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The construction industry relies increasingly on profits generated from high utilisation of mechanisation. Interruption of this mechanical supply not only incurs the “tangible” costs of labour, replacement parts and consumables, but also the less tangible costs of delays to contract, possible loss of client goodwill and ultimately, loss of profit. Cumulative costs associated with plant breakdown are therefore significant. Predictive maintenance (PM) techniques have evolved to keep a check on mechanical health, by generating information on machine condition. Such data allow just in time maintenance to be conducted. However, recent developments have witnessed an increased interest in determining “root cause” of failure as opposed to monitoring the time to breakdown once the wear process has begun. This paper reviews condition based monitoring (CBM) technologies and introduces the evolving concept of root cause analysis. Both these could have particular relevance to construction plant and equipment. In summary, the paper presents initial findings of ongoing research, which is the development of a model for predicting construction plant and equipment breakdown.

The properties of materials under impact load are introduced in terms of metal, nonmetallic materials and composite materials. And the application of impact load research in biological fields is also mentioned. The current hot research topics and achievements in this field are summarized. In addition, some problems in theoretical modeling and testing of the mechanical properties of materials are discussed.

The situation of materials under impact load is of great significance to show the mechanical performance. The performance of various materials under impact load is different, and there are many research methods. It is affected by some kinds of factors, such as the temperature, the gap and the speed of load.

The research on mechanical properties of materials under impact load has the characteristics as fellow. It is difficult to build the theoretical model, verify by experiment and analyze the data accumulation.

This review provides a reference for further study of material properties.

The application of objective measurement of the mechanical properties of fabrics in the apparel industry began around 1975 in the Hirakata area, which is one of the centres of men's suit production in Japan. At that time the KESF system had been developed and thereafter spread rapidly. The measurement of mechanical data under low‐load level by the KESF provided useful information for the apparel engineers who needed some means of fabric measurement by which the tailoring process might be controlled. The fabric dimensional stability testing using steam press was also standardised at that time (HESC 103A method). At present, the KESF data and the stability data are essential for apparel engineers and are used widely in the Japanese apparel industry. In addition to the use of objective measurements in each factory, a centre for objective fabric inspection has been recently initiated in the Hirakata area, for the inspection and control of fabric by the objective system for tailoring process control. In addition, a co‐operative work between the apparel engineers and the university has been carried out to develop a new equation for predicting the good appearance of a suit on the basis of fabric mechanical data. Automatic tailoring such as automatic overfeed action on the basis of fabric mechanical property is also carried out under the co‐operation of the university, the apparel industry, and a sewing machine manufacturer (Juki) in Hirakata. The progress of these projects is presented.

Environmental degradation has emerged as one of the major limitations of industrial revolution and has led to an increased focus towards developing sustainable strategies and techniques. This paper aims to highlight the sustainability aspects of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology that helps towards a better implementation of Industry 4.0. It also aims to provide a brief picture of relationships between 3D printing, Industry 4.0 and sustainability. The major goal is to facilitate the researchers, scholars, engineers and recommend further research, development and innovations in the field.

The various enabling factors for implementation of Industry 4.0 are discussed in detail. Some barriers to incorporation of 3D Printing, its applications areas and global market scenario are also discussed. A through literature review has been done to study the detailed relationships between 3D printing, Industry 4.0 and sustainability.

The technological benefits of 3D printing are many such as weight savings, waste minimization and energy savings. Further, the production of new 3D printable materials with improved features helps in reducing the wastage of material during the process. 3D printing if used at a large scale would help industries to implement the concept of Industry 4.0.

This paper focuses on discussing technological revolution under Industry 4.0 and incorporates 3D printing-type technologies that largely change the product manufacturing scenario. The interrelationships between 3D printing, Industry 4.0 and sustainability have been discussed.

Provides examples of duty variability based on field tests conducted during ordinary operating conditions. A severity‐based maintenance approach is introduced as complementary to the reliability‐centred maintenance initiatives currently being introduced in various mining companies. The essential component of this approach is a series of equipment monitors (called “dutymeters”) that continuously monitor and log the real duty on the machine as well as some machine parameters that can be used for machine health diagnostics. Describes application of this concept to a range of machinery including draglines, shovels, haul trucks and longwall equipment.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the fatigue life of the crankshaft in an engine with increased horsepower.

The applied load on the powertrain components was calculated through a dynamic analysis. Then, to estimate the induced stress in every crank angle, the calculated loads in different engine speeds were applied on the crankshaft. Finally, the critical plane fatigue theories in addition to URM standard were used to estimate the damage and fatigue life of the crankshaft with the increased power.

