Tribology 101

Tribology is a study on friction, wear, adhesion and scratch resistance of moving interferences in contact. In other words, it is a study on movement of surface in contact with one another and the surroundings. The study also involve dissipation of energy (friction induces heat energy and etc.). Wear, being one of the sub-content of tribology is a study of useful life of a material or a part component of a machine. It is given by the equation:


Usp = Vloss / (FxD)

Usp = wear rate
Vloss = volumetric loss
F = force applied
D = total sliding distance

There are 4 types of wear, namely:
a)Abrasive wear
-Due to presence of hard/sharp particles between contacting surface (moving)

b)Adhesive wear
-Due to unsuitable lubrication or lubricant ran dry between moving surfaces in contact

c)Surface fatigue
-Due to repeated mechanical stress

d)Tribo-oxidation
-Tribological sliding causes chemical reaction, increase of temperature of contacting surfaces and oxidation

From the 4 types of wear mentioned above, wear is a study of useful life of components. The useful life of components here are components of a machine that experiences friction during operation. Friction causes loss of solid material on the contacting surface and this will reduces the integrity of the material. Thus, this is why friction and wear are mentioned concurrently since all 4 types of wear are caused by frictional problems.

Oh kecian my blog..

Kasihan kan my blog..kena abandon since February..bad blogger..bad blogger.. But then, I've been very busy in my final stage as a student.. My final semester, finall I'm getting my degree in engineering.. Hopefully it'll go well... Right now I'm looking for job here and there, but there are 2 places I have in mind..later la..if I get the job baru I mention..keep fingers crossed..

Well...yesterday was my final year project presentation..I think it went well eventhough the last few minutes I felt the itch on my throat, prompting me to coungh.. In the end my examiner said good job and interesting research, that is good enough for me.... Oh ya..lupa..I'm nursing my left ankle at the moment...yeah, something happened but it's more of injury due to last time punya activities... In the end, over exerting yourself in sports is not good eh.. my bones at my ankle area.the socket area or something...dah corrode...so the ..erm..duno how to story..cut story short... I need a surgery..just a small one..don't worry... It's been a while, so I'll stop here first...it's a very hot day....so malas type panjang story..till end..Cheers...

My updates...

I've been occupied beyond my imagination really..... and I've received some good news la... I've:

- got my results, didn't jadi Dewa but at least got above 3.0

- I'm working with GSSC at BDEWC Sejingkat Yard, in the latter stages of MEPA EPCIC project

So...busy la owh...Ahaks.....

Dewa?? Forget about it (but ada slim hope)..

Among my friends...we have this term of 'dewa'... An expression where we boast around saying we are better than you kinda stuff... My aim is to become one in this semester.. You see, my friends and I belong in this one type of group..'uras'... meaning we like to waste time, enjoy life and see the light in everything... So we're not exactly the type of people others want to mix with because we're simply time waster bla bla bla...

However, I want to be the first dewa among the uras..to to show to the smart asses that you can achieve good results even if you enjoy your life more than studying... Common, life is just too short to be overly 'skema'....

However, after my CFD paper yesterday.. the target is getting farther.. Unless the next 6 papers I get A- or A..baru can... So...I think I'll stop here and do some reading la..ahaks...

Already 2012...

I've been so caught up with my daily activities that I've failed to post something for Christmas and New Year...aiseh aiseh... I'm not gonna say I'm super busy and too occupied to maintain a blog (blog is for those with a lot of free time ba..), but at times I've lost some interest in posting new posts because the connection is very bad..

You see, I have lot's to share here but these new things must come with pictures and even videos...later you guys won't faham ba.... I tried a few times, even at my university but I guess it's just to hard to upload them with our quality of network connection...thus in the end I delay and delay some more and they never got posted here..nasib la... Check check dah 2012...


