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Addition of Microcrystalline Cellulose (MCC) as filler in to Unsaturated Polyester (UPR) polymer can enhanced the properties of the composite. UPR and MCC was prepared using sonication mixing technique at various loading of (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 wt %) of MCC at a constant of 60 minutes of sonication. UPR and MCC was mixed in a vial bottle and then immersed in sonication bath for the sonication process. Once the sonication completed, the mixture was added with Methyl Ethylene Ketone Peroxide (MEKP) as curing agent, coated on steel plate and was left for curing process of 7 days. The coating was studied for adhesion, mechanical and corrosive properties using pencil hardness, adhesion tape and immersion tests. 4 wt% of loading showed improvement in mechanical properties where form H grade to 4H grade. It is also recorded there are improvement of adhesion test from 1B grade 35-65% pulled out to 4B grade which is less than 5 % pulled. From the immersion test, it shown that 4 wt % of loading has a good corrosion resistant as compared to the control sample. Thus, it was concluded that 4 wt % of loading filler is suitable to be used because it promotes a better mechanical and adhesion properties and also good corrosion resistant compared to other loading percentage.

To understand the current state, health and efficiency of an organization, evaluation based on an organizational diagnostic model are vital. There have been a number of framework and models developed for this purpose which serves as a general rule, but they lack accuracy in certain industries due to its characteristics and scope. This paper critically analyzes previous models, highlighting its definition, advantages, disadvantages, applications and comparison between them. Recognizing factors that contribute to the performance of construction/engineering companies, the authors propose a new diagnostic model which is more suited to this industry. The new diagnostic model addresses issues of culture at work while redefining the scope of every pillar involved in previous diagnostic models. It is a revelation of an evaluation platform for all companies within the same industry, which allow further studies on sustainability framework to be developed on top of this platform.

This Paper presents the study on the weldability of two similar and two different metallic materials. The weldability of the similar metallic materials considered in the study were aluminum alloy pipes of grade AA6063. As for the weldability of two different metallic materials were aluminum alloy of grade AA6061 to low carbon steel of grade A36, dupl stainless steel of grade 2205 to low carbon steel of grade A36 and grey cast iron of grade A48 class 35 to low carbon steel BS 449 of grade 250. The differing methods of welding or joining processes are discussed herein including those of stir welding and hot pressed diffusion bonding of the similar and dissimilar metallic materials respectively as mentioned above. The weldability of between the two materials are investigated including the physical appearance of the joints and the strength integrity of those so far achieved at this stage. The paper also presented the results on the weldability of the similar and different metallic materials, recommendation for further in-depth study in pursuit for improved technologies on the subject matters and highlight the prospects of metallic materials welding or bonding or joining to fulfill the demands for different applications.

In this study, to convert high moisture content waste into bio-char, slow pyrolysis of cooked rice waste was proposed. The effects of temperature and duration of slow pyrolysis of cooked rice waste on the fuel properties of the biochar produced were investigated, namely the carbon content and energy density. The cooked rice waste was dried overnight at 80°C prior to pyrolysis to reduce moisture content. The carbon content was measured by using Thermo Finnigan Flash EA 1112 Series Elemental Analyser CHNS-O. Energy density was measured by using IKA Works C—5000 Control bomb calorimeter. Results demonstrated that pyrolysed rice waste at 250°C and 4 hour duration had the highest carbon content (60.30%). Moreover, the calorific values for pyrolysed cooked rice wastes demonstrated that biochar derived from cooked rice waste could be a promising alternative renewable energy source.

The target of processing bimaterial components by cost effective powder metallurgy is to combine unique properties from different parts of the component. Differential shrinkage rate and more often, radial mismatch which is more consistent in bilayer owing to sintering conditions (time, rate, temperature etc.) is known to compromise the interfacial bond strength and integrity of these components. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the sintering compatibility and evaluate the mismatch strain in cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Fe-C) and steel (Fe-W-C) bilayer processed through powder metallurgy (PM) to combine the hardness and toughness properties applicable in machining industries for drilling tools. Through geometrical measurement, mismatch strain rate between layers at different sintering temperatures was calculated and a value as low as 13.7% was observed at the interfacial zone of MC–0.2 specimen sintered at 1280°C indicating a stronger bond between layers compared to those sintered at 1290°C and 1295°C where a huge mismatch was found increasing the tendency for delamination.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) or also known as RepRap (Replicating Rapid Prototyper) is a technology that is synonym with 3D printing. This technology has entered a new era with an increasing demand among the community. It has grown commercially in the market of open-source system and it is relatively low cost. Many efforts have been put towards the development of the system in both hardware and software to increase the quality and the performance. The research highlights the development of a new nozzle to evaluate the performance on dimensional accuracy in comparison to the original nozzle. The nozzle emphasizes the die angle for the polylactic acid (PLA) material, the liquefier design which provide constant heat in the liquefier chamber, as well as insulator for the liquefier using highly insulated material. The dimensional accuracies of both nozzles were compared where the result showed that the new nozzle provided better accuracy and stability on the extruding PLA material.

