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Gear reducers are commonly used in cross-industrial applications. These include a range of advanced and basic processes, requiring the delivery of a controlled torque output. Mainly, industrial reducers are used in material handling units as it controls the speed of the machineries such as conveyors, cranes, hoist, mixers etc. For effective operation and to reduce the downtime due to any fault, optimal operating conditions are needed to define. In this paper the effectiveness and yield power are thought of, as the main attributes of the Industrial reducer, and their optimization was performed. As the impacting factors, the viscosity of lubricant, the initial parametric no. of revolutions and the current force intensity on the control unit, were considered. Test tests were performed based on the L27 Taguchi orthogonal array. For maximizing the output power and efficiency of mechanical reducer, recently formulate bio-inspired meta-heuristic algorithms i.e. Material Generation Algorithm and Sunflower Optimization Algorithm were employed besides Taguchi technique for optimization. It was found that current intensity played a significant role in maximizing the output power and efficiency of industrial reducer in accordance to analysis of variance results. Also both Material Generation Algorithm and Sunflower Optimization Algorithm resulted to be precise in providing better output as compared to Taguchi method for maximizing the output power and efficiency of the industrial reducer gearbox.

In the recent past decades, Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) have been researched in detail due to their flexible characteristics and light in weight. IPMC is most well-known electro-active polymers (EAPs), which can be used in the medical applications, biomimetic, micro robotic actuators, artificial muscles, dynamic sensors and underwater propulsions. Due to their large bending actuation with low voltage sources and biocompatibility, IPMCs are receiving more and more attention to many researchers in recent days. To reduce the experimental costs, the principal factors which are responsible for more bending response are designed in this work using Taguchi orthogonal array method. Multiple process parameters include input voltage and thickness of the fabricated Ag-IPMC actuator was optimized to produce a maximum bending response. Experiments were carried out using L9 orthogonal array to recognize the optimal process parameters. In the optimized conditions, the IPMC actuator exhibited a noteworthy improvement in bending deflection compared to the normal conditions. Under the application of 1.0 V, the bending response increases around 30% in the optimised condition compared to normal IPMC actuator. This study lays a solid foundation for developing high performance IPMC actuator where higher bending displacement is required i.e., in the robotic and biomimetic application with a very small input voltage.

The effect of tube material and structure on fluid elastic instability is examined experimentally using a parallel triangular finned tube array with a P/D ratio of 1.78. Flow-induced vibration is a common cause of failure in shell and tube heat exchangers, and it may result in substantial harm to the heat exchanger as well as significant financial loss. There are different mechanisms responsible for flow induced vibration out of which fluid elastic instability and vortex shedding are the most severe due to their sudden occurrence and high amplitude of vibration. Different parameters affect the tube vibration when the tube array is subjected to water crossflow. In this paper effect of tube material and fin are examined for fluid elastic instability. Experimentation was performed to measure demanding velocity at fluid elastic instability for plain and finned tubes for steel, aluminum and copper material. A fully flexible tube array with a cantilever end condition and with a constant pitch ratio subjected to water cross flow was considered. Testing was done with a gradually increasing water flow rate from 5 m3/hr and increases up to 75 m3/hr to obtain fluid elastic instability. The relationship between the critical velocity at fluid elastic instability and the mass damping parameter was investigated using Connor's equation. The amplitude response of vibration concerning the change in velocity shows that the addition of fins, as well as the material change, greatly affects the fluid elastic instability. A small peak before the occurrence of fluid elastic instability was observed. This is maybe due to vortex shedding which further required to be verified using the Strouhal number.

