Search results

The evaluation of time-based performance is a valued approach in the lean management thinking which is based on delivering value from customer's perspective. This approach contributes for long-term competitiveness and success in today's business environment. The focus of this study is to analyse the cycle time and manufacturing lead time with value stream mapping (VSM) in the preparatory stage of the textile fabric manufacturing process and to identify and improve the non-value adding activities in the value chain (VC). The study presents an insight on the translation of performance improvement across functions and how upstream supply chain (SC) segments can be linked in the performance improvement program. It also covers how the application of VSM improves visibility and planning flexibility in textile fabric manufacturing process.

The time-based performance was evaluated using VSM and recording of the activity times in the existing process. The impact of the quality of supplier's raw material was also measured contributing to identify the strategy for procurement and the means to establish a feedback system to the upstream segments of the SC. The methodology of VSM, observation of the practice and the expertise of the individuals involved with the process were utilised to develop the value stream maps and to identify value adding activities, non-value adding activities, existing gaps and plans for improvement.

The means for improving the time-based performance were identified and their impact was measured. The factors responsible for improvement are related to the production system and with the procurement strategy. The improvement was achieved in terms of available capacity utilisation, balancing the work flow in the preparatory stages, visibility of the process by measuring its capability and flexibility for the planning function. The study revealed that the effectiveness and enhancement of VSM and related tools should be adopted to address the issue of limiting success rates of long term and repeating application of such tools. Continuous improvement, innovations and the systematic embedding of VSM in the process life cycle provide the ways for achieving long-term success.

The paper presents a real and in-depth study on the application of VSM in the textile manufacturing process. The scope of the study is broad; it covers activities across functions with actual estimates of activity times in the manufacturing process for the focused value streams. It offers researchers the opportunity to analyse the translation of productivity improvement across functions and how upstream SC segments can be linked in a performance improvement program.

The study offers useful insight for the managers in textile manufacturing and other sectors for improving the time-based performance and achieving higher utilisation of capacity. It identified the production factors and their impact on warping and sizing cycle time in selected value streams and those which share common activities. It also identified the directions for future research when repeating the application of VSM in the continuous improvement cycle. Furthermore, since the industries need to progress towards advanced systems including Industry 4.0 standards, adoption of advanced VSM tool with relevant technology can align their production systems to develop the required capability. This will also bring a sustainable competitive advantage in the system.

The focused sector is stagnant in terms of productivity and innovation. The adoption of the advanced tools can facilitate the implementation of continuous improvement and innovation strategies.

The main focus of this study is to analyse and improve the cycle time in the preparatory stage of the fabric manufacturing process. This has impact on other important and tangible measures including capacity utilisation and work flow and intangible measures including production planning flexibility and process visibility. The improvement impact is across departments.

Sectional warping is the most widely used warp preparation process in weaving. Winding all warp sections with the same length and same tension is a key factor for a good quality warp preparation. It is required that winding thickness (increase in radius due to warp winding) remains the same within and between warp sections. The purpose of this paper is to investigate winding thickness variations within and between warp sections, which can lead to quality problems in woven fabrics.

A measurement system is developed and then an experimental investigation into winding thickness variations is carried out. Winding thickness is measured with respect to number of drum revolutions using a laser sensor with 20 microns resolution. The number of drum revolutions and drum angular position are measured by an incremental encoder. Both sensors are mounted on an industrial sectional warping machine. A real-time software written in C programming language collects and records the data for all sections of warp with respect to drum number of revolutions and then results are evaluated to determine winding thickness variations.

Results show that warp sheet thickness starts with a higher value and it decreases up to around 30 drum revolutions and then it remains constant or decreases very slightly which can be considered as insignificant from practical point of view. Warp sheet thickness (i.e. thickness of one warp layer) fluctuates within each section up to 10 percent CV with five drum revolutions average warp sheet thickness. There are also warp sheet thickness variations between warp sections up to 3 mm.

Considering the short of practical research results on winding thickness variations in the literature, results of this study will be an original contribution to understanding winding thickness variation level. Also, results presented in this paper can be used to develop control algorithms for thickness control in sectional warping machines.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adhesion of polymer materials printed directly onto fabrics using entry-level fused deposition modelling (FDM) machines. A series of functional and decorative parts were designed to explore the limitations and to identify potential applications.

A series of shapes and structures were designed as 3D computer-aided design (CAD) solids to determine whether complex parts could be printed directly onto the surface of fabrics. The structures were fabricated using an entry-level FDM printer with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polylactic acid (PLA) and nylon on eight different types of synthetic and man-made woven and knit fabrics. The results were recorded according to four parameters – the warp, bond, print quality and flex – before comparing the data sets.