The historically good performance of concrete structures in real fires, and the lack of urgent drivers for the concrete industry to support research on the fire performance of concrete structures, means that research on the full frame response of concrete buildings to fires has received much less attention than for steel-framed structures. However, a credible understanding of, and ability to model, the response of concrete structures under fire exposure is crucial to make further progress in the field of structural fire engineering, and to make best use of the flexibility enabled by performance-based fire codes. This paper presents a computational study on the structural behaviour of reinforced concrete slabs during fire tests undertaken by Zhang et al.[16]. The distribution of stresses in the slabs is discussed, as is the need for further research to better understand structural response during fire. Amongst other factors, the assumed tensile strength of the concrete is crucial to accurately predict response. The results corroborate the existing consensus that concrete slabs in real buildings can, in some cases, withstand fires for longer than expected; this is due to mobilisation of membrane actions, amongst other factors.

The most critical parameter of palm oil mill effluent (POME) is chemical oxygen demand (COD mg/L). The adsorption of COD mg/L from raw POME using activated cow bone powder has been investigated. The raw POME contains 4.786 g/L of COD, which has to be treated effectively before discharge. Batch experiments were conducted at fixed condition of pH, contact time and speed at different weight dosages for different particle sizes of 75, 150 and 300μm. The result obtained showed a similar adsorption pattern for the particle sizes, the optimum removal was obtained at 150 μm at 0.025g/L with 71% removal efficiency, there was no further significant diference after the adsorption at this stage. The BET adsorption model was adopted to describe the experimental isotherm and isotherm constants for the optimum particle size. The equilibrium data fitted well to the BET model. The hydrophobic behaviour of the CBP proved by the WDPT analysis influenced the removal of COD mg/L on CBP.

Radiation Absorbing Material (RAM) is used to absorb radiations of electromagnetic wave surrounding us. Thus, the multiple layers’ microwave absorber using biomass composite materials could be one of the solutions to address the problem. In order to effectively absorb the radiation of electromagnetic wave, the multiple layers’ absorber is characterized to optimize the performance of the absorber. The characterization is made by varying biomass composite material contents, thickness and other possible considerations. CST Microwave Studio software is first used to design and simulate the multiple layers’ absorber to estimate its performance. Development of multiple layers’ prototype is carried out to test its performance at free space environment. Free space dielectric measurement method is used to determine the value of multiple layers’ absorber dielectric. The dielectric value is then used in CST software in order to make the simulation more precise. Free space arch which is connected to Agilent Analyzer is used to measure absorption of multiple layers’ microwave absorber.

Energy and power capability of a supercapacitor is important because of its function to provide backup power or pulse current in electronic/electric products or systems. The choice of its electrode materials, typically such as carbon, metal oxide or conducting polymer determines the mechanism of its energy storage process. This short review focuses on the supercapacitors using porous carbon electrode prepared, respectively, from fibers of oil palm empty fruit bunches. The specific energy and specific power of these supercapacitors were analyzed to observe their trend of change with respect to the electrode preparation parameters affecting the porosity, structure, surface chemistry and electrical conductivity of electrodes, and thence influence the energy and power capability of a supercapacitor. This review found that the trend of change in specific energy and specific power was not in favor of the expectation that both the specific energy and specific power should be in increasing trend with a significant progress.

This paper reviews the performance of detailed and average model for distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) in order to remove voltage flicker, regulate the voltage at point of common coupling (PCC), power factor correction and harmonics elimination. In these models, d-q theory is used to extract fundamental active and reactive power components of the load currents which will be required to estimate the reference source currents. Both models are evaluated and compared in MATLAB/Simulink based simulation platform.

A low power, cost effective and energy efficient microcontroller (PIC 16F877A) based transceiver model has been presented. The designed model entails a combination of programmable microcontroller and relay circuitry to control the robotic vehicle through transceiver module. The model was simulated in a Mikro C environment, for communication signals from controlling side. The simulation results show an energy efficiency of 73%, with a distance of 20 meters for robotic vehicle. The results are in good agreement with theoretical understandings and show a greater efficiency, with low power consumption and reduced complexity. The simulations are found recurrent with stable findings and deemed compatible for applications.

