The authors have developed a method/computer tool to assist (student) engineering designers in generating concept designs. The method is based on the chaining of physical laws and complementary basic schemata (BS). The tool generates chains which serve as an aid in the development of concept designs. In this paper, the authors compare concept designs generated by a control group (which used functional structure and morphological matrix) with those from an experimental group that used computer-generated chains. The experimental group was found to have generated a greater number of different solutions than the control group; the generation of different solutions indicates a high level of variety and a better chance to find potentially innovative solutions. The established difference in the number of different solutions is statistically significant and the results indicate that the BS facilitate greater variety of concept designs.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12446235
The topic of this paper is the application of abrasive flow machining (AFM) to gear tool inserts polishing. Polished surface on plastic gear teeth improves surface geometry stability, and it increases the lifespan, which was proved on the gear testing rig. Experiments have shown that it is an efficient alternative to the hand polishing procedure. Besides significant cost and processing time savings, AFM generates constant surface quality. The achieved roughness is homogeneous on the entire machined surface; it is reduced from R a=0.68 m to R a=0.08 m in 120 s. At the same time, the tooth geometry profile is not damaged. The first time, surface polishing should be done at request because of individually manufactured tool inserts. Processing parameters depend on the type of the abrasive machine, the polishing paste and part geometry. Computer-aided abrasive flow analyses and practical experiments assist in setting optimum AFM process parameters. The paper presents a working set of parameters and a detailed report on machined surface measurement data. On the base of better understanding of AFM process, the surface roughness prediction model and thickness of removed material model was setup. It has high accuracy and reliability for specific applications. The use of plastic gears for various applications is widespread; the presented process improvement is an important innovation for injection molding tools manufacturers.
COBISS.SI-ID: 13241883
In this work we present basic principle of treecode (TC) method, its advantages and drawbacks in its applications for laboratory and fusion plasmas. Particular task done in this work was to create a small but efficient PIC simulation program in order to obtain more data than currently possible with other such programs available today, and to compare results of our program with results obtained with other methods and packages. The program is intended to be used in plasma-wall investigations of laboratory, technology oriented and fusion plasmas.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12612379
The plasma-sheath boundary is confirmed to be a surface at which the ion directional velocity toward the wall attains the ion-sound velocity (i.e., the "sonic point" or "Mach-1 point"). Expressing this statement quantitatively is a complex task which has been solved to a satisfactory degree for low temperature plasmas only, where the ion temperature is negligible with respect to the electron population temperature (i.e., "cold-ion" plasmas). In this paper we tackle this problem for "warm-ion" plasmas, in which the ion temperature is arbitrary. The proposed method is perfectly suited for fusion-relevant plasmas.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12638491
A method has been developed that enables a systematic approach to searching for opportunities to design new products by taking account of the relevant business environments. The process of searching for opportunities involves the already recognized social, economic, technological and legislative factors (SETL) through which outside influences are measured, and the use of the SETL factors makes it even more systematic. The industrial application of this method as described below has resulted in an innovative product that has already increased existing productivity by a factor of 3, as well as knowledge transfer. The new product has also expanded a developing product family in the company's existing product portfolio.
COBISS.SI-ID: 13278747