Embracing Green Technology

DesignSimulation software speed up drop tests, reduce re-work

LogisticsReal time fleet management tools cut operating costs

surface finishingAnodizing offers benefits over powder coating and plating

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editorial

As we exit the year 2009, the feelings are mixed. The manufacturing industry in India has nicely recovered from the

downturn—and has exhibited straight five months of growth. In anticipation of better financial results, the stock market has also risen sharply—in stark contrast to the mood early this year. While the government’s fiscal stimulus has kept the economy chugging along at a healthy six plus percent growth rate, the excess cash in the system has fuelled inflation. It is inevitable that the government will soon take steps to restrict the availability of money and easy credit, which could place the manufacturing industry in a bind as it struggles to cope with resurgent demand.

In managing the downturn, manu-facturers have learnt some important lessons. The first is that cost management needs to become a core philosophy within the organization. While Indian manufac-turers have always been cognizant of costs, the downturn has forced many com-panies to take a hard look at their entire business processes and re-engineer them. eliminate waste, and think lean become the new operational mantra. Another les-son that manufacturers have learnt is that the environment has become extremely volatile and risky. They have discovered that old planning and forecasting tech-

niques are unable to cope with fluctuating market demand, unreliable supplies, and gyrating prices of input materials. They have learnt that the only way to prosper in this environment is to have an agile organization—one that can rapidly adapt itself to changes.

Quality is another factor that has come to the fore because of the downturn. most manufacturing managers realize that high quality is no longer an option—it is essential to survival. As result, an increas-ing number of organizations are looking at investments in new equipment and technology that can help increase the quality and reliability of the output, while improving manufacturing efficiency. Inter-est in factory automation and software solutions that can improve manufacturing operations is growing.

As we go into 2010, the industry will continue to wrestle with many problems. since the implementation of the GsT regime is likely to be delayed by at least 6 to 9 months, efforts to streamline the sup-ply chain will take a hit. oil and commodity prices will remain volatile, as will curren-cies while the global economy attempts a recovery. so, manufacturing mangers will need to remain vigilant and innovative as they lead their organizations to bigger op-portunities. Write in and let me know how you think the year ahead will pan out. n

GReat exPecTATIoNs, Some TrePIdATIoN

contents

www.industry20.comdecember 31, 2009 | industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers4

in conversation

wish list16 Industry Experts Share Their Wish Lists for 2010Views from the industry professionals on their expectations on new year’s eve.

manufacturing technology36 Quality Maintenance during ProductionNew solution to eliminate production problems.

materials & processes38 Aluminium Surface Corrosion Prevention Anodizing increases durability and aesthetics of aluminium products.

management & strategy40 Introducing Standard Assembly ProcessDr Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director, Mercedes-Benz India, talks on manufacturing practices followed in his company.

facilities & operations43 Implementation of Lean Systems in SMEsA case study describing how an SME achieved benefits from ‘Lean’ implementation.

46 Lean Manufacturing to Increase ProfitabilityImplementation of ‘Lean’ significantly improves productivity.

information technology48 Raising Profitability with GPS Fleet Management SystemsContinuous tracking of company vehicles is possible with real time fleet management tools.

50 Drop Test SimulationSoftware can now make designers understand the impact on a falling body very easily.

cover story

departments

01 Editorial

06 Industry Update

12 Event Report

39 Advertiser Index

53 Product Update

48 50

Cover Design: Prasanth T R

Picture courtesy: OSRAM

22 Green Technology for LightingLED lamps are the most environment friendly and energy efficient source of lighting

32 Wireless Technology to Dominate AutomationDeployment of wireless environment is easy, economic and environment friendly.

34 M to M Communications to Govern ManufacturingInstead of just raising alert, the embedded logic will do proactive maintenance.

40Dr WilfrieD Aulbur

Managing Director, Mercedes-Benz India

22

industry update


The Tirupur Exporters’ Associa-tion (TEA) through its Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), G-Tech

Info Solutions (International) has

joined hands with Microsoft India to provide online solutions for the textile manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tiru-pur. The move is under the aegis of Project Vikas.

The solutions include an online desktop by Airtel, hosted email by Global Outlook and unified commu-nications by Wipro.

The online desktop by Airtel - Nivio will facilitate accessing and sharing of data from anywhere, anytime. This is available to the SMEs on ‘pay as you go’ basis. A 10 GB space will be provided online to users to store documents, photos, music and presentations.

The hosted e-mail by Global Outlook provides users e-mail or collaboration solutions along with enterprise class security; without any pre-requisites of technical ex-pertise of the customer. The unified communications by Wipro will help streamlining of communications with flexibility in a single interface and by enabling easy connectivity with others in different locations for customers.

A Shaktivel, President, Tirupur Exporters’ Association, said, “The introduction of these new hosted online solutions will accelerate the IT adoption for the textile manufac-turers in Tirupur.” n

The 11th Five Year Plan will raise Rs 1,000 cr for the de-velopment of the Micro Small

and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, said Dinsha J. Patel, Minis-ter of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, at the 2nd edition of the World SME Conference 2009, held in New Delhi recently.

Patel added that in the Indian economy, the MSME sector is the second largest contributor in terms of GDP after agriculture sector. It provides about 80-90 per cent of employment to the Indian popula-tion and enjoys 45 per cent share in production and 35 per cent in exports.

“In 2006, the MSME Act generat-ed huge employment opportunities for the common people and we hope the trend will continue,” he said. Professor Anil Gupta, Ex-ecutive Vice Chairman, National Innovation Foundation in his open-ing keynote emphasised that lack of investment in skill building is a burning issue and urged the govern-ment to help the MSME sector get its due recognition.

Two panel discussion were held during the event, one titled, ‘IT Solutions for MSMEs - Lip Service or Real Solutions’ and the second one titled, ‘Role of management and technical institutions in developing entrepreneural ecosystems’. n

Date: 10 February to

12 February 2010

Metallurgy India 2010The exhibition will display equipment, in-novation, machinery and technology in the metallurgy sector.

Venue: Bombay Exhibition Centre, MumbaiTel: +91-11-26971056 E-mail: [email protected]: www.md-india.com

Date: 10 February to

12 February 2010

MaCHteCH 2010The event will showcase engineer-ing machinery, machine tools,

automation and automotive technology.Venue: Akota Stadium Vadodara, GujaratTel: +91-79-32410602E-mail: [email protected]: www.kmgindia.com Date:

4 February to 7 February 2010

eventupdateInternational Hardware Show 2010The exhibition focuses on building hardware, hardware equipment and power tools industry.

Venue: Hitex Exhibition Centre, HyderabadTel: 91- 40 – 23112121E-mail: [email protected]: www.hardwarexh.com

Date: 2 February to

4 February 2010

Date: 3 February to

5 February 2010

tube India International 2010The event will showcase equipment, innovation, machinery and technology in the tubes and pipes sector.

Venue: Bombay Exhibition Centre, MumbaiTel: +91-11-26971056 E-mail: [email protected]: www.md-india.com

Isrmex India 2010The event will display a wide range of agricultural machinery, spares, latest farming, irrigation and harvesting tech-

nology, boilers and material handling systems.Venue: National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana) Tel: +91-184-2242174/75E-mail: [email protected]: www.isrmexindia.com

Government to Boost Growth of MSMe Sector

Microsoft, G-tech Info to Provide It Solutions for textile SMes in tirupur

The affordable IT solutions are expected to accelerate IT adoption for textile manufacturers.

industry update


Demand for streamlined sup-ply chains from the auto, pharma, hi-tech and retail

sectors is fueling strong growth for logistics service providers in gener-al and contract logistics players in particular, concludes Datamonitor’s ‘India Logistics & Express Outlook 2009’ report.

The report adds that the logis-tics industry is expected to grow

at a CAGR of 7.1 per cent over the period 2008-13 and contract logis-tics is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21 per cent over 2008-13.

Consistently high economic and trade growth, the introduction of simpler tax regimes such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2010, and well-designed modern transport networks are expected to drive growth in the logistics sector.

According to the report a num-ber of improvements will facilitate the continued growth of logistics industry. These include the execu-tion of infrastructure development such as transport network expan-sion and modernization, and the establishment of Special Economic Zones, Free Trade and Warehousing Zones, and logistics parks. n

Global Market for Contract Pharmaceuticals to Rise

Logistics Industry to Record High Growth

Freight Sector to Witness 10 Per Cent Growth Rate

The Indian freight industry is expected to grow at a rate of 10 per cent in the near future. This was stated in a recent report

titled, ‘Freight transport industry in India 2009-2014’ released by Novonous.

The report states that the future growth of the Indian freight industry is fuelled by the growth of India’s gross domestic product (over 7 per cent presently) and the double digit growth rates witnessed by the manufacturing industry.

The freight transportation industry trends indicate that freight operations, which are port-based are predicted to grow at 20 to 25 per cent, with the proposed capacity additions at major and minor ports.

According to Novonous estimates, rail freight will witness steady but less spectacular growth, given the predominance of the state-controlled Indian Railways and is likely to record a growth rate of 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, all other transport modes are likely to experience faster growth, with interna-tional air cargo turnover performing strongly as more private airlines join the market.

Sea transport through India’s major ports is also expected to perform well and grow at 9.2 per cent with the entry of private players in the sea freight sector.

Air freight will also witness a growth rate of 8.5 per cent.

The report adds that efforts for modernisation of sea ports will act as a boon and India is likely to emerge as a major destination for con-tainer operations. n

The global market for contract pharmaceuticals is expected to increase to $299 billion in

2014 at a five year compound annual growth rate of 11.1 per cent, from an estimated $177 billion in 2009, according to a new technical market research report from BCC Research.