This paper presents the improvement on accuracy and reliability of the load forecast model. It is well-known that characteristics of a load series is a non-stationary data, which is a constraint for the load forecast methods to achieve accurate and robustness responses. To overcome this limitation, a synergized method between wavelet transform and artificial neural network is proposed for short-term load forecasting. The modeling processes such as minimizing distorted data due to convolution operator of the wavelet transforms, model inputs and neural network design are presented. The proposed method is tested using historical load data of independent system operation New England. The results of the proposed model significantly outperform either accuracy or robustness results over neural network model.

Although, Back Propagation Neural Network are frequently implemented to forecast short-term electricity load, however, this training algorithm is criticized for its slow and improper convergence and poor generalization. There is a great need to explore the techniques that can overcome the above mentioned limitations to improve the forecast accuracy. In this paper, an improved BP neural network training algorithm is proposed that hybridizes simulated annealing and genetic algorithm (SA-GA). This hybrid approach leads to the integration of powerful local search capability of simulated annealing and near accurate global search performance of genetic algorithm. The proposed technique has shown better results in terms of load forecast accuracy and faster convergence. ISO New England data for the period of five years is employed to develop a case study that validates the efficacy of the proposed technique.

The aim of this research is to develop a low power, low cost and energy efficient transceiver model which is integrated with programmable microcontroller and ZigBee transponder. A combination of programmable microcontroller with ZigBee transponder is used to control the transceiver module with computer commands. It has b een simulated for transmitting and receiving the communication signals from any movable device with more efficiently and use low power consumption. ZigBee Transponder is preferable as compared to radio frequency identification (RFID) due to IEEE 802.15.4 standard that promises stable data transmission with low power consumption device and having higher network flexibility. PIC 16F877A programmable microcontroller with coding in Mikro C software is simulated and used with computer control instructions. Series of experiments has been conducted to ensure the stability and low power consumption of this model.

This paper reviews neural network control algorithm for power quality improvement. Further, this paper focuses on the neural network control algorithm for DSTATCOM and surveys its area of improvements. Various architectures of Neural Network such as Adaline/Widrow-Hoff, perceptron, Back-propagation (BP), Hopfield, and Radial Basis Function (RBF) that has been reviewed in this paper. It is found that many researches on theoretical works and single phase system are widely performed, whereas its application on distribution network for three phase system is hardly found. Even so much improvement that have been done by researchers theoretically to improve the drawbacks of Neural Network controller; there are still wide gaps for verification through experimental implementation and industrial applications.

The main objectives of this paper is to find the way for solving the problems of aluminum extrusion process, and improve the mechanical properties of the products through a smart design, modelling and simulation of this process by using finite element method (FEM). For the purpose to model a (2D) two dimensions warm aluminum extrusion process, ABAQUS software was used to set up the finite element simulation. The main parameters which have major effects on this process like extrusion stresses, temperature, and die geometry, i.e. extrusion radius, were taken into consideration. Aluminum alloy (Al-2014) was used as the billet material, with 40 mm diameter and 75 mm length. It is important to preheat the billet from the beginning to a specific temperature, and then pressurizes it into the die. This process is an isothermal process with an extrusion ratio of 3.3. Subsequently, the optimized algorithm for these extrusion parameters was suggested based on the simulation results. The results suggest that the large die angle needs a less extrusion load than the small die angle. In all die geometry used, the deformation of aluminum billet, which caused by shearing and compression stresses, happened in a small sectional area, i.e., bearing area. The results also showed that the values of these stresses can increase or decrease depends on the die entrance angle and the die bearing length. To avoid the effects of these stresses on die dimensions; the hardness, material selection, and geometry should be well calculated.

Dimensional accuracy plays important criteria in producing high quality machined parts. This is a big challenge to manufacturers of precision components to produce good quality parts with minimum manufacturing error. The focus of this paper is to study the influence of the machine tool rigidity and cutting parameters on dimensional accuracy in turning operation. A method was prepared for identifying the factors effecting dimensional accuracy in a turning process. Experimental setup involved computerized numerical control (CNC) lathe machine, with VBMT 160404 carbide insert and mild steel, as cutting tool and workpiece respectively. The statistical analysis was used for analyzing and determining the accuracy of experimental data through Minitab statistical software. The regressions model was developed. The developed regression model could be used to predict the dimensional precision of the parts based on machine tool vibration and machining parameters during turning process. This is the aspect to be seriously considered and be applied in attaining sustainable machine tool development during design and development stage and its usage. This finding provides useful guidelines for manufacturers to produce high quality machined parts at minimum manufacturing cost. It was found that the cutting speed, feed rate, final part length, vibration x and vibration z have significant effects on dimensional accuracy of the machined parts.