Putting 'past' issues aside, I am actually preparing for my exams now (I know some of you don't believe it la..) My first paper will be on the 7th January.. and the last one will be on the 16th January..then cuti Chinese New Year..and terus cuti for a month... I don't have such luxury though... I'll still have my CNY holidays but after that I'll be back with my final year project... Nevermind, I'll relax when others struggle next semester... Proof?? I started early this semester and even sacrificed my mid semester break for my project.... and I had the opportunity to actually watch squeeze their brains out for their project.... I'm not being mean, I'm just saying you'll enjoy more when you push yourself hard in the beginning..

Oh well... I'll just stop here and continue with my laundry and my light reading on CFD (I have no idea on what to study anyway...)... Cheers....

Taguchi and Quality in Manufacturing Industry

Quality is one of the most important aspects demanded from a product. Quality represents image and reliability of a manufacturing company, thus proves the importance for it to be stressed by the company. In manufacturing and quality engineering in general, the field quality itself could not sway from the name Genichi Taguchi. Taguchi contributed a lot in terms of quality in product and process design. Two of the important methods in quality engineering are robust design and loss function.

In robust design, Taguchi stresses that product and process should create a design that can avoid failure or product performance below specified standard. Meanwhile, Taguchi loss function stresses more on tolerance of design. This is because a product that performance outside the tolerance is considered loss in value and products must always perform within the desired tolerance.

These two ideologies are very important for production of a new product. Acceptance of a new product by consumers depends very much on the initial impression in terms of quality. Physiologically, it is very hard for a consumer to use a new product compared to using a product which the consumer has used before. If a consumer chooses to use a new product rather than an existing product, feedbacks will go very bad if the quality of the product is not good. In fact, quality level of a new product must be very high especially in the initial stage where it is still gaining acceptance from the society.

CAD/CAM for Modern Injection Moulding

The prominent machinery used to produce wheel cover is Injection Moulding Machine. Modern Injection Moulding machine basically comes with integrated system of CAD/CAM. Therefore, CAD/CAM system is crucial to be implemented in this production.

By applying CAD into production, it helps to increase the productivity by reducing time consumed by designer to do synthesis, analysis and documentation of the design. Synthesis can be referred as geometric modelling in CAD function. Geometric model permits the user of the CAD to perform certain operation on the model which includes making new geometric model or modification on existing model takes less time compared to the manual drafting.

CAD is also useful in order to improve the quality of the design where this software permit the designer to do more complex engineering analysis and to consider a large number of options and varieties of design alternatives. Analysis that can be made by applying CAD in design process includes mass properties analysis, interference checking, tolerance analysis, finite element analysis, kinematic and dynamics analysis and discrete – event simulation.

Besides that, design evaluation and review procedures also can be augmented by CAD. The features includes in-evaluating and reviewing a proposed design consist of automatic dimensioning analysis, error checking, animation of discrete – event simulation solutions and plan layout design scores to design the facilities. CAD also helps to improve the design documentations. The graphical output of CAD system results in better documentation of the design than manual drafting where the drawings is superior and has less drafting error and greater legibility.

Finally, CAD eases to create manufacturing database. The documentation includes the product design (geometric specification of product, dimension of the product, material specification, bill of material etc).

Huah...

I've been very very very very busy lately...that's why I only posted one lame entry for October and the same might happen for this month. My final year project is taking half of my time.. another quarter is dedicated to other subjects and the finaly quarter is left for me to please everyone around me... in short, 24 hours is beginning to feel like 5 hours to me...and I'm all sleepy today... lack of sleep..lack of good food and lack of entertainment... resting the body is not enough, must rest ma' head.. hopefully a meeting with an ol' fren later tonight will get me better... so that's all folks.... I'll try to post something meaningful next week.. Ahaks....

Money + Local car

It's either your $$$ alang-alang or you have too much money...

Dr. Deming: 14 Points

Deming’s 14 Points is a framework to improve quality and production. It is basically cure to 5 Deadly Diseases mentioned above. The 14 points are:

1. Constancy of purpose

The management must have continuous plans to compete in the ever-changing industry by always looking for ways to improve products and services. This will eliminate short term goals and always be prepared for new changes. A good example will be AirAsia, where the management team jumped leaps and bounds from what they have started as a budget airline company. Now they are majority shareholder of MAS, Team Lotus F1 and Queens Park Rangers FC, and they’ve spread their wings in other businesses like Tune Hotels, Tune Talk and Tune Insurance.