It was found that a simultaneous increase of gas pressure and engine speed by 30 percent will cause an increase of maximum applied load on the crankshaft by 25 percent. It was also found that while the results of finite element (FE) method predict an infinite life for the crankshaft after increasing the power, the URM method predicts an engine failure for the increased power application. In this study, the crankpin fillet is introduced as the most critical area of the crankshaft.

Increasing the power of the internal combustion engines without changing its main components has been of high interest; however, the failure associated with the increased load as the result of increased power has been a big challenge for that purpose. Moreover, although URM standard provided an efficient practice to evaluate a crankshaft fatigue life, using FE analysis may provide more reliability.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a microeconomic-based approach to support fund-allocation decisions for a large number of assets. Under the prevailing financial constraints and rapid deterioration of facilities, arriving at optimum fund allocation for capital renewal projects has become very challenging. Due to the complexity of modeling multi-year life cycle cost analysis, existing fund-allocation methods have serious drawbacks when handling a large portfolio of assets, and their results are difficult to justify.

This paper adopts well-established theories from microeconomics and proposes a new microeconomic-based decision support framework that has two novel components: a heuristic procedure to optimize and justify fund-allocation decisions by balancing the funding among the different asset categories; and a visual what-if analysis approach inspired by the economic indifference maps.

Applying the proposed framework on a real case study of 800 building components proved that optimum decisions can be achieved through an equilibrium state at which fair and equitable allocations are made such that the utility per dollar is balanced for all asset categories. The visual what-if analysis approach presented a powerful graphical tool to visualize decisions, along with their costs and benefits, and facilitate sensitivity analysis under changes in budget levels.

This paper, using the proposed microeconomic framework, sheds a new light on how fund-allocation optimization problems can be simplified, from an economic perspective, to arrive at accurate and justifiable decisions for a large portfolio of facilities.

To examine the need to develop, practice and implement such maintenance practices, which not only reduce sudden sporadic failures in semi‐automated cells but also reduce both operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.

A case‐based approach in conjunction with standard tools, techniques and practices is used to discuss various issues related with TPM implementation in a semi‐automated cell.

The findings indicate that TPM not only leads to increase in efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing systems, measured in terms of OEE index, by reducing the wastages but also prepares the plant to meet the challenges put forward by globally competing economies to achieve world class manufacturing (WCM) status.

The paper presents an interesting investigation of TPM implementation issues which may help the managers/practitioners to prepare their plants/units to meet the challenges of competitive manufacturing in twenty‐first century by adopting and implementing TPM.

This paper aims to propose a maker’s approach to teaching an operating systems (OSs) course in which students apply knowledge of OSs to making a toy robot by focusing on input/outputs, hardware devices and system programming.

Classroom action research is involved in this study.

After the course was taught in this maker’s approach in two consecutive school years, some observations were reported. Students were enthusiastic in doing a series of assignments leading to the completion of a toy robot that follows a black line on the ground. In addition to enjoying the learning process by making tangible products, the students were excited to be able to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they learned with the robots they made.

The research results were based mainly on the instructor’s observations during the lectures and labs.

Lessons from this study can inspire other instructors to turn traditional engineering courses into maker courses to attract students who enjoy making. Industry should welcome engineering graduates to join the companies with more hands-on experiences they have gained from maker courses.

Although the maker movement has attracted much attention in K12 education, there is little research that studies how this maker spirit can be incorporated in traditional engineering courses that focus mainly on theories or software.

Including electronics and mechanical components in programming assignments would bring surprising effects on students’ motivation in learning.

Considering the well-known finiteness of resources and particularly in the light of previous concepts to ensure car-based mobility, this paper aims to outline to what extent the cost structure for sustainable mobility is still acceptable in the foreseeable future for the majority of people. The production and use of energy for mobility is a decisive factor for the future development of entire regions. This can be directly derived from the dramatically evolving energy cost in the recent years rooted in an increasing scarcity of known resources.

On the basis of available new technology components, researchers from the University of Magdeburg (Germany) have converted a conventional car into an electric vehicle. Hereby, energy efficiency and sustainability were in the direct focus of the product redesign. Furthermore, a LCC analysis complements the qualitative analysis.

Thus, a driving concept for electric mobility in the urban environment was drawn up which meets the criterion of suitability for everyday use due to an e-conversion. Moreover, the outstanding efficiency of the designed powertrain is demonstrated.

Using the research electric vehicle Editha, the researchers point out which technical options can be inferred from available components for the creation of mobility in the urban environment. However, the source of energy is crucial to assess if the claim for sustainability is fulfilled.

The paper illustrates that a monetary advantage of electric vehicles, such as the prototype Editha, arises after seven years due to disproportional purchase costs.

In this context, the proposed driving concept of the prototype represents a transitional solution from vehicles with central engine to hub wheel electric engines. In addition, Editha is the first roadworthy and suitable for daily use research vehicle using an individual electric motor for each rear wheel without manual gearbox.