A case study of concurrent engineering application on the development of parts for the white goods industry in Brazil

This classical way to manage product development processes for massive production seems to be changing: high pressure for cost reduction, higher quality standards, markets reaching for innovation lead to the necessity of new tools for development control. Into this, and learning from the automotive and aerospace industries factories from other segments are starting to understand and apply manufacturing and assembly oriented projects to ease the task of generate goods and from this obtain at least a part of the expected results. This paper is intended to demonstrate the applicability of the concepts of Concurrent Engineering and DFM/DFA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly) in the development of products and parts for the White Goods industry in Brazil (major appliances as refrigerators, cookers and washing machines), showing one case concerning the development and releasing of a component. Finally is demonstrated in a short term how was reached a solution that could provide cost savings and reduction on the time to delivery using those techniques.

Development of an instrumentation system embedded on FPGA for real time measurement of mechanical vibrations in rotating machinery

The real-time monitoring of events in an industrial plant is vital, to monitor the actual conditions of operation of the machinery responsible for the manufacturing process. A predictive maintenance program includes condition monitoring of the rotating machinery, to anticipate possible conditions of failure. To increase the operational reliability it is thus necessary an efficient tool to analyze and monitor the equipments, in real-time, and enabling the detection of e.g. incipient faults in bearings. To fulfill these requirements some innovations have become frequent, namely the inclusion of vibration sensors or stator current sensors. These innovations enable the development of new design methodologies that take into account the ease of future modifications, upgrades, and replacement of the monitored machine, as well as expansion of the monitoring system. This paper presents the development, implementation and testing of an instrument for vibration monitoring, as a possible solution to embed in industrial environment. The digital control system is based on an FPGA, and its configuration with an open hardware design tool is described. Special focus is given to the area of fault detection in rolling bearings. © 2012 IEEE.

Development of a thermoeconomic methodology for optimizing biodiesel production. Part II: Manufacture exergetic cost and biodiesel production cost incorporating carbon credits, a Brazilian case study

The purpose of this study is to carry on a thermoeconomic analysis at a biodiesel production plant considering the irreversibilities in each step (part I: biodiesel plant under study and functional thermoeconomic diagram [1]), making it possible to calculate the thermoeconomic cost in US$/kWh and US$/l of the biodiesel production, and the main byproduct generated, glycerin, incorporating the credits for the CO2 that is not emitted into the atmosphere (carbon credits). Assuming a sale price for both the biodiesel and the byproduct (glycerin), the annual revenue of the total investment in a plant with a capacity of 8000 t/year of biodiesel operating at 8000 h/year was calculated. The variables that directly or indirectly influence the final thermoeconomic cost include total annual biodiesel production, hours of operation, manufacturing exergy cost, molar ratio in the transesterification reaction, reaction temperature and pressure in the process. Depending on the increase or decrease in sale prices for both biodiesel and glycerin, the payback is going to significantly increase or decrease. It is evident that, in exergy terms, the sale of glycerin is of vital importance in order to reduce the biodiesel price, getting a shorter payback period for the plant under study. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.