2. Adopt to the new philosophy

Industries and economics are dynamic, failure to move in parallel leads to obsoleteness. Competitions become stiffer as each business or industry is stuffed with similar producers. The management and workers as well must accept and understand new philosophy wholly. Changes occurs all the time and each level must acknowledge it and incorporate it fully to generate passion to the new philosophy.

3. Cease dependence on mass inspection

For years quality inspection has been about detecting defects rather than preventing them. Defect rate can be reduced by using quality materials, machines and workers. To ensure high quality offshore modules fabrication, Brooke Dockyard ensures that steel plates have milling certificates, quality machineries, hire skilled workers and to top it off, employ highly qualified QAQC staffs to monitor fabrication process.

4. End lowest tender contracts

If expensive does not ensure quality, cheap will be a long shot. To get higher profit margin, some management award tenders to companies with the lowest cost. Contracts should always be given based on proven records from previous projects or those with evidence of quality like up-to-date machineries and qualified workers.

5. Find problems to make improvements

No system is flawless and it is one of many roles of the management to find problems with the system. Problems do not mean defects or deficiency, but can be considered as points which could be improved. For example, cutting defects are solved by replacing cutting tool(s) and an inspector with RT Level 2 can detect more defects than a RT Level 1 inspector. (RT = Radiographic Testing).

6. Institute modern methods of training on the job

Most of the time, workers are trained by showing them how to do things. Thus workers do not really understand the process but just work for the sake of working. With on job training in the other hand, workers are able to understand the work process and such training should be standardize so that all workers have produces same quality standard.

7. Institute leadership

It is common that most ‘leaders’ in management system are instructors rather than leaders. Usually they tell ‘do this’, ‘do that’, ‘stop’ and etc. Leadership is more than that; they help others to improve by giving coaching and encouragements.

8. Drive out fear

This point is related to Point 7. When leadership is instituted, leaders gain respect and workers will feel close to them. If leaders are instruction givers, boundary will occur between workers and management and this will strike fear among workers. With this, workers will refrain from giving out new ideas to improve the system.

9. Eliminate barriers between departments

Different processes/roles in a system create barriers between different departments. Thus a department will not fully understand the process of another department and this situation will creates a lot of problems between departments. If the barriers can be removed, understandings between departments can be achieved and this will improve the process flow, thus improve quality.

10. Eliminate exhortations

Dr. Deming has highlighted that problems are due to those in management, not workers. Exhortations such as meaningless motto and slogans will only frustrate workers that understand errors are done by the system and not workers. This will cause dissatisfaction and workers will not have the passion to produce quality products and services.

11. Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets

Usually management will use average production quality standard as benchmark and most of the time; most workers will fall below the benchmark. This will cause workers to unite to lower average standard and the better workers will not be able to perform according to real ability. This will lower quality standard of end product.

12. Permit pride of workmanship

Workers are those involved more in production of products or services. By instilling passion with the work they do, workers will have the sense of pride of their work. This will encourage them wanting to produce high work quality all the time without offering many rewards like bonuses and off days. Rewards are temporary, pride is forever.

13. Encourage education

Economics and businesses change all the time, prompting change in technologies and philosophies. This also means workers must also change to move along with the flow. This can be done by continuous process to improve themselves through trainings, education and seminars. Experience helps but knowledge of new technologies and systems will generate even more value to quality production.

14. Commitment to accomplish transformation

The last point demands commitment from every level of the system, from management to workers, to put into action Point 1 to Point 13. This can also be viewed as enforcement of the first 13 points to achieve quality management.

