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There is a continuous drive in automotive sector to shift from conventional lubricants to environmental friendly ones without adversely affecting critical tribological performance parameters. Because of their favorable tribological properties, chemically modified vegetable oils such as palm trimethylolpropane ester (TMP) are one of the potential candidates for the said role. To prove the suitability of TMP for applications involving boundary-lubrication regime such as cam/tappet interface of direct acting valve train system, a logical step forward is to investigate their compatibility with conventional lubricant additives.

In this study, extreme pressure and tribological characteristics of TMP, formulated with glycerol mono-oleate (GMO), molybdenum dithiocarbamate (MoDTC) and zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP), has been investigated using four-ball wear tester and valve train test rig. For comparison, additive-free and formulated versions of polyalphaolefin (PAO) were used as reference. Moreover, various surface characterization techniques were deployed to investigate mechanisms responsible for a particular tribological behavior.

In additive-free form, TMP demonstrated better extreme pressure characteristics compared to PAO and lubricant additives which are actually optimized for conventional base-oils such as PAO, are also proved to be compatible with TMP to some extent, especially ZDDP. During cylinder head tests, additive-free TMP proved to be more effective compared to PAO in reducing friction of cam/tappet interface, but opposite behavior was seen when formulated lubricants were used. Therefore, there is a need to synthesize specialized friction modifiers, anti-wear and extreme pressure additives for TMP before using it as engine lubricant base-oil.

In this study, additive-free and formulated versions of bio-lubricant are tested for cam/tappet interface of direct acting valve train system of commercial passenger car diesel engine for the very test time. Another important aspect of this research was comparison of important tribological performance parameters (friction torque, wear, rotational speed of tappet) of TMP-based lubricants with conventional lubricant base oil, that is, PAO and its formulated version.

The purpose of this study is to improve the tribological characteristics of cotton-biolubricant by adding nanoparticles at extreme pressure (EP) conditions in comparison with commercial lubricant SAE-40.

This research involved the synthesis of cotton-biolubricant by transesterification process and then the addition of nanoparticles in it to improve anti wear (AW)/EP tribological behavior. SAE-40 was studied as a reference commercial lubricant. AW/EP characteristics of all samples were estimated by the four-ball tribo-tester according to the American Society for Testing and Materials D2783 standard.

The addition of 1-Wt.% TiO₂ and Al₂O₃ with oleic acid surfactant in cotton-biolubricant decreased wear scar diameter effectively and enhanced the lubricity, load-wear-index, weld-load and flash-temperature-parameters. This investigation revealed that cotton-biolubricant with TiO₂ nano-particle additive is more effective and will help in developing new efficient biolubricant to replace petroleum-based lubricants.

Cotton biolubricant with TiO₂ nano-particles appeared as an optimistic solution for the global bio-lubricant market.

No one has not studied the cotton biolubricant with nanoparticles for internal combustion engine applications at high temperature and EP conditions.

Applications of systems like total quality management (TQM), total productive maintenance (TPM) and just‐in‐time (JIT) have been studied mainly in large industries with little attention being paid to small and medium industries (SMIs) in developing countries. This paper discusses the state of implementation of TPM in SMIs and the effects of lack of productive maintenance. The main hypothesis is to determine if SMIs have understood the importance of a productive maintenance system as a constituent of manufacturing management. A survey methodology has been applied for this test. The outcomes of some case studies are kept in mind. All these show that the implementation of TPM or preventive maintenance in SMIs is still low. Therefore, more effort should be given to developing a better understanding, motivation and participation for implementation of productive maintenance systems. Finally, an implementation methodology is proposed.

The aim of this paper is to present a generic model on using the total productive maintenance (TPM) concept in conjunction with ecology oriented manufacturing (EOM) and 5S focusing on their joint strengths in attaining organizational goals in furtherance to the equipment maintenance objectives.

A systematic implementation‐framework coupled with the standard tools, techniques and practices has been designed. The framework was applied in a large semiconductor manufacturing company.

It is evident that a well drawn TPM implementation plan not only improves equipment efficiency and effectiveness but also brings appreciable improvements in other areas such as reduction of manufacturing cycle time, size of inventory, customer complaints, and creates cohesive small group autonomous teams and increases the skill and confidence of individuals. The resulting system is found to be more productive in terms of both partial and total productivity measures. This is in line with the current need of manufacturing companies to have an integrated manufacturing management system (IMMS) in order to simultaneously increasing efficiency and improving effectiveness.

The applied framework can be mimicked by other manufacturing organizations and similar results could be brought about. As the implementation of TMP in conjunction with the EOM and 5S has come out successful, this can be combined with other manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems (viz. JIT, MRPII/ERP) to develop an IT‐based IMMS.

The case study presented here shows that the applications of TPM through the fulfillment of its basic requirements can significantly enhance the accomplishment of organizational objectives beyond the equipment maintenance‐subsystem goals and add an array of benefits in the value chain across the various functional areas.

Uncertainties in manufacturing and changing customer demands force manufacturing industries to adopt new strategies, such as the reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS). To improve the implementation and performance of RMS, it is necessary to review the available literature and identify future trends in this field. This paper aims to analyze existing literature and to see trends in RMS-related research.

The systematic literature review and analysis of RMS-related research papers from 1999 to 2020 is carried out in this literature. The selected studies are analyzed based on the year of publication, journals, publishers, active authors, research design, countries, enablers, barriers, performance evaluation parameters and universities.

After the analysis of selected RMS-related research papers, the top countries, universities, journals, publishers and authors are identified in this domain. Research themes and trends in research are identified in this study. Besides, it has been noted that there is a need for further research in this domain and for the creation of a generalized framework that can guide researchers and practitioners to increase RMS adoption.

Research insights, guidance and observations from this paper are provided to RMS-related researchers and practitioners. Important research gaps are identified in this study, which can provide direction for future research and trends in RMS research.

The study presented focuses mainly on the method of collecting, organizing, capturing, interpreting and analyzing data to provide more insight into RMS to identify future trends in research.