This major reference book is divided into two sections; the first deals with the practical, hands-on understanding of individual areas of tape casting and the other targets the understanding of the overall system. Readers can quickly address current problems with tried and true fixes and their relation to the overall process. The book handles the problem diagnosis separately from the standard production of quick-fixes. Tape Casting will benefit technicians, engineers, and engineering managers, as well as professors and students.

Carbon gasification reactions form the basis of many important industrial processes, such as the combustion of coal and the produc tion of synthesis gas, fuel gases and activated carbons. They are also involved in metallurgical processes and in the regeneration of coked catalysts. Thus, understanding the fundamentals of carbon gasification is of vital importance for further technological development. Moreover, the subject is of interdisciplinary nature, involving chemistry, ma terials science and chemical engineering. Therefore, it was thought that an Advanced Study Institute would be fruitful in establishing the state of the art, in bringing together experts from the various sectors involved and in identifying areas of required research and industrial development. Such a meeting was held at Alvor, Portugal, from the 20th to the 31st May 1985, and the lectures presented the reof are collected in this volume. The present volume is organized in seven chapters. The Intro duction presents the carbon gasification reactions an their rele vance for particular processes and industrial uses. In the second chapter, the structures of carbon and coal are reviewed, together with methods of structural, chemical and textural characterization."

Most catalysts used in the chemical and petrochemical indus tries are strongly affected by one or another form of deactivation, leading to poor performances and reduced life. The increasing num ber of scientific communications devoted to the subject in recent years, and culminating with an International Symposium held in Antwerp in October 1980, is a measure of the interest it arouses in both the industrial and academic communities. A stage has been reached whereby it was thought that a NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Catalyst Deactivation" might be fruit ful in establishing the state of the art and in stimulating a more systematic research on the phenomenon. Such a meeting was held n Lagos, Portugal, from 18 to 29 May 1981. The purpose of the Institute was to present and discuss in a didatic and systematic way the various processes that lead to cata lyst deactivation, namely coking, poisoning and solid state trans formations, and at the same time to promote the exchange of ideas and experiences among the participants, drawn from industry and uni versity. The lectures presented at the Institute are collected in this volume with the exception of Dr. L.L.Hegedus "Catalyst Poisoning," which has been previously published (Catalysis Reviews, Science md Engineering, 23, 377-476, 1981)."

Intelligent Manufacturing is a new disciplinary field which applies computer science, artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering and systems science to industrial manufacturing processes. This book presents a new integration architecture for implementing real-time distributed intelligent manufacturing systems.

Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering

The world of microelectronics is filled with cusses measurement systems, manufacturing many success stories. From the use of semi control techniques, test, diagnostics, and fail ure analysis. It discusses methods for modeling conductors for powerful desktop computers to their use in maintaining optimum engine per and reducing defects, and for preventing de formance in modem automobiles, they have fects in the first place. The approach described, clearly improved our daily lives. The broad while geared to the microelectronics world, has useability of the technology is enabled, how applicability to any manufacturing process of similar complexity. The authors comprise some ever, only by the progress made in reducing their cost and improving their reliability. De of the best scientific minds in the world, and fect reduction receives a significant focus in our are practitioners of the art. The information modem manufacturing world, and high-quality captured here is world class. I know you will diagnostics is the key step in that process. find the material to be an excellent reference in of product failures enables step func Analysis your application. tion improvements in yield and reliability. which works to reduce cost and open up new Dr. Paul R. Low applications and technologies. IBM Vice President and This book describes the process ofdefect re of Technology Products General Manager duction in the microelectronics world."

The assembly sector is one of the least automated in the manufacturing industry. Automation is essential if industrial companies are to be competitive in the future. In assembly, an integrated and flexible approach is needed because 75% of the applications are produced in small and medium batches. The methodologies developed in this book deal with the integration of the assembly process from the initial design of the product to its production. In such an integrated system, assembly planning is one of the most important features. A well-chosen assembly plan will reduce both the number of tool changes and the fixtures within the assembly cell. It will prevent the handling of unstable subassemblies, simplify the design of the robot grippers and reduce production costs. An automatic generator of assembly sequences can be an efficient aid to the designer. Whenever he or she modifies features of the product, the influence of these modifications can immediately be checked on the sequences. For small batch production, the automatic generation of assembly sequences is faster, more reliable and more cost-effective than manual generation. By using this latter method interesting sequences could be missed because of the combinatorial explosion of solutions. The main subjects treated in this book are as follows. 1. Presentation and classification of existing systems of automatic generation of assembly sequences. Automatic assembly planning is, indeed, a very recent research area and, in my experience, no systematic study has been carried out up to now.

CIM (computer integrated manufacturing) is an acronym that has become fairly well known in recent years in manufacturing and related engineering circles. The purpose of the CIM Project at IIASA is to close the widening gap between the pace of technological, economic, and social events, on the one hand, and the progress of understanding those events, on the other. The IIASA study has attempted, first, to define the existing world situation with regard to the underlying technologies of CIM, and the degrees to which technologies such as NC/CNC machine tools, robotics, and CAD/CAM are currently being used in metal products manufacturing. The methodology adopted in the study is eclectic. It is multiperspective and multidisciplinary, as well as multinational. It incorporates elements of both "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches. Finally, it incorporates both historical analysis and "model" forecasts of the future, together with scenarios analyses. This fourth volume in the series focuses on the effects of CIM on society and the economy in both quantitative and qualitative terms.

