MATERIAL HANDLING

Bases on Design features and operational characteristics, material handling equipment may be broadly classified as:

Hoisting Equipment’s:

It constitute a group of equipment which are employed mainly for lifting or lowering of unit load or piece goods in batches. This group of equipment’s can be further sub classified into:

1. Pure Hoisting Machineries

• Jack
• Winches
• Hand Hoists
• Pulley Blocks

2. Cranes

• EOT Crane
• Jib Crane
• Cantilever Crane

3. Elevators

• Lift
• Bucket Elevators

Conveying Equipment’s:

It comprises of a number of equipment which are employed for handling principally bulk load (occasionally piece goods or unit load may also be handled) in continuous flow. Such machines do not have separate lifting or lowering gear. This group of equipment also can have further sub classifications as:

1. Belt Conveyor

2. Hydraulic Conveyor

3. Pneumatic Conveyor

4. Apron Conveyor

5. Screw Conveyor

6. Flight Conveyor

Surface/ Overhead Equipment’s:

These are the group of equipment’s which are employed for handling unit load or bulk load in batches on a horizontal surface. This group of equipment may be further sub classified into:

1. Truck and Lorries

2. Railway Cars and Wagons

3. Fork Lifts

4. Overhead mono-rail / Equipment

5. Scrapers and Skidders

Types of Material Handling Equipment Loads:

It usually classified into:

1. Unit Load

2. Bulk Load

Unit Load:

Unit loads are those which are counted by numbers or units. A component of a machine, a complete machine, a structural element, a beam, a girder, building block are some examples of unit load.

Sometimes certain quantities of free flowing materials can be placed in a container and can be handled as unit load. Hoisting equipment are primarily used for handling unit load. Unit loads are usually specified by it’s weight.

Bulk Load:

When the load is in the form of particles or lumps of homogeneous materials or powder like materials, which can not be counted by numbers, it is called as “Bulk load”.

Examples are:

Sand, Cement, Coal, Mineral, Stone, Clay etc.,

A bulk material may be classified by it’s:

1. Bulk Density

2. Lump-Size

3. Flowability

4. Abrasiveness

5. Miscellaneous Characteristics

FAILURE ANALYSIS

• Why ?

As the standards of our industry rise due to increasing globalization and competition, there is an ever growing need for consistency and reliability. Breakdown of any unit, system or equipment is an avoidable and costly occurrence and must be prevented or minimized. Analysis of such failures becomes a resourceful and affordable tool in addressing such unwanted occurrences.

To establish whether the cause of component failure lay on:

a) Service conditions
b) Design considerations
c) Material and its specification
d) Improper processing and assembly procedures or
e)  Combinations of these.

Only the real “Root cause” can ensure the effectiveness of corrective and preventive actions and avoid recurrence of failure.

• Stages Of Failure Analysis

1. Understanding and assimilation of background data and selection of samples.
2. Examination and documentation of the failed part by the following

1. Visual examination of parts, location (if necessary) and relevant photographs as well.

2.  Non destructive testing by means of Radiography, Dye      penetrant, Magnetic particle testing etc.

3. Mechanical Testing for various physical properties.

3. Vital specimens are selected, classified, and subjected to:

1. Macroscopic examination and analysis. This involves examining the fracture surfaces, secondary cracks, deposits and other such elements
2. Microscopic examination and analysis of fracture surface (by Scanning Electron Microscopy, if required).

4. Chemical analysis of material for conformation to specifications.

5. Chemical analysis of corrosion products, deposits, contaminants etc.

6. The actual state of the failed part and the failure mode are established.

7.  Fracture mechanics study if found necessary.

8. A simulation of the identical working environment to determine if any external      factors have contributed to the failure

9. Conclusions are determined after compiling all evidences and analysis and       then the report is generated.
10. Follow-up recommendations are also provided.