Dr. Deming: 5 Deadly Disease

The 5 Deadly Diseases highlights critical management mistakes that lead to low quality production. The 5 critical mistakes are:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose

This occurs when the management does not have proper planning to maintain competitiveness in the industry. Such system only concerns with current production and changes the system when the current system no longer works. Thus when changes occurred, the management will have to make hasty changes to accommodate the flow and in the end fail to achieve similar quality standards of the previous production plan. For example, Sarawak Transportation Company (STC) dominated land transportation since its establishment, regardless of the quality they provide, and when purchasing of vehicles were made easy in the turn of millennium, STC was not ready. Once a significant land transport provider, now STC is just a significant part of local history.

2. Emphasis on short term profits

With lack of future planning, it also means the management are more focussed on what they obtain at current time and not the future. This is usually done by new companies in which the management compromise on the quality of materials, workmanship and overall, the end product. Companies from China, Taiwan and Indonesia to name a few are the usual suspects to produce sub-standard products.

3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating or annual review of performance

The third mistake emphasise on evaluation of individual contributions, which will lead to lack of teamwork and harmony. Workers will only concern on their own performance and not the overall achievements of the department or company. Individualistic performance can be seen clearly in modern soccer where players are more concern on goal scoring bonuses rather than the team’s match performance.

4. Mobility of Management

This disease occurs when the management changes too frequently. Changes in management occur when the system fails to deliver stability in profit and quality. New changes bring in new management philosophy and this breaks continuous efforts to improve a system. Thus, long term plans could not be planned and the system will just play around with new short term plans.

5. Running a company on visible figures alone

The fifth disease is co-related to the first four diseases. This occurs when the management is obsessed with number of sales and the profit margin instead of customer satisfaction and product quality. In addition to that, such management plan tends to organize sales or offer lower selling price in order to achieve high sales and significant short term income. In the long run, such method will give lower profit margin (profit/duration) and in the end fail to sustain future business. A budget airline company in Indonesia extends the word ‘budget’ by compromising pilot trainings. The decision resulted in an airline tragedy and the company filed for bankruptcy due to multiple legal actions.

Sorry....sorry..

Hopefully this will not be the only post for this month... I've been swamped all over for the last few weeks...So I'll do my best to post something before this month ends..okay?? Stay tuned..ahaks....

Season's Greetings: Selamat Hari Raya

To all my Muslim readers, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!!

Fish Pond Project: Part 2 (End)

Waterproofing is not that easy...and not that hard too..quite simple oso...wat's my point?? I oso duno... The thingy is like water really..it's water based... but once they're dried up, it'll form some sort of 'plastic' layer..to apply them, use our ordinary paint brush...


After they're dried up..baru can apply cement over them... I used base coat cement, you can buy a sack from most hardware store for RM36... The cool thing about this cement is that the manufacturer already mix it with sand... So it's already in a good ratio between cement and sand... It's perfect for smooth wall finish and of coz kerja tampal-menampal...


The water ratio is quite hard to control.. coz if the mix is has too much water..then you can't use it so plaster the side walls...but for the base it's good..easier to spread.. For the walls..it's better to make the mix a little dry...


After main plaster... we pray for rain to come to fill in the pond..of coz..don't ask for rain immediately... ask for it to fall the day after or so... Rendam for 1 month..of coz release the water every few days..the idea is to cuci the pond by removing chemical contents released by the cement..adding water plants can help to neutralize the water too...so 1 month should do it...


So..macam itulah ini project... Will post pics of fishes in the pond later later la.. ahaks..

Life as a Brooke: Part 1

Industrial training placement is part of compulsory requirements to graduate with a degree from any local university in Malaysia. For Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), undergraduates must undergo at least 10 weeks of industrial training as set by Board of Engineering Malaysia (BEM). Through industrial training, undergraduates are expected to be exposed with work ethics, responsibilities, technical practices and other real life engineering exposures like problem identifying and solving.


Mine was at Brooke Dockyard and Engineering Works Corporation (BDEWC), Sejingkat, under Quality Assurance and Control (QAQC) Department. Their (BDEWC) main industry is to fabricate offshore modules like production/drilling platform, offshore living quarters and platform jacket. Other than that, BDEWC also build and repair vessels, ferries and steel arch bridges as part of their aim to be a major provider for petroleum, marine and manufacturing industries. It is the responsibility of the QAQC Department that all fabrication works are done according to specifications.