The report, ‘Contract pharmaceu-ticals manufacturing, research and packaging’, states that the largest segment of the market, contract manufacture of over-the-counter (OTC) and nutraceuticals, is expect-ed to increase at a CAGR of 11.4 per cent to reach $177 billion by 2014.

The second largest segment, contract manufacture of bulk- and dosage-form drugs, is estimated to be worth nearly $44 billion in 2009, and is likely to increase at a CAGR of 10.8 per cent to reach $73.1 billion in 2014. The third-largest segment, contract research, is expected to touch $40.6 billion in 2014, for a 5-year CAGR of 10.7 per cent, from an estimated $24.4 billion in 2009.

The smallest segment, contract packaging, is projected to have a CAGR of 8 per cent, rising from $5.5 billion in 2009 to $8.1 billion in 2014. n

The global market for contract phar-maceuticals is expected to increase to $299 billion in 2014 from an estimated $177 billion in 2009.

The Indian logistics industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1 per cent over the period 2008-13.

Port-based freight operations are expected to grow at 20 to 25 per cent.

industry update


McNally Bharat Bags Project from SaIL

Integrated textile company, Banswara Syntex (BSL) is planning to set up an additional 15/18 MW thermal-based power plant at Banswara in Rajasthan. The new venture is expected to cost about Rs 50 crore. The

company presently has a similar 15/18 MW thermal power plant, opera-tional since two years.

The new plant is expected to cash in about Rs 15 crore on an annual ba-sis from Q1FY12 onwards. The company is also expecting to avail a 10-year tax holiday for the profit of the power unit.

The power generated will be used for internal consumption and if found surplus, then for sale. The company is planning to consume imported and indigenous coal for the power plant. R L Toshniwal, CMD, Banswara Syntex, said, “We have decided to chalk out an additional 15/18 MW thermal power plant to meet our increased capacity requirements.”

The company recently recorded net sales of Rs 307.26 crore for the half-year ended September 30, 2009 as compared to Rs 270.72 crore in the corresponding period last year. n

McNally Bharat Engineering has bagged a project worth Rs 330 crores from iron and steel producer, Steel

Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The project includes providing turnkey solutions for a new coal handling plant in coke oven battery at Rourkella.

The scope of the project involves supply of equipment like belt conveyor, crusher, vibrating feeder, wagon tippler with dide arm charger, which would be manufactured by its subsidiary company, McNally Sayaji Engi-neering. Srinivash Singh, Managing Director, McNally Bharat Engineering, said, “This is an important project for us.”

Headquartered in Kolkata, McNally Bharat provides solutions in power, steel, aluminium, material handling, mineral beneficiation, pyroprocessing, pneumatic handling of pow-dered materials including fly ash handling and high concentrate disposal, coal washing, port cranes, civic and industrial water supply. n

Food grain processing com-pany, Lakshmi Overseas In-dustries is planning to set up

a new biomass based power plant of 60 MW. The company recently conducted the foundation stone lay-

ing ceremony of the biomass-based power plant. The new plant will be situated next to the company’s exist-ing food grain processing factory and 30 MW biomass-based power plant at Chandigarh, Punjab. n

Banswara Plans Additional Thermal-based Power Plant

Corus Bags Contract from French Railway Operator

Corus, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has bagged a Euro 350 million contract from SNCF, the national railway of France, to

supply rails for up to six years for the renewal and maintenance of the Reseau Ferre de France (RFF) tracks.

Corus has now decided to invest Euro 35 million in its rail production facility in Hayange, France. The investment in a range of new manu-facturing equipment is expected to improve the plant’s efficiency and enable workers to produce 108-metre long rails for the project. n

KeC Wins Orders in algeria, abu Dhabi

Lakshmi Overseas to Set up Power Plant

KEC International has won major orders in Algeria and Abu Dhabi worth Rs 474

crore and Rs 76 crore respectively.In Algeria, the company has

won an order from CEEG Spa to undertake five turnkey projects of 400 KV, 200 KV and 60 KV covering both single and double circuit transmission lines. The total length of these five projects is 858 km and the project is scheduled to be completed during the period from 12 to 18 months.

Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, the company won an order from Abu Dhabi Transport Authority / Ghan-toot Transport & General Contract-

ing Establishment for modification and real-location on existing lines with design and supply of emergency line restoration sys-tem (ERS) in Ruwais and Shuweihat. The order is scheduled to be completed within 12 months.

“In Abu Dhabi we are diversifying our client base and we will perform our first

international ERS project,” said Ramesh Chandak, MD & CEO, KEC International.

KEC specialises in power trans-mission and engineering, procure-ment and construction business. n

KEC has won orders worth Rs 474 crore and Rs 76 crore in Algeria and Abu Dhabi.

Corus will supply rails for up to six years for the renewal and maintenance of the Reseau Ferre de France tracks.


Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has acquired a majority stake in two

Australian aerospace compa-nies, viz., Aerostaff Australia and Gippsland Aeronautics. Mahin-dra has made this strategic deal jointly with Kotak Private Equity with a total commitment of Rs 175 crore.

Aerostaff Australia is a com-ponent manufacturer of close-tolerance aircraft components and assemblies for large aerospace

OEMs. Through this acquisition, M&M is planning to strengthen its base in the defence offset and commercial aviation market.

Gippsland Aeronautics (GA) has delivered more than 200 FAR 23 certififed planes in 32 coun-tries. The FAR 23 certification is mandatory for carrying fare pay-ing passenger and signifies high-est level of passenger safety. With the acquisition of GA, M&M makes its entry into the 2-20 seater and turbo prop market. n

Octant to Acquire Two Power Cos in Orissa

Octant has announced its plans to diversify, and has planned to acquire two companies in the power sector,

located in Orissa as part of the diversification strategy. The companies are Indravati Ener-gies with a hydel power license for generation of 7.5 MW, and Vani Energies, which has a license for generation of 10 MW capacity.

Octant has appointed Alpha Power Con-sultants as the advisor for the valuation of the two power companies. Once the valuation of the power companies are complete, the company will initiate action for merger of them with Octant Interactive Technologies.

The company also has plans to demerge its finance division into a separate entity, so that the focus has a separate identity through Octant Interactive Technologies Limited. n

Praj Industries has joined hands with Novozymes to collaborate on advanced

biofuels. Novozymes is an enzyme provider to the biofuel industry.

Together both the companies are plan-ning to optimise the enzymatic hydrolysis processes and the use of enzymes in the production of ad-vanced biofuel.

Pramod Chaudhari, chairman, Praj Industries, said, “Praj is engaged in pilot trials of advanced biofuels at Praj-Matrix innovation centre. Our progress in cellulose-

to-ethanol processing combined with the experience of Novozymes in this area will enable a signifi-

cant reduction in the cost of enzymes for the production of cellulosic ethanol.” The company has been working with various agri-residues, including sugarcane bagasse, corn cobs, straw, wood chips and grasses.

“We believe this collaboration with Praj will ensure rapid deploy-ment of cellulosic biofuel in India as well as in other parts of the world,” said Steen Riisgaard, president and CEO, Novozymes. n

Mahindra acquires two aerospace Cos

talbros, SaNWa enter technical agreement

Talbros Automotive Components has en-tered into a technical assistance agree-ment with Japan-based Sanwa Packaging

Industry Company (SANWA), for obtaining tech-nical know-how and other related information for manufacturing of heat shields for automo-tives and related applications.

The agreement is initially for a period of five years and is expected to help the com-pany to expand its product bandwidth among its customers.

Established in 1945, SANWA, manufactures high tech gaskets and heat shield products.

Heat shields find use in insulating the heat, sound and vibration of the automobile engines, electric generator engines and parts of exhaust pipes. n

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has established a joint venture

company under the name ‘Energy Efficiency Services Limited’ in collaboration with Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Powergrid Cor-poration of India (PGCIL) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).

The new company will promote the business of energy efficiency and climate change including manufacture and supply of energy efficient services and products for the industry.

NTPC, PFC, PGCIL and REC will equally hold share in the equity share capital of the company. n

Praj, Novozymes to Collaborate on advanced Biofuels

NtPC Sets up New JV Company

Praj, Novozymes will optimise the enzymatic hydrolysis processes.

Talbros manufactures gaskets, steering and suspen-sion components, stampings, rubber products and forgings.


event report

Frost & Sullivan Honours Environment Industry Players

Frost & Sullivan (F&S) recently concluded its first Annual En-vironment Excellence Awards distribution ceremony in Mum-

bai. The awards for 2009 were in rec-ognition of the inspiring and exemplary achievements by companies operating in the environment industry.

Presenting the awards, Anand Ran-gachary, managing director, South Asia, Middle East, F&S said, “The companies have excelled in creating innovative best practices and have capitalized on the growth prospects in this segment. Industrial activity is picking up while government-backed urban infrastruc-ture projects served as saviour for this market. We see this market providing immense opportunities to companies and it will be the focal point of attention in India’s growth curve.”

According to F&S’s analysis, the environment market comprising four segments, namely—Water and Waste-water Treatment, Waste Management, Air Pollution Control and Point of Use (PoU) Water Treatment Systems was

estimated at INR 94 billion in 2008, and the market is expected to register growth rates of 16 to 17 per cent in the next five years.

Award winners in Water and Waste-water Treatment segment are Ion Exchange Waterleau (Best company of the year), Aqua Designs India (Emerging company of the year), Hindustan Dorr-Oliver (Business devel-opment strategy leadership, also Vertical market penetration), VA Tech Wabag (Market strategy leadership), Degremont (Growth strategy excel-lence ), GE Water (Enabling green excellence), Neela India (Niche market player) and Doshion (Brand develop-ment srategy leadership).

Companies received awards in Waste Management segment are Ramky Enviro Engineers (Best company of the year, Vertical market penetration—biomedical waste, also Market lead-ership - industrial hazardous waste), Antony Waste Handling Cell (Market leadership—municipal waste management), SMS Infra (Enabling

technology), Eco Recyling (Niche market player) and E Parisara (Entre-preneurial company).

