Welcome Message from the Editor
Message from the Head of Department
Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza
Dr. Ing. Pierre Vella
Welcome to the 18th edition of the department’s annual newsletter. This newsletter is a showcase of the DIME’s work over the past year, and illustrates both the research and academic progress carried out by the department members. As a team we strongly believe in the importance of the manufacturing industry within the Maltese economy. Manufacturing is in fact one of the key players in the Maltese economy with a contribution of 11.32 per cent to value added gross as reported by the National Statistics office, 2014. Moreover, the manufacturing industry also contributes towards the employment in the manufacturing sector of 34 per cent of the country’s workforce and a large number of jobs depending on it in the service industry. This is in fact also reflected by the EU Commission’s drive through the Manufuture platform. We are in fact pleased to note that many of our students find employment immediately within the Maltese manufacturing industry.
I would like to join my colleague and editor Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza, in welcoming you to this latest edition of our departmental newsletter. It is our department’s vision as a team to increase the relevance of the DIME within the Maltese manufacturing industry, further contributing to its growth and sustainability. Our efforts to increase collaboration with industry is in fact reflected in the nature of the final year projects supervised by DIME staff members, which have a strong element of industrial collaboration. It is my pleasure to note that the DIME has also been successful in attracting a number of funded research projects. Furthermore, this issue also illustrates the ongoing and newly established international outreach and collaborations held by DIME staff members. Our aim is to continuously improve our teaching and research capabilities in order to train better engineers to have relevant knowledge in the field and the capability of applying this knowledge within industry.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS ISSUE: DIME Staff Scientific Publications DIME News Funded Research Students Supervised @ DIME Industrial Collaboration
Page 2 Editor: Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza 3 4-6 Published by: 7-8
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Faculty of Engineering University of Malta 10-11 Msida MSD2080 MALTA Tel : +356 2340 2061 9
Direct: +356 2134 6761
web: www.um.edu.mt/eng/ime Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/IndManufEngineering Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
Dr. Ing. Pierre Vella Head of Department,
Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg Professor
Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia Senior Lecturer
Dr Arif Rochman Senior Lecturer Tool Development, Polymer Processes, Micro Moulding, Rapid Tooling, Add. Manufacturing
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo Lecturer
Design of microscale products, manufacturing processes for microscale products
Design of Products & Technical Systems, Integrated Product Development, DFX, Intelligent CADCAM
Innovative Product Development, Collaborative Design, Additive Manufacturing, Injection Moulding
Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza Assistant Lecturer
Dr Ing. Conrad Pace Visiting Senior Lecturer
Ing. Amanda Azzopardi
Ing. Francis E. Farrugia
Visiting Assistant Lecturer
Visiting Senior Lecturer
Factory Planning, Digital Factory Tools, Simulation of Manufacturing Systems
Autonomous Mobile Robotic Systems, Mechatronic Systems
CAED, AI in Engineering
Metrology, Quality
Ing. John P. Borg
Mr Michael Attard
Mr Michael Curmi
Mr Jesmond Pace
Mr Joseph Curmi
Systems Engineer
Assistant Lab. Manager
Senior Lab. Officer
Senior Lab. Officer
Senior Lab. Officer
Mr Josef Attard
Mr Josef Briffa
Ms Sharlene Cachia
Ms Therese Caruana
Senior Lab. Officer
Lab. Officer
Admin. Assistant
Clerk
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Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
Sustainable Manufacturing, Clean Production, Energy and Water Management in Manufacturing