So....about wat happens there...I continue later later la....ahaks..

p/s: This post is backdated...hehehe.... Posted part 2 earlier pulak...

Today marks the 2nd Year

Been there during my ups and downs...for the last 2 years.... and hopefully for the many years to come... Love you....


-Ahaks-

Fish Pond Project: Part 1

Dad's fish pond was leaking...so dad asked me to handle it... That means moving all fishes into the aquariums and drain all the water in the pond. After draining, spraying the pond surface with the water gun...all these 3 things took 1 full day to do... not that easy eh... Day one, done...


Day two...looking for defects (macam LI pulak)... before applying waterproffing on the surface, it is importan to plaster the defected surfaces (cracks...thinning surface etc..)..


Then baru apply waterproofing... This will take out another full day.. Next step, next post la..to be continued...ahaks...

Me at Asia Infrastructure '11

A few days ago, I went for this convention and exhibition at BCCK... Asia's International Infrastructure Development Exhibition & COnference... nang panjang la nama... Not that I want to go there..but was invited by Brooke's Engineering Dept to go..so pergi la..boring ba at cabin..plus... to masuk have to pay RM20 ba.. so ok la dapat masuk free...


To be honest..dunno wat I did there la..just see this and that jak..then talked with the guys from SCORE...TRC..and CMS..the rest..macam malas la mok talk... I'm looking forward for the next convention..that'll be next year la...convention on O&G industry..see you there next year...ahaks...

Gawai 2011

As usual, I spent my Gawai celebration this year at my dad's hometown, Sungai Ruan, Roban. Just like previous years, my parents went off earlier while I went off a few days later since I was still working on the 30th. Rajin ba kerja..Gawai Eve baru go kampung..ahaks..


My gf was with me when I drove off to kampung, it's the 2nd time for her to celebrate Gawai with my family at Sungai Ruan..maybe this year's Christmas I'll go to her hometown in Limbang...to be fair ba... Anyway, we drove off a bit late since we had breakfast at kedai gangsta BDC...to make up time, we didn't stop for long at Lachau...only stop for toilet break and tapau some buns. We arrived safely at my longhouse around 3pm (after stopping at Saratok for an hour to buy some fruits).


Last year, those on our side of the longhouse become host for Gawai..this year the other end of the longhouse...so I was not involved that much this year. I spent more time layan family dirik and close ones...only time countdown..and the usual miring ceremony jak go to the other end... other than that...just lepak at ruai sendiri or lepak at my uncle's ruai.


I think this year, Gawai was not that happening simply because we're not hosting it at our end....but felt that we get to have more fun time together as a family. We do not have to kamboh kamboh prepare this and that for others...but take our time to BBQ... lepak lepak...crita crita among close family members..in that sense, I kinda like this year's Gawai. Plus, it's not noisy on our side thus I can sleep earlier than before.


The highlight for Gawai will always be on the night of 31st May.. thus those that enjoys singing, dancing and drinking basically spent the eve with the fullest fun they can have la... So on the 1st June..they all fall flat la..semua mabok... for us yang sik minum gilak..1st June is the day for housekeeping (cuci ruai..banyak sampah sarap) and of course pergi grave to light up candles... On the night of 1st June...we makan together(uncles and aunts..kazen kazen) as a family..and fun in a way la...very family style punya...


We all pulang on the 2nd June..after the usual annual meeting... This year punya meeting shorter than last year la... Last year they meeting sampai 4pm baru habis... this year by noon dah habis... Around 2pm we set off from kampung and reached Kuching safely by 7pm.... itu sahaja laporan Gawai 2011..ahaks...

p/s: sorry for the late entry..bz ba...ahaks....

Still got it..

I had a pleasant ride home..and was kinda early, so I decided to stop at one of my favourite spot in Kuching..although I have to admit it's been ages since I last went there.. I went to Sugarbun Tabuan Jaya..and they still got it...their own chilli sauce... I think one of their secret ingredient is crushed nuts... dunno which nuts la.. nice... ahaks...