Manuel Estrems

The Application of PDAs and Smartphones in the Classroom as Instruments for Improvement of Learning Monitoring

The skill of students in the use of new technologies could provoke serious problems of lower attention toward studied contents in the classroom. Nevertheless, many advantages can be also highlighted from an educational point of view: high ability for the search of technical information, quicker exchange of information by keyboard interface, good communication resources for group works, etc. In this sense, the quality of teaching action can be remarkably improved by the application of educational platforms based on electronic devices such as PDA and Smartphones, as proved by the project of educative innovation that was carried out by the authors of this work. With the purpose of promoting the philosophy of continuous improvement into the teaching/learning process, these authors created a platform dedicated to facilitate the interactive communication between teacher and students inside the classroom, as a useful educative tool to provide a feedback about learning level achieved by students. The new technology is oriented to assist to the teacher by means of introduction of the Shewhart Cycle –or also named PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) Cycle–, avoiding the waste of sheet and significant time losses during the educative practice. The results obtained regarding the course “Quality Engineering” that belongs to degree of Industrial Engineering are shown in this work, although similar benefits could be achieved for other courses contained in technical teachings.

Application of New Educational Methodologies Adapted to the EHEA Guidelines for Manufacturing Engineering Teaching in University Curricula

Since the birth of European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the higher education institutions of European countries have been involved in the complex process of re-designing of their curricula according to the new educational criteria oriented to the convergence of contents and methodologies in teaching university curricula. According to the principles pursued by the so named Bologna process, the present work is focused on the description of experiences accumulated by these authors in adaptation of their courses of manufacturing engineering, as a previous stage to complete re-formulation of study plans for engineering programmes that are taught in Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial (ETSII) of Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. The strategies followed for the enhancement of the interest of students towards the theoretical and practical teachings, and the promotion of traverse and specific competences specially associated to these courses are explained in this work, as well as the academic results provided by the new educational methodologies assumed for the teaching-learning process.

Effects of Wear on Cutting Forces in End-Milling Nickel Alloy

The effect of speed on the flank wear of the cutting tool when a nickel alloy is milled is studied. From the analysis of the measured forces, a dynamic semi-experimental model is developed based on the parallelism between the curve of the thrust forces of the unworn tool and the curves when the flank of the tool is worn. Based on the change in the geometry of the contact in the flank worn face, a theory of indentation of the tool on the workpiece is formulated in such a way that upon applying equations of contact mechanics, a good approximation of the experimental results is obtained.

Study of the Student’s Workload for the Manufacturing Related Subjects within the European Higher Education Area

Within the framework in which the Spanish universities are involved, the ECTS credit must be considered as the working hours needed for the students to acquire the subject related knowledge, capabilities and skills. The work presented in this paper consists of analyzing the data obtained by the surveys made by the students registered in manufacturing engineering subjects of the Technical University of Cartagena. This information lets us to estimate the workload needed for the subject adaptation process within the European higher education area framework.

Study of Stress and Geometry during the Manufacturing of Joint Bellows by FEM

The main objective of this work is the analysis of hydroforming for the manufacture of joint bellows of AISI 316 steel for different values of diameter. The initial thickness of the metallic tube is of 1 mm and diameters between 500 and 1200 mm are considered. The Finite Element Method is applied to study the tensile stress and thickness reduction at the wave peak of the final part. The numerical results are compared to the recommendations given by the EJMA standard. More critical values of wave thickness and tensile stress are predicted by simulation.