Blood cell images contain lots of uncertainties due to the randomness and variability of gray values. The contrast between the objects and the background of blood cell images are viewed as fuzzy in nature. So, varieties of fuzzy image thresholding mechanisms have been adopted for removing the grayness and vagueness of blood cell images. In this paper, a noble fuzzy segmentation technique is proposed, which processes fuzzy divergence with the mathematical morphological operation. At first, blood cell images are pre-processed to avoid uneven illumination and to reduce noise by fuzzy image morphology, and in the later stage a suitable threshold point is determined using the modified fuzzy divergence. The quality of the obtained images in the fuzzy divergence with the morphology method is observed for enhancement and better entropy. In this paper, we have used a new fuzzy Lomax-Gumbel membership function with the Fuzzy Divergence algorithm in order to overcome the loopholes of other well-known membership functions. The experimental results tested form the point of view of the robustness of the modified method by comparing with Chaira’s method. Finally, the mean value, entropy, and Standard Deviation have been calculated, which are found as greater values than the values of Chaira’s method.

This experimental work was designed to produce a solid state cladding of Aluminium 6063 over AISI 316 stainless steel using friction surfacing. Various parametric combinations considered as the supreme aspects for bonding integrity were used. Successful analysis was made on aluminium coating over stainless steel substrate. The coating strength and bonding integrity were tested taking consumable rods unit dimensions of 14 mm, 18 mm and 22 mm. The deep influence of the axial force and the rotational speed on coating thickness and width was seen. Temperature profile was measured using an infrared thermometer and peak temperature recorded for 14 mm, 18 mm & 22 mm diameter rods were 326 °C, 348 °C and 366 °C respectively. The mechanical bonding strength was examined through vickers micro hardness and bending rest. Hardness value of 138HV and bending strength of 3.2 tons at 90° bent angles were the highest for a 18 mm rod. Analysis of micro structure and interfacial features of the coating using FE-SEM and EDAX techniques showed good molecular interlocking between aluminium and iron particles.

The present study explains the process parameter optimization of friction surfaced deposition of stainless steel over medium carbon steel with multi response criteria according to Taguchi method and the desirability function analysis. The experimental samples were carried out on the basis of L9 orthogonal arrays. The influence of friction surfacing process parameters like axial load, rotational speed and transverse speed on the formation of coating width, thickness and interface temperature was analysed. The optimum process parameters were obtained using both the Taguchi method and the desirability function approach. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied also for the exploration of the effect of coating parameters. A regression model was developed for coating width, thickness and interface temperature as a function of process variables. Based on the optimal friction surfacing parameters the confirmatory experiments were conducted and improvement was verified.

The present work showcases the relationship between process variables and coating dimensions of Aluminium-AA6063 over stainless steel-AISI316 through friction surfacing. A 23 factorial design technique and RSM were performed, also the existed model was authenticated by confirmatory experiments. Influence of variation in rotational speed (2000, 2400, 2800 rpm), transverse speed (75, 150, 225 mm/min) and axial force (4, 5, 6 kN) on coating width and thickness was investigated. Analysis of interfacial characteristics of the coating was made using SEM and EDX techniques. 150 mm/min transverse speed, 5 kN axial force and 2400 rpm rotational speed were identified as optical parameters with an observed coating thickness = 1.96 mm and width = 18.12 mm respectively.

The present experimental work has attempted to analyze the influence of substrate heating on coating geometry during the deposition of stainless steel over medium carbon steel substrate using friction surfacing process. Inductive heating was applied to the substrate plate using an electric unit with three different temperatures of 200 °C, 400 °C, and 600 °C. Elemental process parameters like axial force, rotational speed and transverse speed with different combinations were considered for conducting experimental work. The material consumption rate (CR) and deposition rate (DR) were extensively studied. The high rate of material consumption and deposition were seen at samples obtained from 600 °C of inductive heating compared to the conventional friction surfacing process. Using the IR thermometer, the interface temperature at both the advancing and the retreating side was recorded which showed a higher temperature was experienced by advancing side than the retreating side. The mechanical strength of the coating was analyzed by micro hardness and bending tests. Interfacial attributes of the coating were analyzed by using FE- SEM images and the elemental composition at the coating interface was studied through the EDAX report.