillation. The operation is stable throughout the speed range. The modelling of the magnetising inductance saturation is essential and cross saturation has to be considered as well. The effect of cross saturation is very significant. A DTC inverter can be used as a measuring equipment and the parameters needed for the motor model can be defined by the inverter itself. The main advantage is that the parameters defined are measured in similar magnetic operation conditions and no disagreement between the parameters will exist. The inductance models generated are adequate to meet the requirements of dynamically demanding drives.