This paper presents fatigue life analysis of high performance motorcycle disc brake. The design parameter such as stress, deformation and safety factory that influences the disk brake on a high performance motorcycle were investigated. The simulation of static structural analysis of high performance motorcycle is successfully presented on 3 proposed materials by using ANSYS software. The static structural analysis is performed on the disc brake rotor with these candidate materials. From the analysis, Martensitic stainless steel, Wrought AISI 410 has the lowest value in Von-Mises stress which is 766.9MPa. Furthermore, it is less deformed which is 0.3429mm and has the factor of safety more than 1. Thus, this project proposes Martensitic Wrought AISI 410 stainless steel as the suitable material for disc brake rotor on HONDA GL1500 VALKYRIE motorcycle.

Photovoltaics (PV) system converts light into electric current using the photo-electric effect. Due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of solar cells and PV system arrays has advanced considerably in recent years. However, lightning protection on photovoltaic material is very crucial to avoid strike damage caused by transient overvoltage to the photovoltaic system that may due to a direct or an indirect strike. There is no experimental study recently to show the profile of unwanted signals due to induced overvoltage that is coupled to the solar panel system or related material. It is consequently imperative that experimental work to investigate the unwanted signal that is coupled to the solar panel material be conducted. In this study, the experimental set up of induced overvoltage was conducted in which the unwanted signal due to induced voltage was created by the short spark gap. The experiment was conducted in a High Voltage lab in University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) using artificial lightning discharge of 1.2/50μs with the peak voltage of 33 kV. The distance between the solar panel and spark gap was varied in order to study the relationship between the maximum voltage of unwanted signal and the distance. The existence of unwanted signal due to induced voltage with of maximum voltage profile was observed and is discussed in detail in the result and discussion sections.

This paper presents a 300W AC/DC/AC power converter for wind energy system. Magnetic Levitation Vertical Axis Wind Turbine is used to harness energy at low wind speed of less than 3 m/s which is suitable for residential area in Malaysia. Three phase voltage produces by wind turbine is rectified using three phase rectifier. A boost converter is employed to convert the rectified DC voltage to a higher level. The output stage consists of full bridge circuit that produces a sinusoidal AC voltage using SPWM switching technique for common AC loads. When operating in rated condition, this system reduces 300W of energy consumption from utility.

This project is related to the improvement of cab transfer process from Painted Body Storage (PBS) area to General Assembly (GA) line. The objectives of this project are to eliminate the root cause of cab defect and to streamline the transfer process with the reduction of process cycle time. From the current process study, it is found that the lifting method causes the quality defect to the cab and the usage of different type of trolley between PBS and GA contribute to the high cycle time. The new process design has been introduced from the findings with the use of towing method and the use of common trolley for both PBS area and GA line. With the new and improved cab transfer process, the cab changing process can be eliminated. Hence, the number of operator required has been reduced, from two operators to only one operator. A trial run has been conducted with a prototype trolley and a forklift. The objectives of this project are fulfilled with the new towing method that eliminate the quality defect and the use of common trolley for both PBS and GA line resulting new cycle time of 7.13 minutes per unit from 9.77 minutes per unit. Further studies are needed for commissioning and monitoring to the new cab transfer process with the actual trolley and tow tug or buggy.

In this study, annealed AL-6063 alloy was processed by the Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) up to 6 passes at a temperature of 200°c following route A with a constant ram speed of 30 mm/min through a die angle of 90° between the die channels. The influence of ECAE processing on the evolution of microhardness in the material was studied using Vickers microhardness testing. The detailed analysis was carried out on the samples of as-received, one, two, three, four, five, and six pass conditions. The grain diameter reduced from 45μm to 2.8 μm after 6 passes of ECAE. The results indicated around 90% increase in Microhardness after 5 passes. Hardness of the inner surface where the billet was under compression was slightly higher than that of the mid-surface.

Malaysian industries, in general consider energy management a burden and non-profitable. Energy management initiatives are also viewed as a Cost-Centre. An Excel spreadsheet was therefore tailor-designed, which meets the requirements of the plant for energy optimization and management. The spreadsheet is grouped to reflect four parts, namely: plan, do, check and commit. This Plan-Do-Check-Commit cycle is based on the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle. This spreadsheet has been developed with the objective of developing a tool that would be comprehensive, simple and flexible, open to be modified and tailored for the industries. The results indicated that there are opportunities for a more effective and structured approach to energy management in industry. An initial reduction of 5% in energy consumption has been recorded and it is the company’s responsibility to ensure that their energy management becomes part of their corporate culture.

