Mihai Steopan

Competitive design and mockup of a modular pipe cleaning mobile equipment

Designing application oriented products require dedicated approaches. One possible approach is the use of competitive design tools and techniques in the conceptualization phase of the product. In this paper the authors present the development process for a mobile platform meant for cleaning / maintenance operations of flatbedventilation tubing. Special attention was given to the main 2 mechanical modules: the motion module and the ventilation module.

Competitive design of an anthropomorphic gripper

In this paper the development of an anthropomorphic gripper is presented. Using competitive engineering tools and techniques like AHP, QFD, TRIZ and FMEA, a low cost human like gripper was developed. The gripper has 5 independently controlled fingers, presenting a high flexibility both in motion and the ability to have certain pre-programmed movements.

Some Researches Regarding the Surface Quality when Drilling Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites

In this paper, an attempt has been made to model the surface roughness through response surface method (RSM) and ANOVA when drilling CFRP composites. Drilling is the most common machining process applied to CFRP. However, the users of this kind of composites are facing difficulties to machining it, due to its properties. Because of the bad effects that lubricants have on the fiber-reinforced composites, the machining of these materials is performed without coolant. On the other hand dry machining offers the risk of a thermal damage induced by high process temperatures. The current experimental analysis is focused towards determining process temperatures with different tools and drilling parameters.

Function oriented concept development of a mobile platform for motion studyes

Using some specific tools of competitive development of products (AHP, QFD, TRIZ) the present paper presents the development of a mobile platform concept destined for static and dynamic motion studies. Thus it should be able to allow for planar movement and also be able to house a variety of sensors. The complex requirements of various applications have been taken into account in order to generate a modular architecture able to properly accommodate all of them. Through the use of competitive design tools a modular and robust structure was developed.

New feature based design software development

This paper proposes a new feature based design software, called RFD. The main goal of the presented software, together with another software developed by the author in the purpose of the assisted generation of the numeric conduct files for turning operations, is to make up a Low Cost CAD/CAM program package configured according to the requirements, the needs and the facilities of a certain type of client. The commercial CAD systems work with primitives, but too many modeling operations are needed, when dealing with complex parts design. The RFD software represents a method and an example on how the SMEs (Small and medium enterprises) could build their own feature libraries, which could be implemented by adapting the general CAD systems to specific industrial products. A case study is presented using the RFD program, to test its capabilities and its compatibility with other CAD systems.

The influence of the load on the behavior of the electromechanical variator

The paper presents the mathematical model of a kinematic axis with a.c. motor drive and servo drive variator. The servo drive variator is composed of a differential mechanism and a friction variator. The influence of the load on the differential mechanism input elements will be analyzed. The mathematical model taking into consideration the shift of the friction variator and the efficiency. Using numerical methods, the differential equation has been solved and as a result, the response of the system for different variation of the load.

Using CAM software to improve factory floor productivity

The following paper presents, through the use of a case study, how computer aided manufacturing software can lead to factory floor productivity improvements. The case study is focused around a medium complexity product that was largely produced in house and with manual labor. The results of the study show that with minimal capital investment, factory floor productivity for the given product can be substantially improved.

Quality management techniques as support for designing automated domestic appliances for people with special needs

Every product has to respond to certain needs with the relative special requests. Both needs and requirements are expressed specifically by customers or users. People with special needs represent a continuously growing part of the population of modern world. Products that satisfy the special needs and requirements of these new market niche so that they can be used by a wide range of people as possible, represent a great challenge for product designers. In the present paper authors propose a structured approach for the conception and development of such products, using instruments and techniques of quality management and engineering. A case study is made on a home appliance, precisely on an automated washing machine.