Latest Cases

By leaning on PLM, medical device maker automates key processes around product development, aiding in ISO compliance and accelerating time to market.

For companies competing in the medical device sector, time to market is a critical concern, as is getting designs to meet the rigorous compliance requirements set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although all kinds of factors can put a crimp in a company’s ability to move quickly, manual processes—particularly those related to managing and tracking engineering changes—can inject inefficiencies into product development that can hamper even the most innovative and well-run businesses.

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Most people grossly underestimate the potential health risks associated with the simple growth of mold. We hear plenty of warnings about second-hand tobacco smoke. All of us are familiar with the risks associated with bacterial accumulations in areas used to prepare food. But a large number of people do not think twice about letting a child sleep in a room that is infested with hidden mold.

Constructions workers are warned about the risks and rules of working with asbestos. Remodeling contractors normally know about lead paint. Some of them are aware of mold as an undesirable substance, but they generally do not think twice about ripping out mold-covered materials. They should. Personal protection equipment should be used by anyone doing mold remediation.

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INTRODUCTION

Sustainable Remediation Methods (SRM) are remedial actions that reach cleanup target goals (CTGs) by minimizing the adverse impacts related to the environmental/energy, economic, societal, or sustainable aspects of the impaired property while protecting  human health, safety, and the environment.  SRM balances the remediation practices, processes, and technologies with the need to use less energy and resources, reduce emissions, and not affect the lives of occupants, neighbors, and other interested parties during the implementation of the SRM.

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The method for extracting bitumen from oil sands currently used in commercial mining operations is a flotation process in which oil sands are combined with hot water and the slurry is aerated. This method generally is referred to as the Clark hot water process. Clark’s method promotes the attachment of bitumen to air bubbles, creating a lower-density froth that floats and can be recovered through gravity settling.

Mined and crushed ore typically is conditioned for extraction in one of two ways: steam tumblers or a hydrotransport (H-T) pipeline. In both cases, ore and hot water are combined (additional steam is added to the tumblers) and the slurry is agitated to ablate the ore and free the bitumen for extraction.

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Introduction

As the supply of fossil fuels decreases, it is possible that future stationary and mobile energy systems will use hydrogen fuel cells. The ultimate goal, of course, is to obtain hydrogen from renewable energy sources. Initially, hydrogen can be obtained from natural gas or from coal. Coal is an attractive fuel source because it is plentiful in the United States.

From an elemental standpoint, coal contains about 50% by weight solid carbon, with a significant amount of oxygen and some hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur. The process of generating hydrogen from coal requires a process called gasification, which is discussed below.

Before entering the gasifier, coal usually is mixed with water (about 2 kg water per kg coal) and ground to reduce the formation of coal dust. The slurry is fed to the reactor, which operates at high temperature (about 650°K) and pressure (about 60 atm), and combined with oxygen either from the air or in the form of a pure oxygen stream. The reaction products include carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen.

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This article attempts to determine the energy and exergy losses in a combined hydrogen generation and locomotive transportation system that uses hydrogen fuel (Figure 1). Hydrogen generated by a thermochemical copper-chlorine cycle and stored onboard the locomotive provides power to a prime mover via proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The thermodynamic irreversibility of a fuel cell increases as the power rating increases. A problem arises with frequent stops and high acceleration, which increase the hydrogen consumption. Locomotive manufacturers have an interest in the appropriate match of fuel cell type and size, as needed for feasible designs for commercialization. Read More »

In lieu of traditional prototyping processes, KOR EcoLogic drives significant time efficiencies by creating the entire body of its Urbee vehicle using rapid prototyping technologies.

Beyond its revolutionary teardrop shape and aggressive design goal of up to two hundred miles per gallon on a hybrid electric/gasoline engine, the Urbee is blazing new ground with a prototyping strategy that involves 3-D printing, not just for individual components, but for the entire body of the car. Read More »

Rapid industrialization and uncontrolled and unmonitored urbanization have created serious problems of solid waste disposal in developing countries . Many cities in those countries are facing problems with solid waste that has a high fraction of putrescible organic waste that easily can be degraded and cause serious environmental and health risks. Proper management and treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) can prevent the heaping of solid waste piles in urban or periurban areas, thus avoiding groundwater pollution, land contamination, greenhouse gas emission, and many other environmental problems. Read More »

Problem Description

A flotation cell is essentially an agitation-aeration machine. A series of sub- and micro-processes are realized in mechanical flotation machines (sub-aeration type or with external air-blow). Among these the following are included: suspension of the particles in the pulp; reagent mixing; input and dispersion of air into fine bubbles; particle-bubble collisions and attachment only of the hydrophobic particles on the bubbles; formation of particle-bubble aggregates; and raise of the aggregates to the froth. It must also be pointed out that all these sub- and micro-processes take place under high turbulent conditions (Reynolds number 2.4×10⁴ – 7×10⁶). Consequently, turbulence is an important process-determining factor in the operation of flotation machines. Read More »

We present analytical and simulation models for autonomous vehicle storage and retrieval systems (AVS/RSs). AVS/RS represents a new material handling system (MHS) based on autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. It is automated and used for unit load (UL) storage systems. This new technology has already been used in Europe. We model a particular AVS/RS analytically as semi-open queuing network (SOQN). After developing the SOQN model of the system, we solve it by using an approximate analytical model (AAM) and the matrix geometric method (MGM). We compare the two approaches’ results based on the simulation results. We also perform simulation-based performance analysis of the system. First, we complete 133 simulation experiments to find out near-optimum values for number of AVs and lifts in the system. Second, we study a performance comparison analysis for AVS/RS and its alternative system – automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). We implement this study for a company that utilizes AVS/RS in France. Read More »