F&S award winners in Air Pollution Control segment are—Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) ( Best company of the year, Vertical market penetration also, market leadership), Thermax (Growth strategy leadership), Ecokleen (Entrepreneual company) and Ducon (Niche market player).

PoU Water Treatment Systems award winners are—Eureka Forbes (Best company of the year, also Cus-tomer service leadership), Kent RO (Growth strategy excellence), Whilrlpool (Business development strategy leader-ship) and Hindustan Unilever (New product innovation).

Talking on the eventful evening, attendee Kamal Chokshi from Komal Industries said, “This is the first time I have come to such a platform, where all the people from water management and air pollution control have assembled. It is really encouraging for small compa-nies like ours.” n

F&S’s first annual environment excellence awards distribution ceremony in Mumbai.


event report

Focusing on the Next Generation of Supply Chain

Drive India Enterprise Solu-tions Limited (DIESL) re-cently organized the second Annual Supply Chain Seminar

in Mumbai. Delegates from leading corporates operating in various sectors such as Retail, Telecom, Consumer Durables, Automobiles and FMCG, as well as several patrons of the logistics industry assembled in the one day meet.

The speakers for the event were eminent academicians and well known industry experts, who shared their knowledge on the topics like—bench-marking SCM, supply chain organization for the future, SCM in business process-ing outsourcing world, how green is your supply chain, outsourcing – where is the value proposition?...

Stressing on the need for building next generation supply chains, Rajeev Mehta, Executive President (Logistics), Grasim Industries, emphasized on the importance of creating benchmarks rather than following previously set benchmarks. As every company has its own requirements, Mehta pointed out—while investing on new technol-ogy, often the desired functionalities are found missing. Thus, innovation with the existing process is very essential. He also focused on the emerging concept

of collaborating with competitors, and asserted on the need for preparing the organization before going in for new technology.

“Collaboration will be the key to build future SCs,” firmly declared Shashank Raodeo, Head (Logistics & SC Management), Mahindra Renault (Logan). According to him, the time has come when organizations need to replace (physical) inventory with (real time information). On the issue of hiring 3PL services, he advised to look for faster time and not the cheaper options.

Saurabh Tiwari, Head—Packaging Procurement, Planning, Cadbury India focused on the need for disaster recov-ery plans for making a robust supply chain. He also discussed the ways to combat the top three challenges faced by the supply chain managers, namely, delivering customer responsiveness, managing profitability and maintaining quality. Tiwari pin-pointed the need for evaluating lost sales due to supply chain inefficiency.

Highlighting the need for consoli-dation of logistics service providers, Barry Elliott, Managing Director, Abf1 Consulting, explained how to inte-grate processes and what are the key parameters thereon. While describing

the perspective of integration, he said, integration has to be done by aligning people, process and tools, and also by sharing information. As it is a lengthy process, Barry explained the steps in four phases.

Rajesh Mittal, Director (Supply Chain), Eicher Motors, delivered his presentation on optimising truck utiliza-tion. According to him, the concept of future logistics should be to make all operations lean and green.

Dr Sapna Narula, Assistant Profes-sor from TERI University, explained how the competition among companies is now shifting to that among the supply chains. Dr Narula stressed on the need for green supply chains, and pointed out that the transformation process has already started under pressures from stock holders of the companies, govern-ment policies, consumers and corpo-rates’ social responsibility.

With a view to presenting the bene-fits from adoption of green technologies to carry out processes, Anurag Verma, Price Analyst from Tata Motors cited a real-life example,—a book sold through a conventional book shop makes 15 times more CO

2 than from the e-selling. Verma also put light on some of the very practical, yet commonly not used or thought of practices like—how waste of one company can be used as an-other company’s input, how distributed manufacturing can reduce CO2 emission and so on.

K P Gopala Krishnan, Vice Presi-dent (SCM), Dr Reddy’s Laboratories explained the merits of outsourcing logistics and supply chain services. He threw light on some important points, such as—size of the organization, future growth plans, investment limitations, manufacturing capacity limitations, geographical constraints that need to be considered before finalising the outsourcing decision. n

Diesl team members assemble on the occasion of second Annual supply Chain seminar.


wish listMake Design Software Tax-free

Regulatory Changes Needed to Make Seamless Business

We stand at a very important and critical phase of

our country and the global economy. The upward swing in the business sentiments is visible all over, and the com-mercial world and its various constituents are looking ex-pectantly at corrections and supports from financial and regulatory bodies. We have all scrapped through and come out a little shaken—but lot more intelligent and knowledgeable about the volatilities of the economies

and the need to remain vigi-lant and aware of the risks that the same entails.

This is also the time of big opportunities that stare at us, and it’s com-pletely in our realm to go for them and make a difference for all of us and our sur-rounding worlds.

There are, however, few things that need to happen for that to be possible, and I am mentioning some of them hereunder:

1. Regulatory Changes that truly make the busi-ness seamless in the country: we hope and wish for a complete and honest implementation of GST and other accompanied reforms. Anything less and partial will probably harm more than it would benefit.2. Complete abolishment of entry forms and controls across states in the country.

3. Removal of hidden costs and inefficient legacy sys-tems of Octrois and Cess etc.4. Effective answer to the Toll Charges’ impact on the freight costs: this is remain-ing unaddressed and is a hidden cost as of now.5. Creation of ONE regula-tory body at Government level to address all issues of the Logistics industry: this is currently spread amongst Shipping/Road/Infrastructure and other ministries.6. Solving the Infrastructure issues of Power and Roads: its amazing how the absolute BASIC issues still continue to haunt us across levels. 7. Labour Reforms that bring control and clarity in such a sensitive and criti-cal area.

The above are potential change agents that can lead to the transformations, which are long overdue. The industry itself can support the cause by getting united and speaking one language for all its issues. n

DeSigNSC & logiSTiCS

India is rapidly progressing to emerge as a global manufacturing hub. Along with manufacturing, the logistics & supply chain (SC) industry and the IT support providers to the manufacturers and logistics & SC service operators are also growing apace in this sub-continent. Although at the very nascent stage, the academia here is also coming forward to bridge the talent gap to boost this growth movement. However, all these industries are facing several constraints on their respective growth paths. As we ring in 2010, in this section, Industry 2.0 presents a few wishes from the people actively involved in these fields of industry—on its status quo, trend and urgent implementation needs to accelerate the forward march.

India has the potential to be the global hub to outsource the entire

design-to-manufacture process. There is a very big opportunity that must be effectively leveraged. Accord-ing to a Booz Allen Hamil-ton—NASSCOM report, by 2020, the worldwide expense on engineering services is to be over $1 trillion.

This report also estimates that by 2020, as much as 25 to 30 per cent of a much larger $150 to 225 bil-

lion market for offshored engineering services could belong to India—as much as $50 billion in annual rev-enues—if the country builds the capacities, infrastructure and the international reputa-tion it needs to become the preferred destination for these services.

Thus, I would like to see the complete removal of taxes on design software and allied technologies to make this potential a reality. n

AjAy ChoprA Chief Executive OfficerDrive India Enterprise Solutions Limited

MAnoj MehtA Country Manager – India andSAARC OperationsDassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation


wish list

Considering today’s scenario, where sup-ply chain and logistics

industry is facing some major stumble blocks, with a view to ensuring smooth opera-

tion and steady growth of it, I wish the following changes to be implemented with im-mediate effect. l Industry status and an integrated policy for the logistics sector. l Expedite the development of the rail-freight corridor to give a much needed fillip to the rail freight sector. There must be time-sched-uled freight trains on all major routes. l A centralized toll mecha-nism to ensure uniformity in the toll charges paid by truck drivers at various check points. l Warehousing should be treated at par with infra-structure projects,

and should enjoy similar benefits. There is need for long-term investment commitments from public and private players alike for developing warehous-ing facilities. It would also involve land reforms,

which will help in setting apart lands for logistics facilities. l Documentation has to be computerized and minimized so that less number of forms are needed to be filled at checkposts or offices. It will also do away with agents and

unauthorized payments being made to them. l Government should invest in extending the highway network and upgrading and widening the existing ones, especially in the high traffic density sectors. l Highways should be ac-cess-controlled with proper barriers and crossings for uninterrupted and faster traf-fic flow. l A system similar to TIR Carnet system used in Euro-pean Union that requires no checking of consignments, sealed at the origin, at in-terstate check-posts may be adopted to facilitate smooth flow of high-value, perishable and time-sensitive items. n

The logistic industry is going to play a crucial role in enabling India

meet the growth targets set for various sectors of the economy in country’s five year plans. A multi-pronged strategy consisting of expedi-tious & planned development of infrastructural facilities,

infusion of right technology and rationalization of govern-ment policies is required to reduce logistics costs and bring the desired level of ef-ficiency in the system. In the area of road infrastructure, we need to move our focus beyond the National Highways (con-stitutes less than two per cent of total network) and strengthen state and district roads. This would enable ef-ficient transportation to and from production and con-sumption centres located in smaller cities. Besides, the rate of growth of express-ways across the country has to increase. Port infrastruc-ture facilities deserve even higher attention. Further, there is a need to strengthen alternate modes of transportation like coastal

shipping, railways and inland waterways as they provide cost advantage to the tune of 25 per cent, especially on routes longer than 500 kilometres. Inland waterway needs a boost in north and north-east India, where road congestion is high and river

network is good with ample water level. In addition, the plethora of taxes and duties to be paid along the entire route plays havoc with transportation efficiency. Rationalization of taxes and procedures is required to facilitate a seamless flow of goods and services. The proposed GST regime is the right step in this direction.