Farrugia Lawrence, Jonathan C. Borg, Design for X Based on Foreseeing Emotional Impact of Meetings with Evolving Products. Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science EL Badawi EL Najjar, Rachad; Friedl, Michael; Martinec, Tomislav; Ouamer Ali, Mohamed-Islem; Partie, Marcel; Borg, Jonathan; Vajna, Sándor Distributed IPD Project-Based Learning - A Phd Summer School Student´s Perspective. Proceedings Design 2016 Conference, 16-19 May 2016 Dubrovnik, Croatia. E.Francalanza, J.C. Borg, P. Farrugia, L.Farrugia, Augmented Reality in the Digital Factory. Proceedings of the Augmented Reality for Technical Entrepreneurs 2016 Conference, 1st April 2016, Burcharest, Romania (pp 4750). P. Farrugia, J.C. Borg, A. Wodehouse, H. Grierson, A.Kovacevci, V.Balazs, Experiments with Augmented Reality for Supporting Education in Distributed Product Design Solution Evaluation. Proceedings of the Augmented Reality for Technical Entrepreneurs 2016 Conference, 1st April 2016, Burcharest, Romania (pp 51-58) C.G.Amza, Jonathan C. Borg, Teodora D. Chicioreanu, Renata Danieliene, Emmanuel Francalanza, Monica Muresan, Paul A. Negrea, Augmented Reality for Technical Entrepreneurs, Published by Editura Printech, Bucharest, Romania, 2015. ISBN 978-606-23-0501-7 Francalanza, E., Borg, J. & Constantinescu, C., A fuzzy logic based approach to explore manufacturing system changeability level decisions. Proceedings of the CIRP CMS 48th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems (CMS 2015), Procedia CIRP, Naples, Italy, July 2015. Axiak, J., Refalo, P., Francalanza, E., An Integrated Product Development Approach to Improving Sustainability Using Simulated Experiments: Manufacturing Case Study. Published in Sustainable Design and Manufacturing 2016, R. Setchi, R. J. Howlett, Y. Liu, and P. Theobald, Eds. Springer International Publishing, pp.323-334,ISBN 978-3-319-32096-0, 2016. Francalanza, E., Borg, J. & Constantinescu, C., Development and Evaluation of a Knowledge-Based Decision-Making Approach for Designing Changeable Manufacturing Systems. In Print: CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology Said C., Refalo P., Mule` Stagno L., Yousif C., Thermal Conductivity of an Unplanted Sustainable Green Roof System’, Sustainable Built Environment 16 Malta – International Conference: Europe and the Mediterranean: Towards a Sustainable Built Environment, pp. 427-434, ISBN 978-99957-0-935-8, 2016. Rochman A., Zahra K., Influence of Melt Mixer on Injection Molding of Thermoset Elastomers. 19th ESAFORM Conference, Nantes, France, 27-29 April, 2016 Schembri M., Farrugia P., Wodehouse A., Grierson H. and Kovacevic A., Influence of sketch types on distributed design team work. CoDesign Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, 99-118, DOI: 10.1080/15710882.2015.1054841, 2015. Cini M. and Farrugia P., A Semiotic Integrated Product Development Framework For Integrating Branding In Automotive Product Design. Proceedings of the 14th International Design Conference DESIGN 2016, Dubrovnik, Croatia, pp. 1243-1252, 2016. Falzon J., Farrugia P. and Casha A., Rapid Fabrication of Annuloplasty Rings by Electron Beam Melting. Proceedings of the Design of Medical Devices Conference – Europe edition 2015, Vienna / Wiener Neustadt, Austria, pp.11-12, 2015. Mamo J., Farrugia P., Borg J.C., Wodehouse A, Grierson H. and Kovacevic A., Using Engineering Design Tools In Multidisciplinary Distributed Student Teams. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering & Product Design Education, Loughborough, UK, pp. 99-104, 2015. Vella P., Dimov S., Kolew A., Process chain for serial manufacture of polymer components with micro- and nanoscale features: Optimisation issues. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture February 5, 2016.
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
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EuroNanoForum Conference 2017 The Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering will through the input of Prof. Jonathan C. Borg and Dr. Ing. Pierre Vella on the National Advisory Committee be contributing to the organization of the EuroNanoForum conference taking place in June 2017 in Malta under the EU Presidency. During this international event, participants will be able to hear the latest news and opportunities from those working in micro and nano fabrication, technologies, materials, medicine as well as electronics. This event is funded through H2020.