CIM (computer integrated manufacturing) is an acronym that has become fairly well known in recent years in manufacturing and related engineering circles. The purpose of the CIM Project at IIASA is to close the widening gap between the pace of technological, economic, and social events, on the one hand, and the progress of understanding those events, on the other. The IIASA study has attempted, first, to define the existing world situation with regard to the underlying technologies of CIM, and the degrees to which technologies such as NC/CNC machine tools, robotics, and CAD/CAM are currently being used in metal products manufacturing. The methodology adopted in the study is eclectic. It is multiperspective and multidisciplinary, as well as multinational. It incorporates elements of both "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches. Finally, it incorporates both historical analysis and "model" forecasts of the future, together with scenarios analyses. This first volume is a summary volume and describes the outputs of the bottom-up part of the study.

Decisive potential in business is a question of process capability, rather than production capability. Process capability in business requires real-time systems for optimization. Business-IT needs to be developed from telecommunications and ERP to real-time services, which are not offered by the prevailing ERP systems. This book shows how modern information technology Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) becomes the prerequisite for process capability of the company on the basis of many practical examples. It describes the requirements for optimized MES. It gives an overview of the efficiency potentials and different applications of MES.

The importance of safety in any scientific endeavor is never in question. However, when cryogenic temperatures are involved, safety is especially important. In addition to observing the normal precautions, one must also take into account the variations of physical properties that occur at low temperatures. At these tempera tures, some properties not only exhibit large differences from their normal values but also can vary widely over a small temperature range. Before any cryogenic project is started, a thorough knowledge of the possible hazards is necessary. Only in this way can the safest operation be attained. Over the hundred-year history of cryogenic research, this has been shown to be the case. Keeping this requirement in mind is an essential ingredient in the quest for accident-free work. The past four or five decades have seen a great expansion of cryogenic technology. Cryogenic liquids, such as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and helium, have become commonly used in a number of different applications and are easily available in any part of the United States and, indeed, almost anywhere in the world. Not only are these liquids available, they have become less expensive and also available in ever larger quantities. As quantities increase, so also do the conse quences of mishaps. The future seems to hold promise of ever larger and more widespread use of the common cryogens. Thus, the importance of safety also increases as time progresses."

This book should be of interest to students and practitioners of materials science, production engineering, and engineering and design.

Industrial Production Management in Flexible Manufacturing Systems addresses the present discussions surrounding flexible production systems based on automation, robotics and cybernetics as they continue to replace the traditional production systems. The book also covers issues related to the use of multi-servicing in the operational management of the industrial production and its scheduling systems.

Over the past two decades, research in the theory of Petri nets and the development of graphical tools has yielded a powerful methodology. The contributions in Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation present theoretical development of Petri nets as well as in industrial applications to areas such as discrete- event control design, scheduling, performance evaluation and deadlock avoidance. These contributions also include comparative studies of Petri nets and other approaches. A primary theme of this book is to provide a unified approach to the applications of Petri nets in flexible and agile automation and, in that regard, a common notation and terminology is used. The book also allows readers to evaluate the benefits and applicability of state-of-the-art Petri net methods and apply CAD tools to problems of interest. Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation is not only an essential reference for researchers, it is also a very useful tool for engineers, analysts and managers who are responsible for the design, implementation and operation of the next generation of manufacturing systems.

In this global society, manufacturers compete in many ways, and information infrastructures play a critical role in ensuring the right information is available at the right time and the right place to support informed decision making. The traditional approach that assumes all information can be located on a single mainframe and accessed by everybody in the enterprise has fallen by the wayside, and new infrastructures supporting extended or virtual enterprises and globally distributed supply chains are becoming increasingly vital to successful, competitive organizations. Functions, data, and information must be made be available to all without regard to location, accessibility, or the ability to view in a native format. This book is a result of a conference, which brought together a number of leading experts from around the world that work on topics related to the design, implementation, and use of information infrastructures for manufacturing. These experts presented their views on the state of the art, and on a wide variety of topics related to the title. The topics range from the establishment of a generic enterprise framework, which can be used for the design of a supporting information infrastructure to details of how geometric surfaces should be merged together. Although not an exhaustive publication, we believe that the publications in this book represent the state of the art in this research is essential reading for anyone who is attempting the design or development of an information infrastructure for all aspects of Manufacturing.

Despite the numerous competitive advantages of one-of-a-kind production (OKP), the low efficiency and high costs associated with OKP companies threaten to push their business opportunities into the hands of cheaper overseas suppliers.

"One-of-a-Kind Production" introduces a novel strategy and technology to help OKP companies to efficiently mass-produce customized products. In "One-of-a-Kind Production, " case studies from OKP companies are used to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the OKP strategy and technology. These case studies include: a structural steel construction company, a manufacturer of specifically ordered compressors and refrigeration systems, a customized high pressure vessel manufacturing company, anda custom window and door manufacturer.

To help readers understand OKP strategy and technology, the authors offer a year s free access to the OKP Management and Control Software System. This system is based on a new integrated production control and management concept, namely product production structure. It is a useful tool and "One-of-a-Kind Production" is a valuable guide for production engineers and managerial staff in manufacturing companies, as well as for university researchers and graduate students.

CIM (computer integrated manufacturing) is an acronym that has become fairly well known in recent years in manufacturing and related engineering circles. The purpose of the CIM Project at IIASA is to close the widening gap between the pace of technological, economic, and social events, on the one hand, and the progress of understanding those events, on the other. The IIASA study has attempted, first, to define the existing world situation with regard to the underlying technologies of CIM, and the degrees to which technologies such as NC/CNC machine tools, robotics, and CAD/CAM are currently being used in metal products manufacturing. The methodology adopted in the study is eclectic. It is multiperspective and multidisciplinary, as well as multinational. It incorporates elements of both "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches. Finally, it incorporates both historical analysis and "model" forecasts of the future, together with scenarios analyses. This third volume in the series presents a descriptive and interpretive analysis of the processes of diffusion and adoption of CIM by technology, sector and country.