Another very impor-tant aspect deserving our increased focus is Environ-ment, Health, Safety and Security in the field of Supply Chain in India. Apart from other initiatives, upgrading of the transport equipment and existing facilities is required to help improve the situation. Lastly, there is a need for effective management of dispatch information and delivery tracking across manufacturers for their customers—by deploying suitable technology, e.g., a nation-wide IT-network for logistics industry. This would not only enable seamless flow of information related to movement of goods, but also ensure better track-ing by industry as well as by Government regulators including taxmen. n

Recognition of the logistics industry is an Urgent Need

Steps Needed to Rationalize Taxes and Procedures

SC & logiSTiCS

SC & logiSTiCS

Vineet AgArwAlExecutive DirectorTransport Corporation of India Ltd.

girish KhetAnDirector Supply Chain Dow Chemical International Pvt. Ltd.


wish list

Adoption of Standard Technology is Necessary

Talent generation is Must

Manufacturing indus-tries—tier 1 and tier 2 in particular,

have definitely realized the first level benefits of tech-nology adoption fully. IT has not only swept the office and board rooms but also the shop floor.

There is substantial synchronization of shop floor execution, material procurement, accounts & fi-nance and plan-ning functions to quite some degree, thanks to use of IT/ ERP systems.

However, two things are happening now in terms of advanced technology imple-mentations in manufacturing industries.

One is to extend the reach of IT systems to supply chain practices for cross-border logistics, and the second one is to replace or revamp the systems with web-centric technology applications.

Both are highly strategic investment decisions, and decision makers are choos-

ing one or the other of two options they have—go in for customization of their manufacturing oriented ERP system to also address the logistics business processes versus go in for an exclusive ERP for logistics for the former requirement; and go in for and hire an IT services company to web-enable their existing legacy application versus go in for a fresh and new application that was architected and built in new technology platforms like J2EE for the latter.

The prudent and right choice for both the situa-tions is—go in for a product that was built in J2EE standards exclusively for Logistics and Transportation business requirements, built by people from this domain.

This ensures that TCO ( Total Cost of Ownership) is

less and ROI (Return on Investment) is quicker than the other

option of customizing the functionality or conversion of technology by employing the services of IT majors, which are of course veter-ans in maintaining global IT systems for their western customers.

After all, an IT applica-tion needs to be continuosly upgraded with newer fea-tures, thus it’s always better to rely on the expertise of product vendor in the cor-responding domain than a generalist vendor that relies for correctness of specs on their customers. n

SofTwARe SolUTioNS

UMAshAnKAr sVice President – Marketing Four Soft Ltd.

The country’s growing manufacturing sector is fuelling the low

power AC drive market in India. Automation will be increasingly more vital as manufacturers continue to face challenges to satisfy market demands, compete in the growing economy, and keep their businesses profitable.

Challenges faced by the Drives Industry in India in-clude infrastructure and pow-er. We need a good transpor-tation network, in addition to access to water supply and power. Environmental regulations as the industry becomes more globalised is another challenge that Indian industries need to address to be more globally competitive. We also need to invest far more in R&D, to accelerate innovation and quicker time to market. Flexible and more conducive labour policies too is required.

Finally, a major challenge that we will face and in fact already we are experiencing is—the availability of skilled talent. This needs to be ad-dressed immediately. n

CoMPoNeNTS & SolUTioNS

p rAViChAndrAn Regional Vice President (Motion Controls) Asia Pacific RegionDanfoss Industries Pvt. Ltd.

Creating the right talent pool in the logistics and supply chain

industry is an urgent need in front of us.

Although, the service tax act clearly exempts voca-tional training centres from service tax net, our officers don’t seem to understand that logistics and shipping courses fall under vocational course category—as they are also career oriented training programmes meant to lead to employment.

We need the govt to create a body to certify vocational training centres, and to recognise logistics and ship-ping courses as vocational training courses. n

Academia Needs Boost up

CApt V j pUshpAKUMAr DirectorIndian Institute of Logistics

ACADeMiA


Research for the future of light - OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.

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In March 2007, the European Council agreed to save 20 per cent of green house gas emissions by 2020. Worldwide, almost 20 per cent of the electricity consumption is used by lighting applications, which cor-responds to 2651 TWh/ year. 70 per cent of this energy is consumed by inefficient

lamps. Thus, starting on September 1, 2009 and end-ing in 2016, the European legislation has planned to phase-out less efficient light sources. During this time Europeans will have to part with their conven-tional light bulbs, and other heavy users of electric-ity. Energy-efficient alternatives are urgently needed.

Solid state light sources, e.g. light-emitting diodes (LEDs), are based on inorganic semiconductors that emit light by electroluminescence. LEDs will revolu-tionize modern lighting due to their unique proper-ties—such as long lifetime, colour tuneability, and instantaneous switching. Moreover, they are mercu-ry-free. But most important: LEDs will be amongst the most efficient light sources in the near future. Today, LEDs are already five times more efficient than incandescent lamps. In the future, however, it is expected that LEDs will become more than ten times more efficient compared to incandescent bulbs. No doubt, tremendous amounts of energy could be saved—which will not only reduce CO

2 emissions but also lower the energy bill of consumers. The Ad-hoc Advisory Group ICT for Energy Efficiency stated that theoretically more than 50 per cent of the electrical energy could be saved per year in the near future by switching to LED lighting.

In order to label a new lamp technology as green. though, it is not enough to just consider energy con-sumption in use. Instead, the complete life cycle covering resources, energy needed during manufac-turing, transport and use as well as the end-of-life needs to be analyzed.

Goal and Scope—OverviewThe aim of this life cycle assessment (LCA) car-

ried out by Siemens Corporate Technology, Center for Eco Innovations, OSRAM and OSRAM Opto Semi-conductors is to analyze the environmental impact of an LED lamp over its entire life, and to compare it with a compact fluorescent and an incandescent lamp. An independent critical review panel was es-tablished in order to ensure compliance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

The complete life cycle of all three light sources was carefully modeled and analyzed from start to fin-ish. The relevant material and energy supplies were determined in detail for all components and produc-tion processes of the lamps. The impact inventories are broken down into the five life cycle stages, which

are namely—raw material production, manufactur-ing and assembly, transport, use and end of life.

The results allow for conclusions not only on re-source consumption and primary energy input, but also on environmental categories—such as acidifi-cation, eutrophication, the greenhouse effect, pho-tochemical ozone depletion and toxicity. The goal was to find out what environmental impact the lamps have each step of the way, and how they rank in com-parison to each other.

Three types of lamps were analyzed: a 40W in-candescent lamp (GLS), an 8 W DULUX Superstar compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and an 8 W Para-thom LED lamp with 6 Golden Dragon LEDs. Com-mon basis for the comparison was a luminous flux of all lamps in a range between 345 and 420 lumen (a 40 W equivalent requires 345 lumen minimum according to IEC Norm 60064), a correlated colour temperature between 2700 to 3000K (warm white), a colour rendering index of ≥ 80 and a Classic A shape with E27 socket. All lamps provide compa-rable luminous flux and all are warm white lamps, but the fact of a ‘cold’ perception of the light from different emission spectra of the lamp types is not considered.

To ensure comparability of the three lamp types, a lifetime of 25,000 hours was taken a reference parameter, which was evened out by the number of lamps used. This way, the lifetime of 25 incandes-cent bulbs (25,000 hours) equals the lifetime of 2.5

Stages investigated in the LCA of lamps.


compact fluorescent lamps, which equals the life-time of one Parathom LED lamp. For comparability reasons in the study, it was assumed that all three lamps would have a light output between 345 to 420 lm during their whole lifetime, and then burn out.

An extra analysis was done, which took the grad-ual reduction of brightness into account. The differ-ence was too small to impact results, though. Turn-on and -off cycles were excluded from the study.

The production of the GLS and CFL takes place in Europe. For the Parathom LED lamp, production of the Golden Dragon LEDs is located in Germany (fron-tend) and Malaysia (backend) and the production of the LED lamp in China. The location of the use phase, end of life, and any other processes was Europe.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment MethodThe method for this analysis is the life cycle as-

sessment as outlined in ISO 14040 and 14044. In order to obtain the environmental performance of the studied processes, a combination of a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method developed at the University Leiden, the so called CML [Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen (Institute of Environmental Sciences)] method and key performance indicators were used. The CML method defines several impact categories for emissions and for resource consump-tion. This method groups by-products, emissions and resource consumption caused by these processes, into specific environmental impacts.

The primary energy demand was taken as key per-formance indicator. Six environmental impact cate-gories have been chosen in this study that address impacts on air, soil and resources.

Choice and usage of the electricity mix have a high impact on LCA results. The electricity mix spec-ifies the percentage composition of the energy car-rier for a specific region. The location of production used in the study was the actual location, where pro-duction normally takes place and consequently the

corresponding electricity mixes (Europe, Germany, Malaysia and China) were taken into account. Ger-man and European electricity mixes consist mainly of power generation by nuclear and coal plants and of renewables, power supply in China is mainly gen-erated by coal plants in contrast to Malaysia—where it is generated mainly by natural gas. Due to this fact, different electricity mixes cause different envi-ronmental burden. Usage and End of Life of all lamps are based on the European electricity mix.

Primary Energy DemandThe primary energy demand or the cumulated en-

ergy demand (CED) summarizes the energy needed for the different stages of the life cycle. Primary en-ergy is the energy embodied in natural resources, like coal, oil, sunlight, uranium etc., which has not (yet) undergone any anthropogenic transformation. Primary energy use can be measured in MJ or kWh. For lamps mainly the use of kWh is of interest. Taken the European average electricity mix into consider-ation, to produce 1 kWh of electricity approximately 3.3 kWh primary energy are needed.

Consequently, primary energy use can be seen as an environmental impact category, even though it is in principle an environmental inventory value (no characterization factor).