2015 ipdISS PhD Summer School In September 2015, Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg delivered a number of lectures in the sec-ond week of the 2015 IPD PhD Summer School held at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany
2016 ipdISS PhD Summer School In May 2017, Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg hosted The first week of the 3rd International Ph.D. summer school on Integrated Product Development (IPD) was held in Malta between 2 and 6 May 2016. The summer school was attended by 14 participants coming from Participants of ipdISS2015 in Germany, Oct 2015 Austria, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Tunisia and Ukraine, including Ph.D. candidates from Daimler AG and Volvo Trucks. The summer school was organised by University of Malta Professor Dr Ing. Jonathan C. Borg, and Professor Dr Ing. Sandor Vajna of Otto-vonGuericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, as well as Prof.-Dr Ing. Kristin Paetzold from Universität der Bundeswehr München. The second session will take place in Magdeburg in September.
Other News
Participants of ipdISS2016 in Valletta, May 2016 In July 2015, Dr Ing Pierre Vella, successfully defended his thesis "Micro and nano–manufacturing process chains: maturity assessment and bulk metallic glass enabled manufacturing routes" and was awarded a PhD from the University of Birmingham. In September 2015, Dr Ing Paul Refalo, successfully defended his thesis "Innovative Approaches to Solar Distillation" and was awarded a PhD from the University of Malta. In April 2016, Dr. Ing. Philip J. Farrugia participated at the Design & Technology Expo in Pembroke, aimed for secondary school students. Dr. Ing. Philip J. Farrugia disseminated design related projects and activities carried out at the DIME and the Faculty of Engineering. In April 2016, Dr Ing Paul Refalo, co-organised and chaired the seminar "Greening of the Maltese Industry" held by the Cleaner Technology Centre. Mr Anton Pizzuto, director of the Cleaner Technology Centre awarded a grant to Dr Refalo, which will be used by the DIME to purchase equipment to study the energy requirements of different manufacturing processes.
International Activities In June 2015, Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia attended the 2015 Medical Device Manufacturing conference & exposition, New York City, US. The research carried out in the EX-MMIM andRiBridge projects was promoted. In July 2015, Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg and PhD candidate Lawrence Farrugia attended the 20th International Conference on Engineering Design held at Politechnico di Milano in Italy between 27-30 July 2015. 4
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
In September 2015, Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia and Mr. James Falzon attended the Design of Medical Devices Conference – Europe edition 2015, in Vienna / Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The paper titled “Rapid Fabrication of Annuloplasty Rings by Electron Beam Melting” was presented. In November 2015, Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg and PhD candidate Lawrence Farrugia attended the Interplay 2015 Conference organised by the International Association of Societies of Design Resarch (IASDR) held in Brisbane, Australia between 2-5th November 2015. During this conference, they presented their research paper "An Approach Exploiting the Interplay between Elicited Emotions and Product Design to Improve Business Competitiveness’. In April 2016, Dr. Ing. Philip J. Farrugia visited the Munich University of Applied Sciences as part of the Erasmus Programme for Staff Mobility. During his visit, Dr . Ing. Philip J. Farrugia delivered lectures related to tool design and manufacture. In April 2016, Ing. E. Francalanza & Prof. Jonathan C. Borg presented experimental work carried out together with Dr. Philip Farrugia and Lawrence Farrugia on the exploitation of Augmented Reality technology at the ARTE16 Conference held in Bucharest, Romania. In April 2016, Prof. Jonathan C. Borg was invited by Prof. Dr. Gabriella Vadaszne Bognar to present his on-going research work related to the phenomena of Product Life Cycle Consequences at the International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference microCAD held at the University of Miskolc in Hungary. In May 2016, Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia attended the