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The influence of C and Si on pore morphology and tensile behavior of Fe–C–P–Si was investigated. The contribution of C on the morphology of pores was explained using thermodynamic formulation by incorporating the surface curvature effect. Thermodynamic analysis of the pore surface suggests that C is enriched at all regions within the pore whether its convex or concave regions, resulting in C coverage of the surface pore. The C coverage will reduce the surface energy without changing the pore’s morphology. Accordingly, C has no effect on surface rounding of pores. Compacted tensile test specimens of Fe–C–P–Si powder were made to produce elongated pores. Tensile testing shows the effect of the sintered density, microstructure, pore morphology, and grain boundary on the mechanical properties. It was found that ductility is affected by pore morphology and grain boundaries, but UTS is more affected by the sintered density and the matrix microstructure.

ABSTRACTIn any pharmaceutical packaging process, error rates must be kept very low to prevent defective or incorrect medicine from reaching the consumer. Published articles include a focus on the inspection of ampoule content for the presence of contaminants. Methods of inspection include optical cameras that record sequential images to detect the movement of floating objects via feature extraction and classification. Other methods employ spectral imaging and dying of ampoules to detect cracks. Thermal imaging is also used to inspect structural integrity and mechanical stress; however, this approach is marked by relatively high cost. This paper describes the enhancement of an optical vision-based inspection system for a glass ampoule packaging process. The developed solution involves a reconfiguration of the illumination system of the ampoule trays as well as reprogramming of a real-time optical camera. The camera is linked to the process controller and triggers the ejection of trays containing faulty ampoules. Eight defect types are of interest, namely: missing ampoules; ampoules without a label; crushed ampoules; ampoules with a broken tip – present or missing; ampoules with a broken base; cracked ampoules; empty ampoules. The original inspection system performance was inadequate and only detected 2 of the 8 defect types reliably. The improved system which is described in this paper has adequately detected all aforementioned defect types. Experiments show that the overall detection rates have improved from 55% to 99.6% on average. Average camera detection accuracy has improved from 38% to 99.5%. In addition, the false positives, i.e. rejection rates, were reduced from 45% to 7%.

This paper aims to examine the opportunities for possible improvement of the systems of pattern design and manufacturing, as well as the processes of casting design and technology in steel foundries. Solving these problems will improve the casting quality, and it will also standardize the work in one of the major bottlenecks in the production of steel casting. One big Jordanian foundry is selected as a case study. The foundry is referred to as GAZAL throughout this paper. A detailed flow process chart for the pattern making process with standardized times is developed, then possible improvements to the process are proposed. Several important milestones were developed and documented, among that; the development of a complexity classification and coding scheme of 6 levels to classify the products that GAZAL produced based on several criteria’s; the development of a mathematical model that relate the production time of the pattern with the complexity level. Finally conclusions are presented at the end of the paper.