Julfikar Haider

Implementation of Lean Principles in a Food Manufacturing Company

Lean is a powerful tool, which can bring significant benefit to manufacturing industries by creating value through reduction of waste. Although the lean concept has become very popular in mass production industries such as the automotive industry, more recently the concept has been adopted in different batch processing industries and service sectors. The application of lean tools into the food processing industry has not received the same level of attention compared to the traditional manufacturing industries. The paper focuses on implementation of lean tools in a food manufacturing company in UK. The company produces diverse ranges of meat-free and dairy-free food products such as vegetable burgers, sausages, cutlets etc., and supply to the major supermarket chains in UK. In general, the typical manufacturing cycle includes raw material preparation, cooking, mixing, forming into a desired shape, coating with a crumb mixture, and frying. Finally, the products are frozen and then packaged. First, lean tools and lean practices in food manufacturing industries have been briefly presented. The implementation of lean into the company started with reviewing the products, manufacturing processes, technical facilities, and process flow charts. Key areas have been identified to achieve tangible benefits by implementing lean tools such as waste elimination, 5S, single minute exchanges of dies (SMED), Andon system, visual management, work standardisation etc. The results have been presented in the form of a case study. The paper concludes that lean tools can be successfully implemented in a food manufacturing company to improve production efficiency, to improve product quality, and to reduce production cost by reducing waste and adding value. The information presented will be of interest to general food manufacturers and in particular to frozen food manufacturers.

Forces, wear modes, and mechanisms in bandsawing steel workpieces

Abstract Bandsawing is an important primary operation in a variety of industries, particularly steel suppliers who need to cut-off raw material for secondary processes. Bandsawing is a competitive method of cutting to size as it achieves a low kerf width, high metal removal rates, and good surface finish. One specific feature of the bandsaw metal-cutting operation is that the depth of cut per cutting edge is small (5–50 μm). Under conditions of low depth of cut and restricted chip formation, metal is removed by a complex combination of fragmented chips, ploughing, and some continuous conventional chips. The process of bandsawing is scientifically evaluated by measuring forces and associated parameters. Wear modes and mechanisms are also monitored, characterized, and their validity discussed.

Health and Environmental Impacts in Metal Machining Processes

Metal cutting machining is one of the key techniques in the manufacturing industries for shaping a particular product or a component. Turning, milling, drilling, and grinding are the most common traditional machining processes, where mechanical energy is applied to remove material from a stock with the help of a cutting fluid. New machining processes such as electrodischarge, laser beam, and water jet cutting are also emerging as alternatives to traditional processes and for specialized applications. Like any other manufacturing techniques, machining produces many by-products or wastes including metal chips/swarf impregnated with cutting fluid, spent cutting fluid, oil contaminated water, oil mist, metal dust, and unnecessary energy usage. These wastes have major consequences for health, the environment, productivity, and manufacturing costs. In recent years, owing to the increasing social awareness of health and environmental issues, new and tighter legislations are being introduced in order to minimize the impact on the environment, hence creating a more sustainable world. Machining industries are also being forced to reduce their impacts on environment through legislation introduced by both government and international bodies. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the sources of concern with respect to machining processes and their impact on health and the environment. In addition, advances in the development of emerging techniques and technologies associated with machining, cutting tools, coolants/lubricants, recycling, energy saving, and product design and planning are reviewed and discussed, in order to minimize impact.

Development of AlTiN coated carbide bandsaw for machining titanium-17 alloy

Economical and efficient machining of titanium alloys has always been a challenge for the metal cutting industry owing to their poor machinability characteristics, such as high reactivity with tool materials. In recent years, aluminium titanium nitride (AlTiN) coating has attracted increasing attention over traditional TiN coating, due to its superior properties. Bandsawing of titanium alloys has not been investigated in a greater detail compared to other machining operations such as turning, milling and drilling. In the present investigation, AlTiN coating was deposited onto carbide tipped bandsaw teeth and the coating properties were assessed. A modified lathe machine was used for performing the machining tests. Forces experienced by the bandsaw teeth during the machining tests were measured and specific cutting energy was calculated. The results showed that the AlTiN coated bandsaw teeth performed better than the un-coated bandsaw teeth in terms of wear length, force and specific cutting energy.

Assessing the performance of TiAlSiN coating on bandsaw tooth when cutting Ti-17 alloy

Cutting tool industries face an enormous challenge in finding the conditions that result in economically viable machining of titanium alloys such as Ti-17. The generation of high thermal and mechanical stresses in cutting tools during machining of titanium alloys accelerates tool wear and this significantly affects tool life, productivity and product quality. The application of advanced coatings on cutting tools has become an important way to improve the tool performance when machining titanium alloys. Recently, nano-structured TiAlSiN coatings have attracted increasing attention as an alternative to traditional TiN coatings, mainly due to its superior oxidation resistance at elevated temperatures and improved mechanical properties, which are ideal for machining titanium alloys. Very little attention has been given to the investigation of primary machining operations such as bandsawing. In this investigation, tungsten carbide-tipped bandsaw teeth were coated with TiAlSiN coating. The coating was characterized for structural, chemical and mechanical properties. Machining tests were carried out on Ti-17 alloy in a modified lathe using uncoated and TiAlSiN-coated bandsaw teeth. Forces were measured during the cutting tests and the specific cutting energy was calculated using the obtained force and material removal rate data. Wear modes and mechanisms in the bandsaw teeth were investigated using a scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The results show that a TiAlSiN-coated bandsaw tooth performed better than an uncoated bandsaw tooth in terms of wear and specific cutting energy.