Polishing is a secondary process in machining. The application of polishing process is crucial to obtained final appearance of a product. This study addresses parameter analysis on flat and dry polishing to determine the most influence parameter which effect surface roughness. For this purpose, Design of Experiment (DOE) is used as a methodology in the analysis. The polishing process is conducted on Comau robotic cell and the combination of grit size, polishing time and polishing force are subjected on the material by using pneumatic polishing tool. Two-level factorial experiment design is conducted and result is interpreted by using statistical software. From the result it is shown that grit size and polishing time give the main effect on surface roughness. However for 2-way interaction effect, polishing time and polishing force contribute significantly on surface roughness. This suggested that for flat and dry polishing, consideration on these parameters is an essential aspect in order to achieve a good surface finished.

Stavax Supreme material is classified as difficult-to-machine material. The difficulty does not preclude the use of this material, especially in the mold industry. In this experiment, high speed end milling of Stavax Supreme (52 HRC) was investigated using five different types of tool. Performance of the cutting tools was compared with respect to tool life and surface roughness of the workpiece. Machining process was conducted in two parameters where each parameter used different rotation spindle speed and feed rate but same chip per tooth removal rate. The best cutting performance was obtained with TiN and TiCN. TiAlN tool also proved to be suitable for high speed end milling of Stavax Supreme but for finishing process only because fast tool wear in high spindle speed. The Xceed coated tool is more suitable for roughing process only in high spindle speed.

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) is one of the processes used to refine the microstructure of materials. Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) is the most common method of SPD. In this study, AL-6063grain refinement was performed using the Equal Channel Angular Extrusion method. The material was extruded up to 6 passes at a temperature of 200°C following route A. A suitable die sets equipped with heating elements alongside a thermometer was employed with the intention of extruding the material. Between the two channels, there was an angle of 90°. The results showed that the material grain average diameter decreased from 45μm to 2.8 μm after 6 passes of the ECAE. The Charpy test was used for measuring the fracture energy of various samples. The fracture toughness was the function of this energy. According to this experiment, the fracture toughness rose as the number of the ECAE process elevated. Moreover, the toughness improved for 90% after 6 passes of the ECAE process.

The main objective of this paper is to study the effect of extrusion parameters (extrusion stresses and temperature) and die geometry, i.e. extrusion radius, on the extruded aluminum quality using FEM Simulation Technique. For this purpose, the general FEA Software ABAQUS was used to set up the finite element model of the warm aluminum extrusion in two dimensions (2D). Aluminum alloy Al-2014 was used as billet material, with 40mm diameter and 75mm length. The extrusion process was modeled as isothermal, which means that the billet material was preheated at a specific temperature and then pressured into the circular die, with extrusion ratio 3.3. Optimized algorithms for extrusion parameters were proposed regarding the concluded simulating results. The results showed that small die angles required higher extrusion load than large die angles. In all die geometry used, the deformation of aluminum billet, which is caused by shearing and compression stresses, happened in a small sectional area (bearing area). The results also showed that, the values of these stresses can increase or decrease depending on the die entrance angle and the die bearing length. To avoid the effects of these stresses on die dimensions; the hardness, material selection, and geometry should be well calculated. An axis-symmetrical 2D geometric model of the tooling and billet was constructed for the analysis. Data obtained from the FE model included die-work piece contact pressure, effective stress and strain and material deformation velocity. The correlation between the calculated and FEA data was obtained in this research.

This study is concerned with evaluating the seaworthiness of ferry services between Labuan and Mainland (Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei) Labuan provides services to 2500 passengers a day Department and the number spikes during festive seasons. The audit tools were adopted from the Marine Department and surveyor list. Nine ferry services were audited for seaworthiness based on ship's structure, machinery, fire safety measures, remote control and warning system, life saving appliances, radio communications, remote control and warning system, safety of navigations and accommodation and escape measures. The audit shows that the ships generally comply to the rules on minimum requirements for life saving appliances (LSA) at medium level except on some boats the Hydrostatics Release Unit (HRU) were wired and this cam prevent the life-raft to self-inflate when submerged in water. It is suggested that standard design for speedboat hull needs to be introduced.