DESIGN2016 Conference in Cavtat, Croatia, during which he presented the paper titled “A Semiotic Integrated Product Development Framework For Integrating Branding In Automotive Product Design”. In July 2015, Dr Arif Rochman and Mr Robert Zammit attended a Molding Innovation Day (MID) in Dalmine Bergamo, Italy, which was organised by Moldex3D Italia. During this Moldex users’ seminar, Mr Zammit delivered a presentation with a title "Development and Performance Analysis of Injection Moulding Tools Fabricated Using Additive Manufacturing". Mr. Robert Zammit is currently reading for a Master’s degree by research in Mechanical Engineering under the supervision of Dr Arif Rochman. The research being carried out is aimed to develop a patient specific knee implant having reduced wear rates, through the use of highly wear resistant articulating materials. Appointments
In May 2016, Dr Ing Pierre Vella was appointed head of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Dr Ing. Paul Refalo was appointed Lecturer by the Council in 2015. Dr Ing. Pierre Vella was appointed Lecturer by the Council in 2015. Dr Arif Rochman was appointed Senior Lecturer by the Council in 2016. Prof. Jonathan C. Borg was appointed Full Professor as from March 2013. Dr Arif Rochman has been appointed as member of the Scientific Committee of the Polymers and Moulds Innovation (PMI) Conference 2016 held in Ghent, Belgium, in September 2016. Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia has been appointed as member of the Scientific Committee of the DESIGN 2016 conference held in Cavtat, Croatia in May 2016. Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia has been appointed as member of the Scientific Committee of the international conference “18th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education” to be held in Aalborg, Denmark in September 2016. Prof. Jonathan C. Borg has been appointed as International Scientific Committee member for International Conference on Meaningful Technology and Design (MTD2017, Portugal) Prof. Jonathan C. Borg has been appointed reviewer for Journal, Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications. Prof. Jonathan C. Borg has been appointed as International Scientific Committee member for International Conference on Research into Design (ICORD'17 India) In February and June 2016 Prof. Jonathan C. Borg was appointed as external expert to assist the European Research Council in Brussels with evaluating a number of scientific research proposals. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
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A half-day seminar on multi-material micro injection moulding was held on the Thursday 22nd October 2015 at MCST premises in Kalkara. The seminar was part of the EX-MMIM project. A number of speakers, who treated various aspects related to high-value added manufacturing, micro fabrication and the EX-MMIM project in general, addressed the audience.
Dr Pullicino Orlando, Executive Chairman of MCST formally opened the seminar. This was followed by an address by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport, Hon. Chris Agius. Hon. Chris Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, delivered a speech on high-value added manufacturing in Malta. Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia, Project Principal Investigator and Senior Lecturer at DIME, gave an overview of the EX-MMIM project. The key project experts, Dr Ing Vella and Dr Rochman, lecturers at DIME, spoke respectively about micro and nano manufacturing processes and micro injection moulding. Mr. Chris Camilleri, Research Support Officer presented the research results generated in this project. Mr. Kevin Busuttil, managing director of TekMoulds Precision Eng. ltd spoke about the lessons learnt by industry as a result of participating in funded research projects. Ing. Andreas Striegel, Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, researcher at theKarlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, delivered Executive Chairman MCST a presentation on applied research in micro and nano replication. After the presentations two working groups discussed the benefits of amplifying micro manufacturing in Malta and the challenged faced by industry concerning micro injection moulding. Prof. Jonathan Borg, Assoc. Professor at DIME moderated the discussion. The seminar was well attended by people from academia and industry.
