Presented in this paper is a framework for the implementation of a robotic percussive riveting system, a new robot application for aircraft assembly. It is shown here that a successful robot application to the automation of a process requires in-depth research of the process and the interaction with the robot. For this purpose, a process planning-driven approach is proposed to guide a robot application research. A typical process planning will involve a list of key considerations including: process sequence, process parameters, process tooling, and process control. Through this list, a number of key research issues are identified for robotic percussive riveting, such as rivet pattern planning, rivet time determination, rivet tooling design and rivet insertion control. The detailed research on these issues has effectively created know-how for the successful implementation of our robotic percussive riveting system.

An integrated modeling tool coupling thermodynamic calculation and kinetic simulation of multicomponent alloys is developed under the framework of integrated computational materials engineering. On the basis of Pandat™ software for multicomponent phase diagram calculation, the new tool is designed in an integrated workspace and is targeted to understand the composition–processing–structure–property relationships of multicomponent systems. In particular, the phase diagram calculation module is used to understand the phase stability under the given conditions. The calculated phase equilibrium information, such as phase composition and chemical driving force, provides input for the kinetic simulation. In this paper, the design of the modeling tool will be presented and the calculation examples from the different modules will also be demonstrated.

Several applications of Origami have been tested in industrial area. However, Origami based design is found only in lamp shade and wrapping in design area, and has not been practically applied especially in clothing. In this paper, the conical truss model is applied in the clothing skirt, and the simulation software from 2D to 3D is developed by parametric Origami module (POM). Finally, the pattern is copied on felt clothing, and the scaled model of skirt on the basis of conical reverse truss model design is made.

Warehouse scheduling efficiency has to do with the length-height ratio of location (LHRL) to some extent, which hasn’t been well investigated until now. In this paper a mathematic model is built by analyzing the relation between the travel time of the stacker and LHRL. Meanwhile, warehouse scheduling strategy is studied combining with the project on the automatic production line of an enterprise, and a warehouse scheduling strategy is proposed based on index of quality (IoQ) parameters. Besides, the process of getting the value of IoQ is also simplified with the idea of sparse matrix. Finally, the IoQ scheduling strategy is compared with random strategy and First Come First Out strategy in different LHRLs. The simulation results show that the IoQ scheduling strategy not only improves the quality of the product effectively, but also improves the efficiency of the scheduling substantially.

Screw failure is one of the main scrap forms for rear axle tube, and thread turning after surfacing is a common means of remanufacturing. This paper takes rear axle tube as the main research topic, which is made of 40Mn and provided by an axle company. Manual electric arc welding, CO₂ shielded arc welding and argon shielded arc welding are carried to overlay the damaged thread. The deposited metal consists of two welding material lays. Welding process and overlay properties are characterized by the test and analysis of microstructure, residual stress and hardness of surfacing layers. The results show that argon shielded arc welding is an effective method to repair the failure thread; its microstructure of fusion area is meticulous and uniform; its residual compressive stress (absolute value) of welding surface is the biggest among the three welding methods; its hardness curve is relatively flat and appropriate for turning.

Materials design is the most important and fundamental work on the background of materials genome initiative for global competitiveness proposed by the National Science and Technology Council of America. As far as the methodologies of materials design, besides the thermodynamic and kinetic methods combing databases, both deductive approaches so-called the first principle methods and inductive approaches based on data mining methods are gaining great progress because of their successful applications in materials design. In this paper, support vector machine (SVM), including support vector classification (SVC) and support vector regression (SVR) based on the statistical learning theory (SLT) proposed by Vapnik, is introduced as a relatively new data mining method to meet the different tasks of materials design in our lab. The advantage of using SVM for materials design is discussed based on the applications in the formability of perovskite or BaNiO₃ structure, the prediction of energy gaps of binary compounds, the prediction of sintered cold modulus of sialon-corundum castable, the optimization of electric resistances of VPTC semiconductors and the thickness control of In₂O₃ semiconductor film preparation. The results presented indicate that SVM is an effective modeling tool for the small sizes of sample sets with great potential applications in materials design.

An opposite phenomenon to the flying ice cube where kinetic energy is drained from the high frequency vibrational motion to the low frequency translational motion and rotational motion (Harvey et al., J Comput Chem 19:726–740, 1998) is reported in molecular dynamics simulations of the flexible TIP3P water. It is found that kinetic energy is drained from the low frequency translational motion and rotational motion to the high frequency vibrational motion of the flexible TIP3P water. In addition, the equipartition theorem is not applicable to the flexible TIP3P water, but applicable to the rigid TIP3P water. However, the Maxwell–Boltzmann velocity distribution is satisfied for cases even the equipartition theorem is not applicable.

Multiferroic nanodots can be harnessed to aid the development of the next generation of nonvolatile data storage and multi-functional devices. In this paper, we review the computational aspects of multiferroic nanodot materials and designs that hold promise for the future memory technology. Conception, methodology, and systematical studies are discussed, followed by some up-to-date experimental progress towards the ultimate limits. At the end of this paper, we outline some challenges remaining in multiferroic research, and how the first principles based approach can be employed as an important tool providing critical information to understand the emergent phenomena in multiferroics.

The nanostructured γ and α alumina powders were synthesized by sol-gel and co-precipitation methods, and properties of the powders were studied by XRD, SEM, TEM, BET and FTIR. The results showed that both γ and α phases were formed in the lower temperature in precipitation method compared to sol-gel. The size of spherical α-alumina synthesized by sol-gel was 10–15 nm, whereas the sample prepared by co-precipitation yielded nearly spherical and hexagon α-powder with particle size of 10–50 nm. At 750 °C the resulting powder prepared by co-precipitation exhibited larger surface area (206.2 m²/g) compared to sol-gel (30.72 m²/g), hence it is recommended for catalytic and sensing applications.

Zinc oxide was synthesized from zinc sulphate using different reducing agents under microwave irradiation. The influence of sodium borohydride, hydrazine hydrate and urea on the shape and size of the products were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). SEM showed the nano-sized spherical and rectangular shaped structures in case of sodium borohydride and hydrazine hydrate, whereas micro-sized hexagonal structures were formed in case of urea under the same irradiation power. The reducing agents played an important role in forming the various structures. Thus different shapes and size of structures were produced by only varying the reducing agent, which had wide applications in various fields.

The plasma transferred arc (PTA) forming remanufacturing technology was introduced in this paper. This technology includes plasma surfacing, deposition and rapid forming technology. With self-developed plasma forming system, the thrust of engine cylinder body was remanufactured by PTA powder surfacing. In the concrete, the Ni15 alloy was deposited on the thrust face of the body in order to recover its dimension. In addition, the remanufacturing forming with Fe-based, Inconel 625 alloy was studied. The microstructure and hardness of the as-deposited materials were investigated.

The high power light emitting diode (LED) array integrated with the microchannel heat sink is designed in this paper, and then optimal analysis and simulation have been carried out. According to the theory of heat transfer and fluid mechanics, the calculation of the thermal resistance for the microchannel heat sink is obtained, and the thermal resistance is minimized. Finally the simulation with FLUENT software is developed to verify the theoretical analysis. Established analysis and simulation show that the width of the cooling channel is 0.1 mm, and the cooling water flow rate is 1 m/s. On the other hand, the system acquires the best heat dissipation effect, and the minimum of thermal resistance is 0.019 W/°C.