Environmental CategoriesSix environmental categories were chosen in this

study, which are explained below.Global Warming Potential (GWP): This is an index

to measure the contribution to global warming of a substance that is released into the atmosphere. The GWP is impacted mainly by the emission of green-house gases, i.e., carbon dioxide (CO2) and meth-ane (CH4). It was calculated for a time frame of 100 years. The GWP is measured in CO2 equivalents.

Acidification Potential (AP): The AP calculates the loss of the nutrient base (calcium, magnesium, po-

A 40W incandescent lamp, an 8W compact fluorescent lamp and an 8W LED lamp with six LEDs were used in the LCA.

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tassium) in an ecosystem, and its replacement by acidic elements caused by atmospheric pollution.

Acidification originates from the emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Here the AP is dominated by nitrogen (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. In the atmosphere, these oxides react with water vapour and form acids, which fall down to the earth in the form of rain or snow, or as dry deposi-tions. This affects soils, waters, flora and fauna, and can even damage building materials. The resultant ‘acid rain’ is best known for the damage it causes to forests and lakes. AP is measured in SO2 equivalents.

Eutrophication Potential (EP): Eutrophication origi-nates mainly from nitrogen and phosphorus in sew-age outlets and fertilizers. Thus, the EP is caused mainly by nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, followed by chemical oxygen demand and ammonia. Basically, EP is the build-up of a concentration of chemical nutrients in an ecosystem, which leads to abnor-mal productivity. For example, this causes exces-sive plant growth like algae in rivers, which chokes aquatic vegetation and causes severe reductions in water quality and animal populations. EP is mea-sured in phosphate (PO

4) equivalents.Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP):

Ozone is protective in the stratosphere, but on the ground-level it is toxic to humans in high concentra-tion. Photochemical ozone, also called ‘ground level ozone’, is formed by the reaction of a volatile or-ganic compound and nitrogen oxides in the presence of heat and sunlight. The POCP depends largely on the amounts of carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NO), ammonium and NMVOC (non-methane volatile organic compounds). POCP also known as summer smog is measured in ethene equivalents.

Human Toxicity Potential (HTP): The human toxicity potential (HTP), a calculated index that reflects the potential harm of a unit of chemical released into the environment, is based on both the inherent toxic-ity of a compound and its potential dose. These by-products, mainly arsenic, sodium dichromate, and hydrogen fluoride, are caused, for the most part, by power consumption. These are potentially dangerous chemicals to humans through inhalation, ingestion, and even contact. Cancer potency, for example, is an issue here. The human toxicity potential (HTP) is measured in 1,4-dichlorobenzene equivalents.

Abiotic Depletion Potential (ADP): The impact cat-egory abiotic resource depletion (ADP) records the abiotic resource consumption. The value of the abiot-ic resource consumption of a substance (e.g., lignite, coal) is a measure of the scarcity of a substance, i.e., it depends on the amount of resources and the extraction rate. ADP is represented by natural gas,

hard coal, lignite, and crude oil. It is formed by the amount of resources that is depleted. Abiotic Deple-tion Potential is measured in antimony equivalents.

LCA of the Three Lamp TypesThe Incandescent Bulb Classic A: A classical incan-

descent bulb in use ever since Thomas Edison turned it into a product for the masses in the early 1900s was used for the comparison. The model was an OS-RAM Classic A 40 W incandescent bulb.

The Compact Fluorescent Lamp Dulux Superstar: A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also known as

Six environmental impact categories were chosen in the LCA.

Various parts of an incandescent bulb.


the energy saving lamp used for the comparison was the Dulux Superstar Classic A.

To ensure comparability in terms of light output a virtual 8 W model was chosen instead of 7W usually available. A CFL (DULUXSTAR) with tube form and 8W is part of the OSRAM portfolio.

The LED Lamp: An LED lamp, the 8W Parathom Classic A55, with six Golden Dragon Plus LEDs from OSRAM, launched in August 2009, was used in the study for comparison to the other two lamps.

For the LEDs all data for all processes, materi-als and common consumption or wastages were col-lected at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors; for the LED lamp data were provided by OSRAM. For the GLS and CFL all data were taken from two existing studies on behalf of OSRAM. The data for core processes were taken from that two studies combined with actual data sheets provided by OSRAM.

Other process and raw materials data were taken from the GaBi database (GaBi Data Set PE Interna-tional) whenever possible. In cases where no infor-mation was available in GaBi, data were taken from literature [Study “Umweltbewertung PC-Reuse” , and Winnacker, K&Kuchier, L (Hrsg) (1983): Gundzuge der chemischen Technik, Anoganische Chemie 1+2, Organische Chemie 2+3 Metalle. –Carl Hanser Ver-lag, Munchen Wien.] or from the database Ecoinvent (www.ecoinvent.org).

The whole lifecycle includes—Manufacturing, Use and End of Life. The phases are explained in the fol-lowing paragraphs.

Manufacturing phase: All lamps are divided into parts for the base, bulb, filling, including packaging and transportation.

The packaging consists of a cardboard box, and transportation includes all transportation processes

within the manufacturing phase, including transport of the final product to the customer in Europe.

In this study, special emphasis was given to the investigation of the manufacturing of the LED itself, here the white Golden Dragon Plus. The production of the Golden Dragon is split up into two main pro-cess stages: front-end, where the 1 square mm semi-conductor chip is fabricated, and back-end, where the chip is contacted and packaged.

It is essential to have a closer look at the com-plete manufacturing process of the LEDs as no other study did this in detail before. At OSRAM Opto Semi-

conductors access to the most advanced fabrication of LEDs is guaranteed. Thus, these data were actually measured in the facilities in Regensburg and in Malaysia and not just assumed.

The main frontend and backend process-es have been analyzed in detail. All pro-cesses take place in clean rooms with clean room classes from 100 up to 10,000. In a clean room class 100 a maximum of 100 particles ≥ 5 µm are permitted per cubic foot of air. To give perspective, the ambient air outside in a typical urban environment contains more than 1,000,000 particles per cubic foot.

The frontend processes in Regensburg include epitaxial growth of the LED struc-tures on a sapphire substrate via metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE).

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) is also known as an energy-saving-lamp.

GLS CFL LED LampBase - Solder

- Screw Shell- Insulter- Basing Cement- Electrical Contact

- Basing Cement- Housing (top + bottom)- Glue- Screw Shell- Insulator- Solder- Electronic Ballast

- Insulator- Contact Plate- Plastic Sleeve- Aluminum Board- Electronic Ballast

Bulb - Glass - Glass - Bulb material- Heat Sink

Filling - Getter- Filament- Wire (Support +Lead)- Exhaust Tube- Flare

- Filling Gas- Coating- Frame (Electrode Coil,Emission Material,Sintered Glass Pearl,Wire, Tube (Stem +Exhaust)Fe-pellet with Hg)

- 6 x Golden DragonPlus

Comparison of the materials of construction of the three types of lamps.

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Various metallization and lithography steps are necessary for depositing structured barriers, the mirror and the solder. In the thin film process in-vented by OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, the initial substrate is replaced by a carrier substrate before chip separation.

In Malaysia the backend processes are carried out that include the deposition of the LED chip into a leadframe, wire-bonding as well as phosphor and lens deposition. All processes are accompanied by optical and electrical inspection.

All other components needed to manufacture the Parathom LED lamp, such as the bulb and ballast, are pro-duced in China.

Use phase: The use phase was modeled by average processes with-out heating value or direct emissions. The emissions, as outcome from the use phase, are resulting only from power supply. For the use phase in Europe, the power mix of the European Union was taken into consideration. For the European average power mix, 1 kWh electricity has a CO

2 output of 0.55 kg.End of life phase: For all systems as end of

life scenario incineration of household waste is modeled.

Although CFL and LED lamps are obliged to be recycled professionally according to the EU Direc-tive 2002/96/EC-WEEE, many lamps are cast away by the consumer, which is the reason why disposal in domestic waste was assumed. For the CFL and LED lamp this is not the required method of disposal as valuable raw materials can be recycled, but all lamps were treated in the same way for comparative reasons. A professional disposal is handled in the sensitivity analyses.

Results of the Life Cycle AssessmentPrimary energy demand: The front-end processes,

their energy demand and materials utilized in that processes were analyzed in detail—while for the back-end the materials were analyzed separately and an allocated value for common consumption was taken into account. Thus, the columns for frontend and backend show different categories. About 0.41 kWh of primary energy is needed for the production of one Golden Dragon Plus. Front-end and back-end consume almost the same amount of energy. It was assumed that the production of LEDs results in 100 per cent yield, which is not realistic. In the sensitivity analyses a worst case scenario with reduced front-end and back-end yields was modeled. It did not make a discernable difference in the final outcome.

The total primary energy demand for the LED lamp is 9.9 kWh. The LEDs themselves have a share of 30 per cent of the primary energy demand of the LED lamp out of which the metals included have a dominant share. The CED of the lamp is dominated by the common power consumption for production, the large amount of aluminium required for the heat sink and the ballast.

Primary energy demand of all three lamp types has been depicted in the graph, multi-

plied by the number of lamps needed for a lifetime of 25,000 hours.

With about 0.61 kWh the GLS consumes the lowest amount

of energy during manufac-turing. However, 25 bulbs

are needed to com-pensate a life-time of 25,000

Construction details of an LED lamp.

Schematic drawings of a white Golden Dragon Plus LED and the cross section of an LED chip.


hours, and thus the GLS solution has the highest CED. CFL and LED are consuming about the same amount of primary energy over 25,000 hours.