Hon Chris Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business
Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia, DIME
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Dr Ing. Pierre Vella, DIME
Dr Arif Rochman, DIME
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
Development of a Novel Device to Support Children with Language Impairment in a Bilingual Context (SPEECHIE) Funding Body: Malta Council for Science & Technology through the Technology Development Programme 2016 Project Fund: € 194,960 Project Reference: R&I-2015-042-T Principal Investigator: Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia Language impairment (LI) in children is often attributed to various factors including intellectual disability, autism and hearing loss. However, it is reported that approximately 7% of the global childhood population experience LI in the absence of evident causative factors. Children with LI are often faced with social communication, behavioural, educational and vocational difficulties. Although bilingualism does not cause LI, such disorders can be complicated when children have bilingual or multilingual exposure, which is a common occurrence worldwide. This has particular relevance to the language-learning context of Maltese children. LI in children can often be addressed by a customised intervention programme drawn up by a professional speech-language pathologist (SLP) on the basis of assessment and regular review of the child's speech and language skills. However, children often lose engagement when subjected to repetitive therapy activities and lengthy assessment procedures. This impinges on the effectiveness of intervention. Moreover, speech-language sessions offered in the public health clinics often take place during school hours, disrupting children’s routine. Furthermore, with guardian (s) often being engaged in full-time work, it becomes an issue to accompany children during the sessions. Within this context, the project’s goal is to develop a novel, multi-modal device, nickmaned SPEECHIE, to facilitate language therapy for children with LI both within and beyond the clinical setting. SPEECHIE will be developed as a smart educational toy that entices children to engage with the designated exercises by creating a more rewarding and motivating environment. Image By pressfoto / Freepik
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
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Energy Efficient Manufacturing of Plastic Products Funding Body: University of Malta, Research, Innovation and Development Trust (RIDT)
Project Fund: â‚Ź 8,000 Principal Investigator: Dr Ing. Paul Refalo
Co-Investigator: Dr Ing. Christopher Micallef
Plastic products are very versatile and common and their demand is on the increase. Europe, the second largest plastic producer after China, processed 59 million tonnes of plastic products in 2014. In the same year, the plastics industry employed 1.45 million employees through 62,000 companies (most of them SMEs) in 28 countries of the European Union. This generated a turnover of 350 billion euro with a GDP multiplier effect of around 2.4. The rubber and plastic manufacturing industry in Malta employed around 1,700 employees in 2014. Two very common plastic manufacturing processes are injection moulding and extrusion. In injection moulding, a polymer material is heated to its melting state and injected into a mould, while in extrusion the heated material is pushed through a die. The material is then cooled and solidified to retain the shape of the mould cavities or extrusion dies. These processes consume a substantial amount of both energy and water to heat and cool the equipment. This project will investigate energy management schemes in order to improve the energy and water efficiency of such processes. The scope of this project is therefore twofold. To analyse the energy consumption in plastic injection moulding, and to design and test devices to recover and reduce the energy required to heat and cool plastic injection moulding equipment.
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Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
Student
Supervisor
Title
Degree
Benjamin Mifsud
Dr Ing. Arif Rochman
Performance Analysis of Pattern-Heated Thermoforming
B.Eng. (Hons)
Andrew Vella
Dr Ing. Arif Rochman
Rapid Tooling Development for low Volume Injection Moulding of Cosmetic Compacts
B.Eng. (Hons)
Raphael Coppini
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo
Application of LCA for sustainable product development
B.Eng. (Hons)
Paul Jaccarini
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo
Life Cycle analysis of a cosmetic Package
B.Eng. (Hons)
Keith Tanti
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo
Sustainability Analysis & Cooling in Industry
B.Eng. (Hons)
Jack Tranter
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo
Sustainability analysis of Plastic Injection Moulding
B.Eng. (Hons)
Michael Borg
Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia
Design of a Proof-of-concept prototype for open cardiac surgical delivery system of a vascular plug device
B.Eng. (Hons)
David James SciberDr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia ras
Design of a Universal Mirror Separation Device for the Cosmetic Industry
B.Eng. (Hons)
Christabel Borg
Dr Ing. Pierre Vella
Machining Miniature Components on the Sodick AP3L
B.Eng. (Hons)
Brady Briffa
Dr Ing. Pierre Vella
Camera Inspection process optimisation in banknote printing
B.Eng. (Hons)
Kimberly Busuttil
Prof. Dr Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
Application of Process FMEA at Playmobil Malta Ltd.
B.Eng. (Hons)
Luke Micallef
Prof. Dr Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
Design of a Universal Lacquering Fixture for TOLY Products
B.Eng. (Hons)
Zachary Cassar Torregiani
Prof. Dr Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
A Kansei Engineering Tool For Handling Customer Emotions
B.Eng. (Hons)
Dilan Bonello
Prof. Dr Ing. Michael A. Saliba
An exploratory Study on the Automated Sorting of Recyclable Domestic Waste
B.Eng. (Hons)
Robert Zammit
Dr Ing. Arif Rochmann
Development and Performance Analysis of Prosthesis Fabricated Using Additive
MSc
Sustainable Management of Industrial Processes at a Waste Treatment Facility: a simulation based approach
MSc
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo Nathan Gatt
Ing Emmanuel Francalanza
Samuel Angelo Buttigieg
Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia
Exploiting Business Process Model and Notation for an IPD Approach of Developing Speech Therapy Devices
MSc IPD
Kurt Zerafa
Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia
Implementing Performance Measurement Techniques within an Integrated Product Development Framework for the Printing Industry
MSc IPD
Marco Vella
Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia
An IPD Approach to Innovation Management in the Medical Industry
MSc IPD
George Preca
Prof. Dr. Ing. Michael A. Saliba
Optimization of Robot Integration to a Manual Multi-station Assembly Line
MSc IPD
Jean Paul Attard Baldacchino
Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
Improving Prosthesis/Orthotics Development through Kansei Engineering
MSc IPD
Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
An Emotion Oriented Approach to Integrated Product Development
Ph.D.