A simplified model for micro milling process is presented, as well as results on temperature on tool and work piece. The purpose is to investigate on finite element modelling of two flute micro end milling process of titanium alloy, Ti6Al4V with prediction of temperature distribution. ABAQUS/Explicit has been chosen as solver for the analysis. A thermo-mechanical analysis was performed. First model was created by selecting medium carbon steel, AISI1045, as workpiece material for model validation purpose. Second model was created by modifying the workpiece material from AISI1045 to Ti6Al4V. The model consists of two parts which are tungsten carbide micro tool and workpiece. Johnson-Cook law model has been applied as material constitutive properties for both materials due to its severe plastic deformation occur during machining. Prediction on forces was obtained during the analysis. Model validation was done by comparing results published by Woon et al. in 2008. The results showed a good agreement in cutting force. Once this was proved, the same model was then modified to simulate finite element analysis in micro milling of Ti6Al4V. Prediction of temperature distribution of micro end mill of Ti6Al4V was done in relation of different undeformed chip thickness. The findings showed that temperature increases as undeformed chip thickness increases. Temperature distribution of Ti6Al4V and AISI1045 under same machining conditions was compared. Results showed that the highest temperature was concentrated at tool edge for Ti6Al4V.

Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is a method to form a sheet metal into desired shape and surface features in a batch production series. This method includes forming a clamped sheet metal in controlled conditions by a CNC milling machine, lathe machine or a robot. In this study, the effects of forming parameters on the amount of stretch in stainless steel sheet using a CNC milling machine have been investigated. A ball-point shaped tool made of a bronze alloy was fabricated and used throughout the experiments. The tool acted as the indenter that formed the stainless steel sheet into a small pyramid-like shape. The results showed that as the spindle speed and feed rate increased, the amount of sheet stretch also increased, up to a point where the sheet could not stretch anymore and the process changed from forming to shear thinning and chipping. In addition, the surface quality of the part was badly affected at higher spindle speed and feed rate settings. The temperature of the lubrication oil was also measured during the process and the maximum temperature recorded was 45°C which remained constant until the end of the process. In conclusion, to obtain a good quality part while increasing the productivity of ISF, the optimized values of the feed rate and spindle speed in this work were found to be at 500 mm/min and 1000 rpm respectively.

This paper presents the results of three different fibers, Kenaf(hibiscus cannabinus), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and abaca (Musa textilis) which were treated using 5 different types of surface treatments namely sodium hydroxide for 24 hours, glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy-silane for 24 hours, NaOH followed by Silane (each 24 hours), NaOH followed by Silane (each 12 hours) and NaOH followed by Silane (each 6 hours). The mechanical strength of the fibers were then studied and compared to the untreated fibers. The highest strength was given by the fibers treated with NaOH followed by the combined treatments and the lowest were the fibers treated with silane. Also the bonding strength between the fibers and unsaturated polyester resin were then evaluated using micro droplet pull out tests. It was proven that all the treatments improved on the bonding strength. The highest was silane followed by NaOH. For the combined treatments it was found that the highest IFSS was given by the lowest treatment duration at 6 hours, due to the alkali nature of NaOH corroding the fibers which were then filled with silane, thus losing the ability to properly bond with the resin. The samples were also then characterized using a SEM to check the surface morphology which revealed that the NaOH reduced the diameter by removing impurities and lignin, thus increasing the aspect ratio. While silane coats the surface, increases the diameter and reduces the aspect ratio. Keywords. Kenaf, Abaca, OPF, Chemical Treatment, Bonding Strength, Droplet Test, SEM

In the present study, the impact strength of annealed Al-6063 alloy developed by equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE), up to 6 passes at a temperature of 200°C following route A with a constant ram speed of 30 mm/min through a die angle of 90° between the die channels was investigated. The impact strength of extruded specimens is evaluated for different passes at a strain rate of 1800 s-1 using Split-Hopkinson pressure bar techniques. The results indicate that the major strength improvement occurs in the 5th and 6th passes while in primary passes, the strength improved but at a considerably lower rate. A total increasing in ultimate strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) are 127% and 65% respectively and observed for the extruded material after 6 passes. Optical microscopic examinations show a grain refinement from 45 μm to 2.8 μm.

This paper presents the results on dielectric properties of pulverized material based on agricultural waste namely oil palm frond and pineapple leaf fiber for microwave absorber application in the X-band frequency range. The investigation is started by identifying the pulverized materials permittivities and loss tangents using coaxial probe technique, followed by density measurement comprising the determination of bulk and solid densities. Then, by using dielectric mixture model, the solid particle dielectric properties were determined. It is observed that the air properties give quite an effect on the permittivity and loss tangent of the pulverized materials. It is also found that the lower the material density the higher material dielectric constant will be. Furthermore, the results show that, both oil palm frond and pineapple leaf fiber are potential to be X-band absorber with average dielectric constant of 4.40 and 3.38 respectively. The loss tangents for both materials were observed to be more than 0.1 which mark them as lossy materials.