Over the entire life cycle of the lamps, including manufacturing, use and end of life, it was found that the use phase dominates the manufacturing phase in terms of energy consumption by far. The primary energy consumption over the entire life cycle of the LED lamp and CFL is about 667 kWh, while that of the GLS is about 3302 kWh , almost five times more. Since the use phase of the CFL and LED lamp is dominant, and they run on equal wattage, they had the same total primary energy consumption as well as electricity consumption. For electricity consump-tion that means: over their life of 25,000 hours, the GLS consume 1000 kWh, while the CFL and the LED lamp merely consume 200 kWh of electricity, thus provide 80 per cent saving potential.

The energy demand of the manufacturing has been zoomed out by a factor of 10, as otherwise it cannot be seen in graphical presentation. Less than two per cent of the primary energy demand over the complete life cycle is required for manufacturing. End of Life is not depicted in the diagram, as it is not visible due to the extremely small role it plays with about 0.1 per cent of the primary energy de-mand over the entire life cycle. For the GLS a credit of 3 kWh is obtained, for the CFL and LED lamp less

than 1 kWh is gained. Thus, the above values for the entire life cycle are achieved.

Environmental impact categories: The domination of the use phase over the manufacturing phase ob-served for the CED was found for all environmen-

tal impact categories. Extremely high results for the GLS are caused by the high number needed for 25,000 hours, and the comparatively high wattage needed to run them. The required energy dominates the environmental impact categories. Thus, the diagrams for all other CML categories (AP, EP, POCP, etc.) show the same tendency: The GLS always have very high values, while the CFL and LED have equally low results. Thus, only the manufacturing phase is interpreted in the following. End of life, again, has such a minor impact that it is not depicted here.

Global Warming Potential (GWP)The high impact of the 25 GLS on

GWP during manufacturing is mainly caused by aluminium in the base, and power consumed in all processes. The most relevant processes for the CFL are the ballasts, most influenced by the printed circuit board and all power-con-suming processes. The results for the LED lamp are influenced by aluminium as a heat sink that consumes much

Basic front-end and back-end processes in the manufacturing chain of a white Golden Dragon Plus.

Primary energy demand of front-end and back-end manufacturing for the Golden Dragon Plus.

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power during its production, and by the ballast, as well as by power-consuming processes.

Acidification Potential (AP)The AP for the LED lamp during manufacturing

is higher than for the other two lamps. The power consumed for the production of the aluminium heat sink, ballast, metals such as gold or copper and the bulk carrier, as well as the common power consump-tion were the main contributors of the LED lamp to acidification. Just like the GWP, CFL and GLS were dominated by power consumption, caused by the bal-last for the CFL and aluminium for the GLS. Never-theless, the AP during the manufacturing phase is less than 2.5 per cent for all lamps of the overall AP over the life cycle.

Eutrophication Potential (EP)Concerning the manufacturing phase, the EP of

the GLS is worse. Relevant contributors to the eutro-phication on the LED manufacturing side are chemi-cals in common waste of the LED front-end process. Transportation included in the manufacturing is also a big contributor to EP.

Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP)

The LED lamp shows higher values for the POCP of the manufacturing phase than the other two lamps due to chemicals in common waste of the LED front-end process. However, that minor difference is neg-ligible with respect to the use phase. Less than 2.5 per cent accounts for the manufacturing phase com-pared to the POCP of the entire life cycle.

Human Toxicity Potential (HTP)It must be noted that in general the HTP for the

manufacturing phase of all lamps is higher compared to the other environmental impact categories. For the CFL and LED lamp the HTP of the manufacturing phase is almost 10 per cent of the HTP over the life cycle. The hot spots for HTP are impacted by the heat sink, gold (LED lamp), ballast and power (CFL), and insulter. The toxicity emissions are mainly caused by power consumption.

Abiotic Depletion Potential (ADP)The GLS have the largest ADP values in manufac-

turing since the processes that consume the most power are relevant. Consumption of coal or gas is

Primary energy demand for manufacturing of the Parathom LED lamp (Transportation included).

Primary energy demand for manufacturing of all three lamps (Transportation displayed separately).

Primary energy demand for manufacturing and use of all three lamps.


dominant for the abiotic depletion rather than the raw materials used in the lamps.

End of life: As mentioned before, this is incinera-tion for all three lamps. When a lamp is burned, resi-dues and emissions occur but in turn electricity is won. In the study, that was taken into account by giving the electricity a credit, so that it is subtracted from the impact during use. For some categories the whole ‘End of Life’ process results in a credit. This happens when the amount of electricity is larger than the residues and emissions that have potential to harm the environment. Thus, a positive return of e.g. energy is achieved which results in a credit for the overall life cycle. All lamps are treated in the same way, and the quantity of impacts and credits are based on incinerated masses (25 GLS, 2.5 CFL and 1 LED incinerated). All three lamps have credits

as a result of the burning process, including credits for electricity and steam. But in relation to the whole life cycle, the EoL is negligible for all lamps as less than 0.1 per cent credit is achieved for each lamp over their life cycle. Professional recycling is treated in the sensitivity analyses.

Sensitivity analyses: A number of sensitivity analy-ses were performed in order to investigate the sta-bility of the result. These include professional lamp disposals or yield corrections for front-end back-end processing. Also, heating benefits and energy mix were discussed. In the base case of this study incin-eration by household waste is used for all lamps. But an LED lamp is an electronic product and must be recycled according to the EU Directive 2002/96/EC-WEEE to recycle valuable raw materials. The CFL also has to be disposed of in a professional man-ner, because it is an electronic device, and because of the mercury inside the lamp. Although, CFLs and LED lamps are obliged to be recycled professionally, many lamps are cast away by the consumer, which is the reason why this was analyzed in the basis sce-nario. Furthermore, we wanted to walk away from criticism that we were modeling an advantage for the CFL and LED. For GLS there is no professional treat-ment process existent.

But once again, CFLs and LED lamps have to be collected separately from household waste. Both lamps have to be treated in a professional man-ner. Waste treatment is handled according to above mentioned EU Directive. The following model uses recycling of metals, and incineration of remaining mass and cardboard. That means that this modeling includes credits for the main raw materials like cop-per, brass, aluminium and glass, while the rest of the lamp is incinerated.

Treatment in a professional manner results in credits for the environmental categories, but over the life cycle it is still negligible. High credits are achieved for HTP and ADP because of credits for noble metals.

It was assumed that the production of LEDs re-sults in 100 per cent yield, which is not realistic. An analysis assuming a worst case scenario of only 40 per cent yield in the frontend and 80 per cent yield in the backend was done. That would result in an additional primary energy demand of the LED lamp of about 2.7 kWh. The total primary energy demand for an LED lamp is 9.9 kWh, and thus, increases to 12.6 kWh with this worst case yield correction. Over-all even if the worst case is assumed no discernible difference in the final outcome over the life cycle is resulting.

The heating benefit of a GLS always leads to a discussion. This paragraph estimates the actual

Global warming potential for manufacturing and use of all three lamps.

Photochemical Ozone creation potential for manufacturing and use of all three lamps.

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benefit of heating losses during usage. By assuming 250 heating days, 1000 hours of GLS burning time per year, 75 per cent GLS lighting during heat-ing days, and heating with natural gas, it would lead to a reduction of 17 kg CO2 over 25.000 hours. This saved amount is negligible in comparison to the whole life cycle, and there is no reason to hold on that argument. Furthermore, the heating benefit could also serve as a disadvantage when cooling is necessary.

The overall result over the life cycle is dominated by the electricity mix. Taking different energy mixes into account (Energy mix China or by nuclear power) has significant impact on the results. However, as all lamps are referring to the same electricity mix and the use phase is dominant for all lamps, the ranking between the technologies was unchanged.

Future OutlookSince the LED has incredible development

potential in comparison to the relatively mature CFL and GLS technologies, a future scenario was calculated. In the future, LEDs are predicted to achieve 150 lm/W for warm white and even 180 lm/W for cold white light emission. Taking into account losses in the electronic ballast and optics as well as thermal losses, an LED lamp could reach an efficacy of 100 lm/W. And that is even a more conser-vative assumption.

In that case a light output of 400 lm can be achieved with just 4 W of power consumption. That would cut down all values for the use phase by half. In the use phase the LED lamp would only need about 335 kWh of primary energy over its lifetime of 25,000 hours, or 100 kWh of electricity.

In the manufacturing phase, improvements are also expected: less aluminium will be needed in the heat sink in the future. Thus, the LED lamp will also

be the favoured solution with respect to all environ-mental impact categories.

ConclusionsLess than two per cent of the total energy demand

is needed for production of the LED lamp: The manu-facturing phase is insignificant in comparison to the use phase for all three lamps as it uses less than two per cent of the total energy demand. This study has dismissed any concern that production of LEDs par-ticularly might be very energy-intensive. Merely about 0.4 kWh are needed for production of an LED (OSRAM Golden Dragon Plus), about 9.9 kWh for the produc-tion of the Parathom LED lamp including 6 LEDs.

LED lamps are competitive to CFL today: In con-trast to the primary energy consumption of incan-descent lamps of around 3,302 kWh, CFL and LED lamps use less than 670 kWh of primary energy during their entire life. Thus, 80 per cent of energy can be saved by using CFL or LED lamps. The bot-tom line is that LED lamps are more efficient than conventional incandescent lamps and also ahead in terms of environmental friendliness. Even today, LED lamps show nearly identical impact on the envi-ronment compared to CFL.

Future improvements of LED lamps will further cut down energy demand: As the efficiency of LEDs continues to increase, LED lamps will be capable of saving more energy and achieving even better LCA results in future.

This life cycle assessment proves that LED lamps are amongst the most environmentally friendly light-ing products. n

Courtey: Osram Opto Semiconductors, Regensburg and Siemens Corporate Technology, Berlin, Germany.

Abiotic depletion potential for manufacturing and use of all three lamps.

