The aim for this work has been to develop a new layout in the finished goods stock at AnVa Polytech AB in Sunne, Sweden. In this new layout the target was a single-order-flow using a roller conveyor. In the current situation there are two employees working on two different orders at the same time.

The objective of the work was to create a better working environment, better flow of material, minimize the numbers of unnecessary transports and to minimize the risk of disturbance.

By carrying out a number of observation of activities and drawing spaghetti charts over the workers movements during an compilation during a couple of weeks, you could see on what activity and where the workers spend the most time and see where there were most unnecessary movements. The observation of activities made clear that it was on compilation and movement the worker spend the most time. The spaghetti chart showed that the worker made a lot of small, unnecessary movements when going in and out of the forklift for different activities. Those activities were when they had to; print labels and flags to put on the compiled order, repacking or filling a box of material and wrap or string an order.

The design of the roller conveyor was made through a discussion with the supervisors at AnVa Polytech AB to find a solution that would shorten the length of the conveyor and create a smooth flow of material. The two machines that would be a part of the conveyor were placed right next to each other to minimize the length and avoid unnecessary transportation. The roller conveyor was also set to work as an interim storage. It was mad longer in the beginning and in the end of the roller conveyor to ease the stress for the employee working at the conveyor.

The new layout of the storage was made using a method of concept choice. The first part of the method was creating a number of concepts. The second part of the method was based of using two different matrices, one called elimination matrix and the second one relative decision matrix.

In the elimination matrix the different concept was put against each other comparing criterias. The base value of each criteria was set by the current layout of the storage. The ones with the best results proceeded to the relative decision matrix.

The relative decision matrix puts the best concepts from previous matrix against each other but with more in depth criteria. The one with the best result was the one being continued on.

The chosen layout was a configured version of the best concept from the matrices. This layout saved lots of space on the floor to create a safe working environment, good and a good flow of material. The storage shelves were placed to create a smooth flow for the truck without being disturbed by pedestrians from other parts of the facility moving in the storage. The roller conveyor was placed to facilitate the communication between the two workers in the storage to avoid any kind misunderstanding while compiling an order.

A measured drawing was created of the layout to make it easy to see were all the important parts in the storage were being placed to create the layout.

Volvo Penta i Vara tillverkar diselmotorer för marint bruk. Nya materialfilosofier har ändrat förutsättningarna för materialflödet ute i produktionen. Även ökade krav på miljö och säkerhet gör att Volvo Penta i Vara vill se över sin layout för att kunna effektivisera de interna transporterna och därmed göra fabriken säkrare.

Detta arbete avser monteringen på Volvo Penta och har skett parallellt med Marcus Nordberg som tittat på bearbetningen och målning/pack.

Syftet med arbetet är att ta fram ett förslag på en ny layout som kan gynna fabriken med hänsyn till de nya förutsättningarna som gäller för materialflödena och bidra till en renare och säkrare miljö. Genom att kartlägga materialflödet i fabriken kan en nulägesbeskrivning sammanställas och med denna kan en ny layout tas fram. En jämförelse med nuläget ger faktaunderlag för att visa vad en ny layout kan medföra.

En frekvensanalys gjordes på de artiklar som i dag körs av gaffeltruckar för att skapa en uppfattning om materialflödet. Frekvensstudion kompletterades med layoutdiagram för att kunna mäta upp sträckan artiklarna färdas i genomsnitt per dag. En enklare simulering på fabrikens interna transporter gjordes i syfte att visa Volvo Penta användningen av en simulering. Denna gav även en bättre uppfattning om truckkörningen i form av avstånd. Nulägesbeskrivningen sammanställdes och brister identifierades innan arbetet med den nya layouten började.

Sammanställningen av nulägesbeskrivningen visade att dagens materialflöde var väldigt rörigt och gick genom produktionen där rörelsen av människor är som störst. Lösnigen som togs fram på detta var att lägga till ytterligare en godsmottagning på motsatt sida. Andra brister som identifieras är materialhanteringen av tillförelsematerial till monteringen och åtkomligheten till grunddelen för truckar. Alternativa förslag på materialhanteringen och vad de ger för fördelar togs fram. En ny layout föreslås på grunddelen för att öka åtkomligheten.

Jämförelsen med den nya layouten visade att den totala sträckan transporter kunde reduceras med 4,1 km vilket motsvarar en minskning på 30 %. Tidsminskningen på ett skift med dagens takt skulle bli 30 min.

Den nya layouten med den nya godsmottagningen skulle bidra till effektivisering av de interna transporterna och minska dessa genom produktionen kraftigt vilket skulle ge en säkrare miljö. 