Over this recent year, a growing population that increase the economic development, capacity of landfills and critical environmental impact are gaining the importance role of remanufacturing activities. Moreover, many durable products are disposed in landfills at the end of their useful lives without undergoing by any recovery process that affect the landfill space has been decreasing in all over the world including by our country. Remanufacturing is the process by which used products are returned to their new state with minimum waste and expenditure on materials and energy. This study focus on the concept concept of remanufacturing practice in automotive sector. Malaysians have been generated wastes at a manufacturing sector especially in the automotive sector. On top of that, the conventional remanufacturing systems that have been constructed in Malaysia are not widely marketed and lack of practical applications. This study provides a remanufacturing analysis for improvement to the automotive sectors on engine block. Furthermore, this study presents the information based on the discussion of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to encourage the implementation of remanufacturing activities. By making the remanufacturing activities possible to implement efficiently, manufacturer may decrease their production costs, decrease refuse and landfill materials, and increase their quality management.

This paper encompasses the work from numerical model by investigating the compression response of CFRP composite cylinder shells. The aim of this paper is to improve the reliability of NASA SP-8007 design guideline. The cylinder geometrical imperfections were tested through numerical modelling and validate with the experiment results. Good results comparison has been obtained through the work with small amount of errors. The cylinder shell load carrying capacity has been improved by average of 56% through imperfection study. This work builds confidence in the future use of non-linear finite element for the design of composite cylinder subjected to axial compression load.

In milling operation, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling machine has been recognized as one of effective solutions for high productivity, efficiency, and precision. However, the existing CNC milling machine has contributed to ergonomics-related problems such as awkward working posture. The aim of this study is to redesign the existing CNC milling machine by considering working posture of the machinist. This study performed questionnaire survey to determine ergonomics feature requirements from the machinist. The requirements of the machinist are then translated using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to obtain technical specifications of new design CNC milling machine. The working posture of machinist during operating the existing CNC milling machine and the redesigned CNC milling machine was assessed using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA). Based on the analysis, the redesigned CNC milling machine has improved the working posture as shown by low score of RULA. This study concluded that by considering the ergonomics feature requirements to the design of CNC milling machine enabled the machinists to perform milling operation in safe working posture. This study suggests that environmental factors should be considered in the future research works.

Assessment of process capability enables manufacturers to determine if a process produces products that meet customers expectation. Process capability can be beneficial in the long run in producing quality parts with minimum reject and optimum manufacturing cost. This paper proposes a procedure to assess process capability of a machining centers in drilling process using statistical analysis of machining parameters and machine rigidity. Experimental method used mild steel plate as work piece and carbide indexable cutting insert on drill of diameter 20mm. Cutting parameters such as cutting speed and feed rate were varied according to different cutting parameter level while wear in peripheral insert was inspected before and after each test run start. Machine rigidity in terms of vibration acceleration amplitude in x-, y-, and z-axis were measured and analyzed. Process capability index, Cpk of drilled hole accuracy was calculated. A regression model based on this experiment was established for predicting the process capability of machine tool in drilling operation. The established regression model is proven to have high accuracy, which is more than 80%. The validation test was carried out on a different machine tool with the same cutting conditions to check if different machine was adaptable to the regression model. This finding provides useful guidelines for machning operator to predict the process capability of the machine tool in the drilling process.

Tailing sand from ex-tin mine in Batu Gajah containing between 95.9 to 98.9% silica. In this research involved the process of, conducting the mechanical sieve grading to identify the size spread, plotting the grain size distribution and calculating the average grain size. Further on with the effects of controlled additions of clay (bentonite) and water and determining the working range on the mechanical properties. The investigation involved comparing the mechanical properties of the tailing sand to the requirement for foundry sand applications listed by Foseco Ferrous Foundrymans Handbook (Foseco). Permeability and green compression strength are the important mechanical properties and considered much in the sand casting mould preparation. These mechanical properties play a vital role in determining the allowable clay and moisture content for working range of tailing sand for making green sand casting mould. Experiments for this investigation were conducted according to American Foundrymen Society (AFS) standard of procedures. Cylindrical test pieces dimensioning of Ø50 mm×50 mm in height from various sandwater ratios bonded with 3.8%wt clay and then 7.4%wt clay, were compacted by applying three ramming blows of 6666 g each using Ridsdale-Dietert metric standard rammer. The specimens were tested for green compression strength using Ridsdale-Dietert universal sand strength machine and permeability number with Ridsdale-Dietert permeability meter. Before the tests were conducted, the moisture content was measured using moisture analyser. Tailing sand with allowable moisture content ranging from 3 to 3.5% (bonded with 3.8%wt clay) and 5.5 to 6% (bonded with 7.4%wt clay) were found to have optimum working range with effective green compression strength and permeability.