Among the three polymers, PLA showed the best results when printed on the eight different types of fabrics, having extremely good adhesion with little warp, yet displaying a high quality of print with good flexural strength. For the fabrics, woven cotton, woven polywool and knit soy had excellent adhesion when the three polymers were deposited.

Future work should cover a wider range of polymers and textiles and incorporate more functional features for testing. Other aspects include modifying the fibre surface through mechanical or chemical means to achieve a more efficient adhesion with the fibre and examining the deposition process in terms of temperature, pressure and build density. Future work should also investigate the feasibility for large-scale production.

This paper supports work on wearable electronics by integrating comfortable textiles with hard wearing parts without compromising on quality and fit and combining additive manufacturing processes with textiles to maintain the drape characteristics of the fabric. Polymer–textile deposition will contribute to new applications and functional products such as orthopaedic braces for medical use or for decorative features such as buttons and trimmings for garments.

This paper has contributed to new knowledge by providing a better understanding of polymer materials being printed directly onto fabrics using entry-level FDM machines.

Explores the implementation process of the customer‐supplier partnership in the machinery industry. Aims to assess the dynamic impacts on performance of various practices that are generally regarded as typical of a customer‐supplier partnership. Also, investigates internal consistency of various practices and possible path dependencies. Shows, in the case of single sourcing, the complementarity and the synergistic effects of co‐design, sharing production plans, dedicating up‐stream capacity and assuring down‐stream demand. Finds the key role of a complete performance control system to monitor delivery, quality and cost performance, even when tight control over suppliers might be regarded as less crucial due to trust and long‐termism. Discusses the issue of dedicated EDI assets and shows that, at least in some cases, delaying investments might significantly reduce risks of sunk cost for both partners. Shows that, while some players on both sides of the relationship perceive the relationship as a “win‐win” situation, others play a “zero sum game”.

The purpose of this study is to develop a system that detects warp breakage in manual looms using simple mechanisms combined with electronic circuitry.

This study used the universal design methodology model where results from observations and interviews aided in designing the appropriate blueprints for the mechanism.

Testing procedures revealed that the conductivity of steel bars coupled with the weight of the droppers affected the efficiency of the mechanism. Additionally, the weight of the drop wires influenced the rising of the warp threads during shedding. Considering this, a plate thickness of 0.06 mm was ideal for the droppers which did not affect warp shedding. Test outcomes at the weaving shed proved the workability of the mechanism for timely or prompt repair of a broken warp by weavers that ensured fabric quality.

The issue of warp breaks remains a critical problem at weaving on manual looms which influence the quality of fabrics. These looms are used by craftsmen in producing interesting fabrics for the market of which they depend on for their living. Premise on this, a two-way (light + sound) alert system was developed to assist weavers to effectively locate and repair broken yarns. Additionally, weavers with special needs (blind people) would be notified on a warp break for immediate repair from someone. This would limit the unnecessary challenges associated with broken warp yarns during weaving.

This study aims to investigate the material extrusion additive manufacturing (MEAM) deposition parameters for creating viable 3-D printed polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) structures with a balanced mix of mechanical and electrical properties.

Different combinations of deposition conditions are tested, and the influence of these parameters on the final dimensional accuracy, semi-crystalline phase microstructure and effective mechanical strength of MEAM homopolymer PVDF printed parts is experimentally assessed. Considering printed part integrity, appearance, print time and dimensional accuracy, MEAM parameters for PVDF are suggested.

A range of viable printing parameters for MEAM fabricated PVDF Kynar 740 objects of different heights and in-plane length dimensions was determined. For PVDF structures printed under the suggested conditions, the mechanical response and the microstructure development related to Piezoelectric response are reported.

This research first reports on a range of parameters that have been confirmed to facilitate effective MEAM printing of 3-D PVDF objects, presents effects of the individual parameters and gives the mechanical and microstructure properties of PVDF structures fabricated under the suggested deposition conditions.

This paper aims to present a mosaicking method for underwater robotic applications, whose result can be provided to other perceptual systems for scene understanding such as real-time object recognition.

This method is called robust and large-scale mosaicking (ROLAMOS) and presents an efficient frame-to-frame motion estimation with outlier removal and consistency checking that maps large visual areas in high resolution. The visual mosaic of the sea-floor is created on-the-fly by a robust registration procedure that composes monocular observations and manages the computational resources. Moreover, the registration process of ROLAMOS aligns the observation to the existing mosaic.