Human toxicity potential for manufacturing and use of all three lamps.


cover story

Wireless solutions simplify installation requirements—when compared to conventional wired networking. Places where cable installation is either difficult or risky, these solutions provide the way to connect the instruments or monitor them.

by amol chaubal

Over the last 20 years, wireless communication has been em-ployed in a wide range of ap-plications including everything from satellite television and radio networks to cell phones, laptop computers and baby

monitors. Wireless is even utilized for the guidance of unmanned aerial vehicles operated by the military, law enforcement and weather forecasters. As wire-

less technology gains greater acceptance, the wired world is slowly fading into the background. Protocols such as Wi-Fi represent the future—not only for tra-ditional wired IT network requirements, but also for monitoring and control applications across the plant or factory floor.

Survival in a Wireless World Like the Tesla roadster, the time for wireless tech-

nology has come. It is no longer a question of ‘if’ wireless will find a place in the industrial environ-ment, but rather where and how it will be deployed. Wireless has already revolutionized IT networks in the front office, and the lines between business IT and the industrial world are now blurring.

The advent of industrial wireless networking presents tremendous opportunities, and risks to be considered and addressed, for automation and con-trol suppliers. Process operators are looking for a secure, scalable, multi-functional wireless ‘cloud’ for use in their facilities. They want to implement a universal network infrastructure supporting multiple industrial protocols and applications simultaneous-ly, while simultaneously providing a single wireless network that is easily managed and operated.

Current SituationProcess operators implementing wireless do so

for the same reason as the designers of the first telegraph system—flexibility and cost savings. Users look at wireless to add real business value, both in terms of installation costs and optimized operations from increased data availability.

Benefits of Wireless Networks In the industrial environment, a new generation of

wireless field devices is intended for use in regula-

Economizing and optimizingOperatiOns


tory control loops and high speed monitoring appli-cations. A modern wireless field infrastructure sup-ports not just wireless instruments, but also IEEE 802.11 WLAN applications and mobile clients—such as hand-held computers and mobile HMIs (Human-Machine Interfaces). Wireless technologies devel-oped for building management and security can also be utilized in process plants to support both asset management and personnel tracking.

Security in Wireless NetworksThe rapid adoption of wireless networks is tes-

timony to the inherent benefits of this technology. Deploying a wireless environment is fundamentally easy, but meeting the requirements of your existing IT security policies, while minimizing business risk, is not. It can be done, but requires planning and a commitment to address a number of architectural, implementation and operational issues.

Some critics look at the security challenges as-sociated with wireless, and believe organizations shouldn’t be deploying it yet. These pundits miss the basic fact that organizations are deploying the technology anyway. Plus, WLANs are a stealth tech-nology. Most IT departments in large organizations vastly underestimate the number of wireless nodes already installed by enterprising departments as well as individuals.

Future Outlook Technological progress may soon relegate to the

ashbin of history the bundles of cables that charac-terize plant floor machinery. Advancements in in-dustrial wireless technology promise to open up a range of applications where cabling is either difficult to install or prohibitively expensive, such as on off-shore rigs. Wireless also offers the key advantages of integration of multiple devices, such as sensors, mobile PCs and security systems. Among the first areas to benefit from industrial wireless technology were sensors and I/O. Use of modern wireless trans-mitters has been enabling automated monitoring in areas where hard-wired transmitters are too costly, difficult or time-consuming to install.

To keep up with wireless development activity and help users find the best solution for their application ISA standards and practices board has approved ISA 100.11a Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation, Process Control and related applications, thereby making it an official ISA Standard. The approval of this major new industry standard by the ISA S&P Board certifies that ISA’s accredited procedures have been followed in the development of the standard. n

Amol Chaubal is the product manager at Wireless Solutions, Hon-

eywell Automation India. He leads the group for next generation

technologies such as DCS, SCADA and Wireless.

Hps OneWireless network architecture


cover story

An effective computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), coupled with the latest telecommunications technologies, may take the predictive maintenance practice to the highest level, whereby without any human intervention, the embedded logic can even do the proactive maintenance.

by sanjeet banerji

HigH-TecH M2MBuilds True PredicTive MainTenance

cover story

New developments in predictive maintenance and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications will be the most critical drivers in scripting the future of technology in manufacturing. For practitio-ners of effective lean manufactur-

ing, intelligence, learning to adapt to the minutest change in the environment and centralized manage-ment systems have all been boons. Evolving technol-ogy will thus continue to play a role in maintaining productivity, competitiveness, efficiency, customer satisfaction and uptime at the highest levels. This is true for all aspects of manufacturing, whether in the supply chain and logistics, component manufac-ture, maintenance, shop floor, distribution, or sales and marketing.

Predictive to Proactive MaintenancePredictive maintenance has been known to be

ideal for lean manufacturing, saving costs and im-proving the robustness of a plant. In a typical just-in-time inventory management set up, where the plant works with the barest minimum inventory—both at the raw material end and at the warehouse end, no plant could afford even one hour of shut down. Both reactive and preventive maintenance is out of the question, while traditional predictive maintenance may fall below expectations.

Effective CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) solutions integrate with the organization’s SAP that tracks customer’s blanket purchase orders, warranty, depreciation, employee skills and the system that does real-time tracking and schedule optimizing of the manufacturer’s trans-port fleet. This ensures elimination of revenue leak-age through manual errors and fraudulent practices, while keeping the inventory to the bare minimum.

The actual predictive maintenance management system must track every single component, device and machine. But truly intelligent predictive main-tenance will look beyond the device, the history of measurement or early warning. Using embedded technology, the CMMS can be brought to a level high-er than a mere metering device. Instead of raising


an alert, embedded logic can go to work on the alert and do proactive maintenance, without the need for human intervention. It can actually regulate oil levels, or temper-atures of the device and the shop floor, or even fix wear and tear, to an extent … in plants located and connected across the world.

This is what embedded software, combined with the latest telecommunications technology like GSM, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, 3G, WiFi, Zig-bee and soon 4G, can do to predictive maintenance. With the emergence of inexpensive broadband services for com-mercial consumption, the mass appeal of user-friendly and easy-to-use access de-vices have grown in an effort by users to stay con-nected anywhere, anytime. The main factors for the growth are faster and error-free connections well suited for broadband connectivity, ease of use, com-patible devices, and growth in online content.

M2M and predictive maintenance can really go beyond the shop floor into the point of sale or the end user at the other end of the globe. Once the M2M communication takes place with the wireless sen-sors transmitting signals to a central computer via infrared or RFID, the data is transmitted to servers via satellite or BGAN, a global satellite communica-tion network using portable, easy-to-use, plug-and-play terminals.

In a different context, M2M and predictive main-tenance can be married to bring features, such as an airbag alarm in passenger cars. Fewer finished products returning to the shop floor for maintenance or repairs can add incrementally to the plant’s pro-ductivity and profitability. Throw in hand-held devic-es like bar code scanners, self check-in / check-out terminals that detect and assist product movement at retail stores, ultra-thin sensors with location-based features in smart packaging, and telecom-munications technologies that track fleet movement and the cycle is completed—with predictive main-tenance as the core pivot, the gamut of supply and demand chain is covered ensuring a truly lean manu-facturing set-up.

The wireless and sensing technologies used in manufacturing have also begun to straddle power usage metrics, contributing further to the plant’s

profitability. Making their entry in condition moni-toring—that involves collection, analysis, diagno-sis and warning on oil and vibration data, together with the monitoring of machine performance, power, corrosion and heat monitoring—of plant machinery are the self-power hydrogen sensors, piezoelectric sensors and powerless sensor are among some of the recently-introduced micropower and ultra-low-power sensors. These sensors are particularly use-ful where immediate diagnosis and notifications are critical, such as in hazardous plants.

Since devices are required to operate 24X7, and under the most hostile conditions, the software that is required to run these devices and machines are extremely rugged, and designed to recover from any kind of errors exception ranging from software er-rors and user tampering, to device errors and envi-ronmental conditions. This is often achieved through detailed RASUIS (Reliability, Availability, Servicabil-ity, Usability, Installability and Security), tightly cou-pled to the engineering software processes.

Technologies for manufacturing are increasingly based on an open Service Oriented Architecture, enabling scalable solutions with extensive front and middle office functionalities. Solution would be structured to provide a wide range of options in-cluding ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ configurations, stand-alone resilience for non-stop working in an offline work mode, and remote server configurations. n

Sanjeet Banerji is Sr. Vice President, Telecom & Embedded Sys-

tems at Datamatics Global Services.


manufacturing technology

The tendency of a metal part, to partially get back its original configuration after deformation (because of elasticity), poses a big challenge to automotive manufacturers, as it leads to a deviation from the high quality design during production of the part. think3 and BMW Group have developed a solution to address this problem.

by davide ciarloni

Maintaining Quality throughout the Production Process

The strong international competition in the auto-motive industry requires to reduce the product

cycle and time-to-market of new models. At the same time, the requirement of lower consump-tion rates and lighter and safer vehicles drive the use of high-strength steel and aluminium alloys, and more complex compo-

nents. The widespread usage of these materials creates a growing pressure on manufacturers to reduce tooling costs, and use increasingly innovative, advanced and complex materials.

The ChallengeCar makers take months to

create a high quality design, and do not want to see it disappears in the press shop. Maintaining design quality throughout the production process today is a big challenge for all automotive companies. Designs created at the computer by a designer have to be manufactured—but, as we all know, there are considerable differences between the digital world and the real, physical world. Processing sheet metal is a complex process. Die stamp-ing sheet metal components and other parts with complex shapes give rise to a problem known as ‘spring-back’ (the tendency for a

metal part to partially return to its original shape after deforma-tion because of the elastic recov-ery of the material).

Designers try to correct or prevent material problems of this type with various ‘compensation’ methods. Currently, designers predict what the shape should look like after spring-back by using FEM (Finite Element Analysis) tools. However, the FEM process is separate from the de-sign process, and requires users to spend large amounts of time and effort integrating the results into the modification of the tool-ing design.