The implementation of Rapid Prototyping technology in industrial and manufacturing processes has revolutionized new product development process. However, there are some restrictions of RP parts, primarily in the geometrical accuracy, shrinkage and distortion after the typical post processing method. This paper presents the experimental study using specially designed specimen to determine the effect of thermal parameter used on the RP part built using 3D printer ProJet SD 3000. The parameters of concern are geometrical dimension, shrinkage and flatness. The mechanical properties of the specimen have been determined using the tensile testing machine in order to indentify the effect of post processing temperature on the strength of the specimens. It is expected that the post processing temperature will play the major role in maintaining the geometrical accuracy of the RP products since heating used will lead to increase the shrinkage, warpage and reduce the accuracy. The effects of the heating used during post processing on the geometrical accuracy, shrinkage, strength and warpage on the specimens are discussed in this paper.

Mechanical vibration was introduced into the Aluminum alloy matrix composite during solidification process. The cooling curves of composite with mechanical vibration were measured and compared without mechanical vibration. The thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity properties of the Al/TiC composite were investigated. The result indicated that the mechanical vibration reduces the temperature inhomogeneity of melt. The density of the composite with 10.2, 12, 15Hz and 16 Hz of mechanical vibration improved apparently compared with the composite without mechanical vibration. The thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity properties of composites with mechanical vibration are also both improved significanly.

Coal Bottom Ash (CBA) is a by-product from the generation of electricity using pulverized coal; Tanjung Bin power plant in Malaysia is a coal-based power plant that generates tonnes of bottom ash daily without known economic value that ends up in the ash pond. Due to the problems associated with the disposal ash pond in terms of cost and environmental impact, attention has now been focused on how best to utilize this waste. This paper present the recent development achieved on the utilization of bottom ash from Tanjung Bin power plant Malaysia in concrete development; physical and chemical properties, workability and fresh concrete properties as well as the strength development of Tanjung Bin bottom ash.

Results from Finite Element (FE) study on the response of composite cylinder shells with cutouts and subjected to internal pressure and axial compression are presented. The objective of the study is to improving the buckling load by applying the internal pressure whilst the compression load is applied. The effect of localized stress concentration distributed around the cutout region also being examined. The numerical results are obtained using ABAQUS finite element code software package. The composite cylinder shells were tested in two conditions which are a combination of axial compression load with internal pressure and a single axial compression load. The effects of varying internal pressure and cutout size on the pre-buckling, buckling, and post-buckling responses of the shell are demonstrated. Reasonable results comparison was obtained by reviewing previous literature. Results indicated that the load distribution and displacement of the cutout significantly influence the structural response of the shell. The results also indicate that the stress distributions can be affected by the size of the cutout under axial compression load.

Performance of machining processes is assessed by dimensional and geometrical accuracy which is mentioned in this paper as dimensional deviation. A part quality does not depend solely on the depth of cut, feed rate and cutting speed. Other variable such as excessive machine tool vibration due to insufficient dynamic rigidity can be deleterious to the desired results. The focus of the present study is to find a correlation between dimensional deviation against cutting parameters and machine tool vibration in dry turning. Hence cutting parameters and vibration-based regression model can be established for predicting the part dimensional deviation. Experiments are conducted using a Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) lathe with carbide insert cutting tool. Vibration data are collected through a data acquisition system, then tested and analyzed through statistical analysis. The analysis revealed that machine tool vibration has significant effect on dimensional deviation where statistical analysis of individual regression coefficients showed p

Robotics especially on polishing process has not been exploited successfully in manufacturing, despite tremendous research efforts and potential needs in industries. There is still much concern on how robots are used in industries and stumbling blocks in the deployment of technology. In this study, the techniques to alleviate difficulties in using robots and deploying advanced technologies in the real manufacturing environment will be developed. However, the mirror polishing process still depends on human expert, compared to CNC and CAD/CAM technology. On top of that, undesirable working condition exists due to dust and noise. Next, it is quite difficult to find skilled technicians where existing industrial robot (normally with repetitive accuracy of 0.1mm) not suitable for mirror polishing task requirement (10nm). This study addresses idea to develop and automate the polishing process by using robots. It applies specifically on flat steel surfaces and the image of the workpiece is captured by vision sensor. The image captured is extracted to develop ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) to determine the roughness so that correct polishing parameter will be applied on the surface of the workpiece when polishing is done. ANFIS is well suited to the management of uncertainty, is introduced to address the uncertainty problem associated with surface roughness.