A New Model Supporting Stability Quality of Materials and Industrial Products

Wood Polymer Composite Based on Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV) and Wood Flour-The Process Optimization of the Products

This study involved the optimization of the molded pieces manufacturing process from a poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate biocomposite containing 30% wood flour by mass. The amount of wood flour and preliminary processing parameters were determined on the basis of preliminary tests. The aim of the optimization was to find the configuration of important parameters of the injection process to obtain molded pieces of good quality, in terms of aesthetics, dimensions, and mechanical properties. The products tested for quality were dog bone specimens. The biocomposite was produced using a single-screw extruder, whereas molded pieces were made using an injection molding process. The Taguchi method was applied to optimize the injection molding parameters, which determine the products quality. Control factors were selected at three levels. The L27 orthogonal plan was used. For each set of input parameters from this plan, four processing tests were performed. The sample weight, shrinkage, elongation at break, tensile strength, and Young's modulus were selected to assess the quality of the molded parts. As a result of the research, the processing parameters of the tested biocomposite were determined, enabling the production of good-quality molded pieces. No common parameter configuration was found for different optimization criteria. Further research should focus on finding a different range of technological parameters. At the same time, it was found that the range of processing parameters of the produced biocomposite, especially processing temperature, made it possible to use it in the Wood Polymer Composites segment.

Predicting Design Solutions with Scenarios Considering the Quality of Materials and Products Based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

The advancement of quality and environmentally sustainable materials and products made from them has improved significantly over the last few years. However, a research gap is the lack of a developed model that allows for the simultaneous analysis of quality and environmental criteria in the life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the selection of materials in newly designed products. Therefore, the objective of the research was to develop a model that supports the prediction of the environmental impact and expected quality of materials and products made from them according to the design solution scenarios considering their LCA. The model implements the GRA method and environmental impact analysis according to the LCA based on ISO 14040. The model test was carried out for light passenger vehicles of BEV with a lithium-ion battery (LiFePO4) and for ICEV. The results indicated a relatively comparable level of quality, but in the case of the environmental impact throughout the life-cycle, the predominant amount of CO2 emissions in the use phase for combustion vehicles. The originality of the developed model to create scenarios of design solutions is created according to which the optimal direction of their development in terms of quality and environment throughout LCA can be predicted.

A Novelty Procedure to Identify Critical Causes of Materials Incompatibility

Ensuring the expected quality of materials is still a challenge, mainly in order to precisely plan improvement actions that allow for stabilization of the production process. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to develop a novel procedure to identify critical causes of material incompatibility-the causes that have the largest negative impact on material deterioration, and the natural environment. The main originality of this procedure is developing a way to coherent analyse the mutual influence of the many causes of incompatibility of any material, after which the critical causes are identified and a ranking of improvement actions to eliminate these causes is created. A novelty is also developed in the algorithm supporting this procedure, which can be realized in three different ways to solve this problem, i.e.; by considering the impact of material incompatibility on: (i) the deterioration of the material quality; (ii) the deterioration of the natural environment; and (iii) simultaneously the deterioration of the quality of the material and the natural environment. The effectiveness of this procedure was confirmed after tests on 410 alloy, from which a mechanical seal was made. However, this procedure can be useful for any material or industrial product.

Method of Fuzzy Analysis of Qualitative-Environmental Threat in Improving Products and Processes (Fuzzy QE-FMEA)

Improving products and production processes is necessary to ensure the competitiveness of the organisation. As part of these improvements, the popular approach is to use the FMEA method (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis). In the traditional FMEA approach, only the qualitative aspect is included, i.e., the analysis of the quality level of products or processes, its possible incompatibilities, and then proposing improving actions for them. It seems insufficient in times of expansion of the idea of sustainable development and dynamically changing customer requirements. Hence, the purpose of the research is to develop a fuzzy QE-FMEA method to simultaneously analyze hazards for product quality and the natural environment. This method will be based on a fuzzy decision environment. The main elements of originality of the developed method are: (i) extension of the characteristics of the selection of ratings for indicators with triangular fuzzy numbers and the development of a new characteristics of the selection of ratings for the environmental impact indicator, (ii) development of a selection matrix for the qualitative-environmental indicator (QE) according to the rules of triangular fuzzy numbers, (iii) determination of the method of estimating the value of the threat priority, additionally considering the qualitative-environmental indicator (RQE). The complement of research is developed procedure of the Fuzzy QE-FMEA method. It was shown that it is possible to include the effects of incompatibilities (effects of defects occurring in products or processes), which were simultaneously assessed considering the importance and impact on the natural environment. This method will be useful for any company for analysing defects of any products or processes mainly with significant impact on the natural environment.

Method of Determining Sequence Actions of Products Improvement

Material production processes are special processes. As part of continuous improvement, it is extremely important to find the causes of the incompatibilities that occur in them. To increase the effectiveness of these actions, different methods are used. The purpose of this study was to present an original method that allows the classification to improve the combinations of actions of product with material incompatibility. The originality of this method allows for the sequential and coherent operation of adequate analysis techniques of causes resulting in incompatibilities in the product material and, consequently, identifying the reasons that influence their quality. The presented method was developed using a new combination of brainstorming (BM), the Ishikawa diagram with 5M rule, the DEMATEL method, and the algorithm used in the MATLAB software. As a result of the proposed applied method, it is possible to create a sequence of actions that include interactions between important causes of product incompatibility, which was supported by the test of this method. This method was shown to support the creation of a rank of importance of improvement actions. This ranking allows for improvement of any product according to the possibilities of enterprises and simultaneously allows for reducing or eliminating products' incompatibilities.