Characteristics and Machining Performance of TiN and TiAlN Coatings on a Milling Cutter

Titanium Nitride (TiN) coating deposited by Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) or Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) techniques on cutting tools (single point or multipoint) has contributed towards the improvement of tool life, productivity and product quality [1]. Addition of Al in TiN coating (e.g., TiAlN or AlTiN) has further improved the coating properties required for machining applications [2, 3]. This work presents a comparative investigation on TiN and TiAlN coatings deposited on to a Powder Metallurgy High Speed Steel (PM HSS) milling cutter used for machining bimetal (M42+D6A) steel strips. PVD (Arc evaporation) technique was used to deposit the coatings after carefully preparing the cutting edges of the milling cutter. Microstructure, chemical composition, hardness and adhesion of the coatings have been characterised using different techniques. The incorporation of Al into TiN coating results in an improvement in hardness, wear resistance and cutting performance. Examination of the worn flank in th...

Improving the deposition rate of multicomponent coating by controlling substrate table rotation in a magnetron sputtering process

Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) technology, particularly magnetron sputtering process, enjoys the competitive advantages of depositing different new generation coatings (e.g., multicomponent, multilayer, graded, composite etc.) on three-dimensional objects (substrate) with excellent mechanical and tribological properties. In an industrial-scale sputtering chamber with a limited number of active magnetron sources (target) on the chamber wall, the density of coating species from different sources would not be uniform everywhere around the chamber. As a result, at a constant speed of rotating substrate table in a single revolution, the instantaneous deposition rate will be highest in front of the active targets and lowest when the substrate moves away from the active targets. In this work, a method of controlling the rotational speed (i.e., slower speed in front of active targets and faster speed in front of inactive targets in a revolution) of a substrate table installed in a magnetron sputtering chamber has been developed in order to improve the deposition rate of a multicomponent TiN+MoSx coating. The mechanical and tribological properties of TiN+MoSx coating have also been characterised to assess the beneficial effects of adding solid lubricant (MoS2) in hard TiN coating.

1.02 – Techniques for Assessing the Properties of Advanced Ceramic Materials

Advanced ceramics are emerging as ideal materials for a wide range of engineering applications, such as cutting tools, engine, turbines, space vehicles, and biomedical applications, among others, due to their superior properties as compared to traditional ceramics. The properties of advanced ceramics mainly differ from those of traditional ceramics in their processing, composition, and microstructure. Therefore, in order to get a better understanding of advanced ceramics and to further develop them for particular engineering applications, extensive use must be made of the characterization method for evaluating enhanced microstructural, mechanical, electrical, optical, and biomedical properties. The objective of this chapter is to give a brief overview of characterization techniques that are commonly used to evaluate the diverse properties of the advanced ceramics.

New Generation of MoSx Based Solid Lubricant Coatings: Recent Developments and Applications

In recent times, there is a growing interest in applying Molybdenum disulphide (MoS{sub x}) solid lubricant coatings on components to improve the tribological performance (i.e. lower friction coefficient and wear rate). The tribological performance of MoS{sub x} coating is strongly dependent on coating properties and tribological environment. MoS{sub x} coatings are highly successful in certain applications such as in space/vacuum technology, but its effectiveness is questioned in other terrestrial applications such as in cutting tool industry due to its lower hardness and poor oxidation resistance leading to shorter life. In order to circumvent this drawback, the paper identifies that current research is being concentrated on developing MoS{sub x} based coatings using three different approaches: (1) Metal or compound addition in MoS{sub x} coating (2)MoS{sub x} layer on hard coating and (3)MoS{sub x} addition in hard coating matrix. Although the primary objective is same in all three cases, the third approach is considered to be more effective in improving the tribological properties of the coating. Finally, the potential applications of MoS{sub x} based coatings in different industrial sectors have been briefly outlined.

Investigating tool performance and wear when simulating bandsawing of nickel-based superalloy under interrupted orthogonal turning condition

The manufacturing industries still face the most challenging job at hand to machine nickel-based superalloy, Inconel 718, efficiently and economically. In contrast to the extensive research efforts in secondary machining processes such as turning, milling and drilling, very little or no attention is paid on bandsawing of Inconel 718. This article presents an experimental investigation of machining Inconel 718 using carbide-tipped bandsaw teeth in a custom-made experimental facility. Cutting forces were measured during the bandsawing operation using a dynamometer, and the wear modes and mechanisms in the bandsaw teeth were investigated in a scanning electron microscope. Three different feeds or depths of cut (10, 20 and 30 μm) were employed with a cutting speed of 30 m/min during the machining tests. At smaller feed or depth of cut (10 μm), abrasive wear, adhesive wear and some degree of plastic deformation were identified as the governing mechanisms of tool wear. The higher depth of cut (30 μm) could cause cracking, chipping or premature failure of the carbide tip in bandsaw tooth. Strong welding of workpiece material to the cutting edge formed a built-up edge, which would impair the bandsawability due to the modification of the cutting edge. The higher depth of cut significantly improved the machining performance due to the reduction in specific cutting energy. However, it was not recommended to apply higher depth of cut as there were obvious possibilities of premature tooth failure. Machining force and specific cutting energy results along with chip characteristics were correlated with the tool performance and tool wear. The results of this investigation would be helpful for bandsaw manufacturers and end users to get a fundamental understanding of the bandsawability of Inconel 718 with the carbide-tipped bandsaw.