Prof. Dr. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
Intelligent Support of Early Interactive Factory Planning for the Integrated Product Development of a Range of Products
Ph.D.
Lawrence Farrugia Emmanuel Francalanza
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
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Camera Inspection Process Improvement in Banknote Printing Student: Brady Briffa / Supervisor: Dr. Ing. Pierre Vella The cost of quality performance for a banknote printing company is a major strategic concern. The first objective was to reduce the overall amount of non-value adding work in inspecting the quality of banknotes. The second objective was to reduce the false positive errors from the camera inspection system. From the first two stages of the DMAIC cycle, standardization and equipment reliability were the main areas needing improvement. Small stops in banknote production were correlated with a significant quality loss. Furthermore, the automatic camera inspection set-up was not in line with the extent of the variability found in the processes. Through the implementation of the Total Productive Maintenance program, a 50.69 % reduction in small stops was achieved during a trial run and the quality loss from the Intaglio process was reduced by 2.1 % .
Application of Process FMEA at Playmobil Malta Ltd. Student: Kimberly Busuttil / Supervisor: Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg This project concerns a study on how to reduce downtime at a plastics toy-manufacturing firm. The objective was to increase the process efficiency of the printing process at Playmobil Malta Ltd. by identifying the root causes of stoppages and excess changeover time, through fault analysis methods, such as PFMEA. The implemented action in the revised PFMEA, which was aimed to reduce the stoppages was replacement/repair of the injection moulding moulds. This was done in order to improve the quality of the injected parts. This action led to a 6.3 per cent increase in OEE. The RPNs of the PFMEA encountered significant percentage decreases of up to 83 per cent. The number of tasks performed whilst the machine is down was decreased from a total 11 tasks to 5 tasks. The 6 tasks extracted from the changeover included all the walking time, resulting in a 50.9 per cent decrease in changeover time, saving ~13 hrs per month, time which could be put into production.
Life Cycle Analysis of a Cosmetic Package at Toly Ltd Student: Paul Jaccarini / Supervisor: Dr. Ing. Paul Refalo Cosmetic packaging is one of many other factors that are contributing to environmental exploitation throughout the various stages in such a package’s life cycle. The Mary Kay compact contributes roughly three times more to energy consumption than the Gemini and six times more than the Halo, throughout their entire life cycle. Raw material extraction is shown to be the highest contributing life cycle phase for energy use for all three compacts, ranging between 60-70%. The manufacturing and use phases are the second largest contributors to energy consumption for all three compacts. On the other hand, the transport and disposal phases have a negligible contribution to energy consumption, in this case when the package is being manufactured and used in Malta.
Rapid Tooling Development for Low Volume Injection Moulding of a Cosmetic Compact at Toly Ltd Student: Andrea Vella / Supervisor: Dr Arif Rochman / Co-Supervisor: Dr Ing. Pierre Vella The aim of this dissertation is to explore the use of affordable and relatively cheap AM technology like fused deposition modelling (FDM) and stereolithography apparatus (SLA), which are normally used for rapid prototyping, rapid manufacturing and indirect soft tooling, for the production of hard direct rapid tooling which is then used in low volume injection moulding of custom cosmetic compacts. The maximum number of parts produced was eighty cosmetic bases with the rapid tool inserts manufactured using MJM technology. This proved that, using advanced polymeric materials available today, some of the AM technologies which are normally used for rapid prototyping, rapid manufacturing and soft indirect rapid tooling applications, can also, successfully be used, in hard direct tooling.