There are two main goals of this thesis. Firstly, to improve and develop an existing hot weartester at Karlstad University so that it may test more samples of different sizes. Secondly, totest previously impossible samples and investigate their tribological properties and measurethe coefficient of friction with high reproducibility. The development work on the tribometer wasdone by a prestudy including; Investigating the hot wear tester, idea generation in CAD andcollecting information from the creator and prior users of it. After a few rounds of conceptgeneration and discussion with the supervisor and workshop staff, a new sample holder withdifferent sample adapters was created. Five tests of four different materials were conductedand their friction was measured. The new sample holder was able to solve the mainconcerns with the old design and showed great promise in producing reproducible results,better than any previous versions. The friction of the different TiAlN samples, at roomtemperature, seemed to indicate that there is a certain amount of Al% that maximizes frictionand that there is no simple linear relationship between Al% and coefficient of friction. Finallyit can be concluded that the initial goals of the thesis have been met, and that a newscientific instrument has been created to aid in the further understanding of tribology. 

This master thesis is written to examine the influence of different low carbon steel sheet materials on the GMAW welding process. During welding the properties of the base material influence the productivity of the welding process. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the choice of material and welding speed affect the welding process and the productivity.

A literature survey was performed to describe the welding technique and the differences in manufacturing for the sheet materials as well as the effect of alloying and welding on the sheet material. Defects in the weld and methods used to determine them are explained. Test pieces of the different sheet materials were welded with the GMAW process and examined.

The result shows that there is a variation in the welding process regarding weld penetration. Measurements also show that welding speed and gap have little influence on the hardness of the weld and heat-affected zone and that the S355MC is more likely to suffer from a narrower toe transition radius than S355NL and S355MC Si. This and the higher area in the Y2 region for the S355MC could indicate a stronger inward flow in the weld pool during welding possibly a result of surface active agents such as oxygen and sulphur.

Polymer photovoltaic systems whose photoactive layer is a blend of a semiconducting polymer with a fullerene derivative in a bulk heterojunction configuration are amongst the most successful organic photovoltaic devices nowadays. The three-dimensional organization in these layers (the morphology) plays a crucial role in the performance of the devices. Detailed characterization of this organization at the nanoscale would provide valuable information for improving future material and architectural design and for device optimization.

In this thesis, the results of morphology studies of blends of several polyfluorene copolymers (APFOs) blended with a fullerene derivative are presented. Near-Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy was combined with dynamic Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (dSIMS) for surface and in-depth characterization of the blend films. NEXAFS was performed using two different electron detection methods, partial (PEY) and total (TEY) electron yield, which provide information from different depth regimes. Quantitative compositional information was obtained by fitting the spectra of the blend films with a linear combination of the spectra of films of the pure components. In blends of APFO3 with PCBM in two different blend ratios (1:1 and 1:4 of polymer:fullerene) NEXAFS data show the existence of compositional gradients in the vertical direction for both blend ratios, with clear polymer enrichment of the free surface. A series of APFOs with systematic changes in the side-chains was studied and it was shown that those small modifications can affect polymer:fullerene interaction and induce vertical phase separation. Polymer-enrichment of the free surface was clearly identified, in accordance with surface energy minimization mechanisms, and a compositional gradient was revealed already in the first few nanometers of the surface of the blend films. dSIMS showed that this vertical phase separation propagates throughout the film. It was possible to determine that as the polar character of the polymer increases, and thus the polymer:fullerene miscibility is improved, the tendency for vertical phase separation becomes stronger.

Present and future demonstrator designs were used to demonstrate the quality assurance of welds. The NDT methods tested on prototype demonstrator parts are: visual inspection, radius gauges, throat size gauge, liquid-penetrant testing, magnetic particle testing and ultrasonics with pulse echo and phased array. The other methods like eddy current, time of flight diffraction, radiography, impression test, macro test and infrared thermographs are currently being analyzed along with their inspection costs.

The control plans for present and future designs with corresponding present and future NDT methods are suggested to minimize a shift in process.

• Magnetic particle testing revealed a lack of fusion and cracks for fillet welds, whereas ultrasonic pulse echo and phased array identified an internal lack of fusion, inner pores/slag inclusions on butt welds.
• Ultrasonic PAUT & TOFD could be used for accurate defect identification and thermography for online identification of lack of penetration, depth of penetration and weld parameters.

Microindentation as a method for determining important material properties of paper coating materials is studied experimentally and numerically. The bulk of the investigation is concentrated upon the short-lived elastic part of a spherical indentation test, but determination of the failure stress of the coating is also discussed. The results indicate that microindentation can be a powerful tool for material characterization of these materials, but only if careful efforts are made to account for the influence from plasticity as well as from boundary effects

To achieve a better understanding of the folding properties of coated papers pertinent to the mechanical behaviour, a microscopic investigation was performed. The influence on the damage levels in the coating from such features as delamination, humidity and paper thickness have been studied

Folding of coated paper is examined numerically using the finite element method. Particular emphasis is put on the behaviour of field variables relevant for cracking of the coating layers. In the numerical analysis, the basepaper is modelled as an anisotropic elasticplastic material (both elastic and plastic anisotropy is accounted for) while the constitutive behaviour of the coating layers are approximated by classical (Mises) elastoplasticity. The numerical results suggest, among other things, that particular forms of plastic anisotropy can substantially reduce the maximum strain levels in the coating. It is also shown that delamination buckling, in the present circumstances, will have a very small influence on the strain levels in the coating layer subjected to high tensile loading