INFRARED CURVING

The coatings and paint industries strive to provide high technology coatings while reducing volatile organic compounds and energy consumption to produce a finished coating. Conventionally Convection ovens are used to cure the coatings. But this process which uses electric heaters is not an optimal process and is associated with various disadvantages.

Improved technologies are available today, which can either replace or improve the convection curing process. Infrared Curing is such a technology which uses Infrared rays emitted by an Infrared emitter to provide the required cure. Infrared curing applies light energy to the part surface by direct transmission from an emitter. Some of the energy emitted will be reflected off the surface, some is absorbed into the polymer and some is transmitted into the substrate.

This direct transfer of energy creates an immediate reaction in the polymer and cross linking begins quickly once the surface is exposed to the emitter. Infrared emitters are often custom manufactured to suit the production demand. The various aspects of Infrared curing and convection curing and the possibility of combining these two technologies into a singe system will be discussed in this seminar.

How it Works

Infrared heating is a direct form of heating. The source of the heat (the infrared emitter or lamp) radiates: energy that is absorbed by the product directly from the emitter. That is, the heat energy is not transferred through an intermediate medium. This is one reason for  the  inherent high-energy efficiency of infrared systems. For  example, hot air heating  first needs to heat air; the air then heats the product by convection.

Infrared  energy is directed  to  the  product. When  the  product absorbs this energy, it is then converted into heat. Infrared energy is dispersed from the source in much the same  way as visible light. Exposed product surfaces easily absorb  the  infrared  energy and  become  heated. Therefore, heating effectiveness is related to line-of-sight between the source and the product. Depending on the coating and/or product substrate material, this heat is further thermally conducted.

The ability of the product to absorb energy is also known as its “emissivity”. A theoretical body that absorbs all energy is termed a “black body”. A black body has an emissivity of 1. A highly reflective body would have a low emissivity value, approaching 0. (Reflectivity is the inverse of emissivity).

The potential of a product to become heated with infrared is related to the following:
• Watt density (total output power) of the source
• Wavelength (temperature) of the source
• Distance from the source to the product
• Reflective characteristics of the oven cavity
• Air movement and temperature in the oven
• Time product is exposed to the source
• Ratio of exposed surface area to the mass of the product
• Specific heat of the product
• Emissivity of the product
• Thermal conductivity of the product

CURING

Curing is a process of baking surface coatings so as to dry them up quickly. Curing is a broad term which means all the techniques employed for the finishing operations incurred during part production. Curing essentially involves either the melting of the coating or evaporation of volatile fluids present in the coating by the application of heat energy.

Curing is given to a wide range of materials both organic and inorganic. Usually curing is given to materials like ,

” Paints
” Enamel
” Liquor
” Powder coatings
” Varnishes
” Epoxy coatings
” Acrylic coatings
” Primers Etc.

Curing is also given to Rubber and Latex .The principle used for curing can also be used for drying rice and grains.

CONVECTION CURING

Convection ovens are usually used for curing purposes. Traditional convection ovens use heated forced air to provide the necessary cure. Convection ovens consist of a chamber lined on the inside with Electric heaters. The shape of the chamber will be in accordance to the shape or geometry of the part being cured. A series of blowers circulate the heated air around providing the required cure. This process depends on convection to transfer heat from hot air to body surface and conduction to transfer heat to the interior of the surface. The air being delivered is held at temperature using closed-loop control, which provides predictable, repeatable results. Typically a temperature of around 250-500 degree Fahrenheit is required for paint or powder. Though convection ovens are widely used today they have certain disadvantages, which chokes the overall productivity of a company
Disadvantages of convection ovens :

” Fairly long heating times:-

Convection is a slow process. It takes a considerable amount of time for the heaters to heat up and raise the temperature of air to the required level. This causes a lag in the process and hence the curing time increases. Longer curing time spells reduced assembly line movement. This in turn reduces productivity.