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Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
Design of a Universal Lacquering Fixture at Toly Ltd Student: Luke Micallef / Supervisor: Prof. Jonathan C. Borg / Co-Supervisor: Mr. Olaf Zahra Numerous firms in the manufacturing industry are opting for flexible tooling since there is a trend towards higher product variety and shorter lead times. Hence flexible tools such as fixtures are required to respond quickly to a wide variety of parts. Toly Products Ltd, is searching for such a tool, to minimise changeover times and storage. The designed universal fixture made use of a new smart material – micro-suction tape. This material makes use of millions of micro sized cups packed tightly together to hold a part into position. Such a fixture would lead to shorter changeover times, less storage required, less manufacturing costs and also produce less impact on the environment.
Design of a Universal Mirror Separation Device for the Cosmetic Industry at Toly Ltd Student: David James Sciberras / Supervisor: Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia / Industrial Partner: Toly Products Malta Ltd. Toly Products Malta Ltd. is a cosmetic company that has produced compacts for over thirty years. The mirror used in the compact is produced by a complex cutting process. This project deals with the way the variously sized and shaped mirrors are separated after they are scribed. The working principle was proven successful in separating a variety of mirrors as required. This was demonstrated by a working physical prototype. Furthermore, the design facilitated an overall improvement of the process by incorporating a heat-treatment aspect proven to increase the quality of cut by Toly Products Ltd. An in-depth cost analysis proved that the designed machine would have a payback period of 1.42 years, and a very low running cost and energy footprint.
Sustainability Analysis of Cooling in Industry at Playmobil Malta ltd Student: Keith Tanti / Supervisor: Dr Ing. Paul Refalo The need for sustainable manufacturing is urgent, and it is believed that a collective effort by all industries, irrelevant of size, can lead to sustainable development. This project is a typical practice of sustainable manufacturing that looks into the improvement of industrial cooling systems. Results for the proposed setup proved the dry cooler technically feasibly with a higher effectiveness during the colder season. The proposed system showed a significant improvement with both configurations. Over an entire year, electricity consumption was reduced by 46% with System DC 1 and by 20% with System DC 2. The more effective of the two (System DC 1) would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 263 tonnes and eliminate water consumption completely. With the implementation of the dry cooler, Playmobil Malta Ltd would also benefit from annual savings on maintenance and operational costs.
An Exploratory Study on the Automated Sorting of Recyclable Domestic Waste Student: Dilan Bonello / Supervisor: Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba / Co-Supervisor: Prof. Ing. Kenneth P. Camilleri The material recovery facility (MRF) present on the Maltese Islands does most of the sorting from the commingled waste manually. The targeted materials sorted in the particular material fractions are paper, cardboard, LDPE, HDPE, PET clear, PET colour, ferrous and non-ferrous. Automated technology, involving machines and robots is present and has the potential to be utilised in such a facility. The proposed gripper was constructed and rigorously tested on target and even non-target materials. The results obtained where all positive, where the gripper, as long as the exact position and orientation of a particular point on the material to be handled is identified, handled all the various materials without a problem. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016
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The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering has over the years regularly collaborated with local industrial firms. This industry-academia collaboration is beneficial to both sides: academics and students get exposed to real world challenges whilst industrial entities benefit from external scientific analysis of challenges at their end by both students and academics. Industrial entities interested in exploiting this synergy are invited to contact the Head of Department or any of the academic staff members to explore collaboration possibilities.
Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Faculty of Engineering University of Malta Msida, MALTA Tel: 2340 2061
www.um.edu.mt/eng/ime
For Further details contact: Dr Ing Pierre Vella for PhD and MSc by Research: pierre.vella@um.edu.mt Dr Ing Philip Farrugia for MSc in IPD: philip.farrgua@um.edu.mt www.um.edu.mt/eng/ime www.eng.um.edu.mt/~dmeu/msc/ 12
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering - Newsletter 2016