A finite element procedure, developed in order to account for the effect of high anisotropy at folding of coated papers, is presented. The anisotropic behaviour (with very low stiffness in the thickness direction) is modelled using stiff structural elements (trusses and beams). The numerical results indicate that high elastic anisotropy leads to lower strain levels at folding than reported in previous analyses where this effect was not accounted for. High plastic anisotropy, on the other hand, will contradict this result

Folding of digital prints has been investigated experimentally in order to determine the influence from different features on the residual strength of the folded paper. In particular, the effect of toner-layer, paper-fibre orientation and pre-creasing is investigated and the experimental results are supplemented with numerical ones based on the finite element method. The results indicate that creasing, and to a less extend also fibre orientation, is the most important factor influencing the residual tensile strength after folding

In this chapter we describe a pilot survey on applying problem-based learning (PBL) in an undergraduate programming course. During the course the students have applied PBL as a complement to traditional teaching and learning techniques. The PBL problem in this survey combines both knowledge about programming and knowledge about databases. We argue that to handle programming the students have to learn programming according to the deep approach to learning in order to be able to apply their knowledge in new programming situations and contexts. The result from this pilot survey indicates from both a tutor and a student perspective that PBL could be one method to reach a deeper understanding on how to access databases in a programming language.

Detta examensarbete har varit ett projekt där målet har varit att en komplett sorteringsramp för pappersbruk skulle konstrueras och syftet med detta har varit att komplett tillverkningsunderlag skulle tas fram. Två typer av maskiner har konstruerats, så kallade rullpuffare och rullstopp samt ramper mellan rullstopp. För att konstruera för marknaden konkurrenskraftiga maskiner har tidigare sådana studerats och använts som grund och vidareutvecklats under projektarbetets gång.

Vid konstruktion av rullpuffare har kraftanalyser skett för att utröna hur maskinen belastas. Vidare har hållfasthetsberäkningar gjorts på de delar på konstruktionen som bedömts som kritiska. Även Finita Elementmetoden har använts som grund för att få en inblick i vilka spänningar och deformationer som uppstår i den sammansatta konstruktionen.

När rullstopp konstruerades lades stor vikt vid att försöka lösa ett problem med sprickande svetsar som uppstod i tidigare konstruktion. Även vid konstruktion av denna maskin har kraftanalyser, hållfasthetsberäkningar samt FEM-analyser skett.

Vid konstruktion har stor vikt lagts vid monteringsvänlighet och att om möjlighet funnits utforma de båda maskinerna så att dessa skulle kunna använda samma komponenter.

En ny typ av golv har valts att användas till sorteringsrampen där val av golv har till största delen baserats på rekommendationer från olika leverantörer.

Några av de mindre uppsatta målen hann inte uppfyllas, men projektet i sin helhet bedöms ha gått väldigt bra.

One important surface property of forming tools is their resistance to cracking due to fatigue loading. The wide variety of steel grades, material handling, machining operations and surface treatments will give very different fatigue properties. The present article gives examples on the influence of steel grades, EDM machining and surface coating. Initial cracks may be introduced in the tool during the processing to its final shape and surface finish, why a particular interest is given to small cracks introduced by the EDM process.

The aim of this paper is to describe the first cycle of a learning study in technology education, using a hands-on material, in a Swedish preschool class, i.e. pupils at the age of six. The study was conducted by three teachers and two researchers during fall 2011. Within a learning study, the pupils’ learning is in focus in order to find out the opportunities and obstacles in teaching. The teachers and researchers are working in close cooperation when planning, observing, analysing and revising a specific lesson in which a specific learning object is dealt with. The learning study described in this paper, was carried out with starting-point in the revised Swedish curricula, launched in fall 2011. The results show that the use of a hands-on material may obstruct the view of the learning object, if the pupils are not able to manage the material. The results also indicate that an unsupported practical oriented task could prevent the intended learning object to appear for the pupils.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine which factors are the most important to

successfully implementing an improvement process, and to examine if subcontracting

companies differ from the rest of the companies in the study.

Increasing the quality of products and at the same time lowering the costs is often

necessary with the pressure from the external environment that many companies are facing

today. Many companies are active on a global scale with competitors all over the planet. It is

easy to understand that companies need to have an innovative approach, and improve their

products, but it is hard to know how and what to change.

Upon completion of the initial research phase, a form with questions was created. The

composed question sheet was used in an internet based survey. The same question sheet was

later used in interviews with 3 different companies. The interview phase provided a chance to

ask follow up questions to increase the understanding and help with the analysis. The results

from the study were compared with leading literature and similarities were highlighted.

The results from the study demonstrate that soft values are the most important factors

when implementing an improvement process. Engaged leadership, clear goals and

participation from leaders and personnel are the most prominent factors. The differences

between subcontracting companies and the other companies in the study are not significant.