” High energy consumption:-

A convection column dryer uses around 2000 BTU(British Thermal Unit) of energy to remove 1 pound of moisture. They use around 7.7 KW of electrical energy to dry a ton of rice. These are significantly larger figures for any company trying to bring energy consumption under control. The additional use of blowers and compressors further increases energy consumption.

” Large floor area required:-

Convection ovens are bulky in nature. Due to the presence of compressors and blowers, additional space is needed, which in turn increases the floor area requirement.

” Air circulation is required:-

Convection heating requires a medium for transmission of heat. Hence blowers are employed for good circulation of heated air. This increases the overall cost of the equipment.

CRYSTAL SYSTEM

Crystalline Materials:

• A crystalline material is one in which the atoms are situated in a repeating (or) periodic array over large atomic distances.

 

 

Non Crystalline Materials:

• Materials that do not crystallize are called non-crystalline (or) Amorphous materials

 

Space Lattice:

• Lattice is the regular geometrical arrangement of points in crystal space.

 

• The atoms arrange themselves in distinct pattern in space is called a Space Lattice.
• Atoms in crystalline materials are arranged in a regular 3 – Dimensional repeating pattern known as Lattice Structure.
• They are divided by network of lines in to equal volumes, the points of intersection are known as Lattice Points.

 

Unit Cell:

• It is the smallest portion of the lattice which repeated in all directions.
• 3D visualization of 14 Space Lattices are known as Bravai’s Space Lattice.
• If a unit cell contains lattice points only at it’s corners, then it is called Primitive Unit Cell (or) Simple Unit Cell.
• Three edge length x,y, & z and three interaxial angles α, β, & γ are termed as Lattice Parameters.

 

Crystal System:

• It is a scheme by which crystal structures are classified according to unit cell geometry.

 

Types of Crystal Systems:

• Cubic
• Tetragonal
• Hexagonal
• Orthorhombic
• Rhombohedral
• Monoclinic
• Triclinic

 

Crystal Systems

Simple Crystal Structure:

Body Centered Cubic Structure (BCC)

• Unit cell contains 2 atoms
• Lattice Constant a= 4r / √3, where r is atomic radius
• Atomic packing factor APF = 0.68
• Metals are Vanadium, Molybdenum, Titanium, Tungsten

 

Face Centered Cubic (FCC)

• Unit cell contains 4 atoms
• Lattice Constant a= 4r / √2, where r is atomic radius
• Atomic packing factor APF = 0.72
• FCC structures can be plastic deformed at severe rates
• Metals are Copper, Aluminum, Phosphorous, Nickel, Cobalt etc

Hexagonal Closed Packed Structure (HCP)

• Unit cell contains 3 atoms
• Axial ratio c/a, where ‘c’ is Distance between base planes, ‘a’ is Width of Hexagon
• Axial Ratio varies from 1.58 for Beryllium to 1.88 for Cadmium (Therefore  a=2.9787, c=5.617)
• Atomic packing factor APF = 0.74
• Metals are Zinc, Cadmium, Beryllium, Magnesium etc

 

 

Crystallographic Planes and Directions

The Layers of atoms in the planes along which atoms are arranged is known as “Atomic” (or) “Crystallographic planes”.

Miller Indices:

Miller Indices is a system of notation that denotes the orientation of the faces of a crystal and the planes and directions of atoms within that crystal.

Miller Indices for Planes:

1. The (110) surface

 

Intercepts :   a , a , ∞

Fractional intercepts :   1 , 1 , ∞

Miller Indices :   (110)

 

2. The (111) surface

 

Intercepts :   a , a , a

Fractional intercepts :   1 , 1 , 1

Miller Indices :   (111)

The (100), (110) and (111) surfaces considered above are the so-called low index surfaces of a cubic crystal system.

 

3. The (210) surface

 

Intercepts :   ½ a , a , ∞

Fractional intercepts :   ½ , 1 , ∞

Miller Indices :   (210)