A comprehensive set of experiments compares the performance of ROLAMOS to other similar approaches, using both data sets (publicly available) and live data obtained by a ROV operating in real scenes. The results demonstrate that ROLAMOS is adequate for mapping of sea-floor scenarios as it provides accurate information from the seabed, which is of extreme importance for autonomous robots surveying the environment that does not rely on specialized computers.

The ROLAMOS is suitable for robotic applications that require an online, robust and effective technique to reconstruct the underwater environment from only visual information.

The purpose of this paper is to address the most urgent challenges that libraries face in the mass digitization of historical printed text: the unsatisfactory result of the conversion of scanned images to full featured electronic text by means of automated optical character recognition (OCR); the historical language barrier around 1850, caused by inadequacy of most existing lexica for historical language for OCR or post‐correction and a lack of institutional knowledge and expertise in libraries, museums and archives.

In the EC‐funded project IMPACT (Improving Access to Text), seven libraries, six research institutes and two private sector companies across Europe work together to address the challenges by the development of OCR software and technologies which exceed the accurateness of current state‐of‐the‐art software significantly. The IMPACT solutions focus on the entire process of recognition after the document leaves the scanner: Image processing, OCR processing (including use of dictionaries), OCR correction and Document formatting. IMPACT will also build capacity in mass digitization by sharing best practice and expertise with the cultural heritage communities in Europe.

Technical results will include toolkits for image enhancement and segmentation, an adaptive OCR engine and several prototypes of experimental OCR engines, computational lexica and several post‐correction modules including a web based collaborative correction system and a parser for structural metadata. Strategic tools include several decision support tools, guidelines, a web site with demonstrator platform, a training programme and ultimately, a sustainable Centre of Competence for mass digitization in Europe.

The IMPACT solutions will allow for the first time to transform large amounts of digitized historical texts into electronic text with a minimum of manual interference and a significantly improved accessibility for the user.

A disperse fluorescent yellow paste was mixed with a dispersant naphthalene sulfonic derivative via wet grinding process to prepare thermal transfer ink with good fluorescence. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The surface tension, viscosity, pH value, zeta potential, stability and the morphology of ink samples were tested after the storing process.

The morphology of paste was homogeneous nearly spherical nanoparticles and the particle size was about 100 nm from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which was similar to the average particle size obtained from the particle size analyser.

The paste particle size was 126.8 nm after storing at 50°C for one week. The addition of diethylene glycol was conducive to high fluorescent reflectivity and gave good line image quality both in warp and weft directions due to the low viscosity. Inkjet printed polyester fabrics achieved excellent rubbing, laundering and thermal subliming fastnesses.

The polyester fabrics thermal transferred with the ink contained diethylene glycol represented higher fluorescent reflectivity and gave better line image quality both in warp and weft directions. The inkjet printed polyester fabrics showed excellent colour reproducibility and all the fastnesses, including rubbing, laundering and thermal subliming, were higher than Grade 4.

The purpose of this paper is to describe, review, classify and analyze the current challenges in three-dimensional printing processes for combined electrochemical and microfluidic fabrication areas, which include printing devices and sensors in specified areas.

A systematic review of the literature focusing on existing challenges is carried out. Focused toward sensors and devices in electrochemical and microfluidic areas, the challenges are oriented for a discussion exploring the suitability of printing varied geometries in an accurate manner. Classifications on challenges are based on four key categories such as process, material, size and application as the printer designs are mostly based on these parameters.

A key three-dimensional printing process methodologies have their unique advantages compared to conventional printing methods, still having the challenges to be addressed, in terms of parameters such as cost, performance, speed, quality, accuracy and resolution. Three-dimensional printing is yet to be applied for consumer usable products, which will boost the manufacturing sector. To be specific, the resolution of printing in desktop printers needs improvement. Printing scientific products are halted with prototyping stages. Challenges in three-dimensional printing sensors and devices have to be addressed by forming integrated processes.

The research is underway to define an integrated process-based on three-dimensional Printing. The detailed technical details are not shared for scientific output. The literature is focused to define the challenges.

The research can provide ideas to business on innovative designs. Research studies have scope for improvement ideas.

Review is focused on to have an integrated three-dimensional printer combining processes. This is a cost-oriented approach saving much of space reducing complexity.

To date, no other publication reviews the varied three-dimensional printing challenges by classifying according to process, material, size and application aspects. Study on resolution based data is performed and analyzed for improvements. Addressing the challenges will be the solution to identify an integrated process methodology with a cost-effective approach for printing macro/micro/nano objects and devices.