The ‘Compensator’ ApproachA newly developed solution

meets surface modelling require-ments, and solves specific pro-duction problems in those cases where tooling and dies require adjustment. The Compensator is a solution that automates the


compensation process, saving time, replacing tedious manual la-bour while maintaining the same surface structure (topology) and the quality as the original surface model. Use of the new technol-ogy reduces user interaction, and eliminates the need for designers to spend time on rebuilding and redrawing compensated surfaces.

Answer to Compensation Issues

Compensator speeds the pro-cess, allowing designers to create better and/or additional designs and iterations for manufacturing. Initial customer testing suggests an 80 per cent savings in cycle time, when solving and creating intermediate shapes. Materials can be correctly cut at the very first time.

Compensator was developed to deliver on the promise of ‘Target-Driven Design,’ Target-Driven Design technology allows you to assign targets-points, curves, etc. Designers can then focus exclu-sively on product shape, automat-ically transforming their design into engineering models, preserv-ing design intent for analysis and manufacturing. Applying GSM technology, Compensator solves specific manufacturing problems.

The CMD ProjectBMW Group, one of the first

automotive companies working to install a stable, replicable process, in collaboration with think3, has been able to quickly and safely react on changes of the parts. This has led to the

development of a solution that also covers a compensation based on measured data: the CMD tool. This is a think3’s Compensa-tor development, which enables Adaptation or Compensation on Measured Data.

Adaptation: It solves the prob-lem of creating a digital model, which is identical to the physi-cal tool. The original surfaces of the 3D model are adapted on the basis of the physical model—machined and modified by hand (obtained by scanning). With this CMD’s command it’s possible to match the digital model on the physical model in a few minutes, rather than days or weeks.

Compensation on measured data: It’s possible to compensate

the part based on the measured data rather than on data that come from the FEM. The deforma-tion data are applied to the digital model employing an inverse law.

This CMD’s functionality ap-plies reverse deformation reading the deformation from the physi-cal model applied to the digital model. The process is fast, and enables the quality of CAD data to be maintained. It takes minutes, instead of several days.

CMD makes it possible to maintain high quality design throughout the process, consider-ably reduces times and costs and enables car makers to outpace the competition by mak-ing complex components—which maintain the original design intent. A big additional advantage is that design changes can be handled in a very effective way. Minor design changes can be applied to compensation even without an additional FEM calculation. n

Davide Ciarloni is ‘program manager

senior’ at ‘think3’.

Superimpose of Draw Part (Surface Model in green colour) and the Measured Data (Mesh Data in Red Colour)

After Adaptation (compensated part in green colour)

Compensation starts Compensation ends

Draw PartSuperimpose of Draw Part (part in Grey color) & Automatic Compensated Part (part in Red color).

materials & processes


The rapid growth and wide-spread use of aluminium since World War II is tied directly to the ability of

anodizing processes to protect it from corrosion, improve its appearance by way of brightening

it and offering a rainbow of colours, and imparting ceramic-like toughness to its outer skin (especially through hardcoat anodizing).

Hydrated aluminium oxide is the stable form of aluminium in nature; thus, unprotected alumin-ium exposed to air and water will

corrode, forming a discontinuous, powdery, white corrosion product. This form of natural oxide growth, if unchecked, will proceed as long as unreacted aluminium is exposed. Anodizing can actually be envisioned as an accelerated corrosion process; the differ-ence between anodizing and the natural process is that anodizing forms a more dense, continuous, oxide layer.

Anodizing has several ben-efits over other coating choices. For example, while plating and painting protect aluminium, there will always be a barrier between the coating and aluminium substrate with these treatments; the only bond between the two is mechanical. If the bond in this barrier region is compromised by way of poor substrate prepara-tion, mechanical damage (e.g., scratching), or gradual degrada-

Anodizing is done on aluminium surfaces to prevent corrosion and increase surface hardness. It also helps in dyeing the surface to make it more aesthetically appealing. Such coated aluminium objects have a much lower thermal conductivity and coefficient of linear expansion than aluminium.

by brian reuter

Environmentally safe aluminium anodizing produces a pleasing finish and enhances life of the product.

ImprovIng Aluminium SurfAceS


tion (e.g., general corrosion), raw aluminium will be exposed and corrosion can commence.

Anodizing, on the other hand, is a conversion coating process that results in a chemical bond between an anodic aluminium oxide layer and the aluminium basis material, which is much stronger than a mechanical bond. Whereas, painted or plated coatings over aluminium can be peeled away, there is no way to separate the anodic layer from the aluminium on which it is formed.

In addition to the bonding issue, paints and plated metallic layers are much softer than alu-minium oxide. On the well known Mohs scale of mineral hardness, one form of naturally occurring aluminium oxide, named corun-

dum, is the ninth hardest out of ten. The only mineral harder is diamond! With this in mind, it is not surprising to learn that a component coated with the hard-est plated metal (namely hard chrome) will wear more readily than an identical component that is hardcoat anodized.

Lastly, the mechanism of oxide growth during anodizing results in a porous structure. This per-mits further surface modification such as: l Dyeing to impart nearly any colour to the anodic layer l Sealing with a lubricative material such as molybdenum disulphide or PTFE l Infiltration with an adhesive primer for bonding applications

These factors, coupled with the fact that anodizing is more

economical than either powder coating or plating, point to the continued importance of anod-izing as the coating of choice for aluminium in a wide range of applications.

Having been practised for decades, guideline generally considers anodizing to be a mature technology. Changes to existing approaches tend to be incremental process enhance-ments (whether for functional or decorative purposes) such as new electrolyte ‘recipes’, rather than revolutionary technology shifts.

In spite of this, we do see sev-eral areas—where technological improvements might bring about significant new opportunities for anodizers.

The strongest growth category for anodized aluminium appears to be that of transportation. An expected increase in the produc-tion of new aircraft to replace ageing fleets and the auto indus-try’s trend of increasing the use of aluminium for vehicle frames and bodies are expected to be the primary drivers of this growth. Another large anodizing category, architectural aluminium, does not appear to be poised for significant growth; in fact, this market may already have reached its peak. n

Article Courtesy: http://www.articlesbase.com

mohs Scale of mineral HardnessHardness mineral Everyday Equivalent

10 Diamond Synthetic diamond 9 corundum ruby8 Topaz Sandpaper7 Quartz Steel knife6 Orthoclase/feldspar Penknife blade5 Apatite Glass4 fluorite iron nail3 calcite Bronze coin2 Gypsum fingernail1 Talc Baby powder

cisco........................................................................................ 3

Deccan cargo ......................................................................... 9

Delta ........................................................................Back cover

elecon ...................................................................................19

Havells .................................................................................... 5

lapp india .............................................................................21

OclP......................................................................................13

Phoenix ................................................................................... 7

Powerbuild ............................................................................15

Premium energy ................................................................... 17

TaeguTec ..................................................... inside Back cover

Verisign ....................................................... inside front cover

Advertiser index


management & strategy

The Mercedes Benz plant at Chikali near Pune won the ‘Best Mercedes-Benz Production Plant’ (outside Germany) award for five consecutive years. In an exclusive

interview the managing director of Mercedes-Benz India Pvt Ltd (MBIL), Dr Wilfried Aulbur, discusses the manufacturing practices implemented at the plant

with Satish Chavan. Excerpts from the interview.

Phot

o: Ji

ten

Gan

dhi

Dr Wilfried Aulbur Managing Director Mercedes-Benz India

“We Are the first plAnt outsiDe GermAny to introDuce the

‘Standard aSSembly ProceSS’”


What were the critical enablers which helped the Chikhali facility to win the ‘Best Mercedes Benz (MB) Production Plant’ award out-side Germany?

We have ensured that the same manufacturing standards from the parent company are implemented in our plant here, with various actions like –

Training of employees at the German plant and on the job training in India by trainers from Daimler. More than 10 per cent of product dependent training is organized in Germany, and these trained professionals act as mul-tiplicators and impart training to the local workforce here.

Mercedes-Benz Production System ( MPS), which consists of more than 90 tools addressing SQDCM, which is a monitoring process where KPIs are monitored on a daily basis. Quality audits are done here by an international quality team. We conduct product and process audits as per Mer-cedes-Benz global standards. We have adopted the concept of Line Manager wherein every line has one line manager. Also, standard-ized CKD Assembly process has been adopted in our plant.

What are the areas that draw your special focus?

As a virtue, we always strive for continuous improvement in performance, productivity and optimizing the use of our assets. Our focus is clearly on optimizing, which comprises—increase in productivity and efficiency, and a flexibility of our assets and manpower.

We have specially designed lines for manufacturing multiple products as per market demand. This increases the utilization of assets or equipment with every new product introduction added on to the production portfolio. We introduce standard layouts throughout the assembly line to

ensure improvement with every new model. As the need to pro-duce different models increase on a regular basis, our specially de-signed production lines increase the versatility of our labour.

Also, our India plant is the first plant outside Germany to intro-duce the ‘Standard Assembly Pro-cess,’ which has been established by the parent company as a best manufacturing practice guideline for different sizes of Mercedes plants worldwide.

Our ‘best manufacturing prac-tice’ includes latest equipment on the line, layouts, structures, and standard work at every station, starting from the weld shop to the final finish of the car.

What is the percentage of local sourcing of components for MB products in India?

MB India’s local value addition to products is up to 40 to 50 per cent, depending on the model. Overall, we see trends of India’s active participation in our ‘low cost country sourcing’ projects in the near future.

Does MB source components from the Indian plant for its global operations?

We have set up a global sourcing department in India, which functions as a part of the purchasing headquarters of DAG. Since MB India is an assembly plant and not a manufacturing unit, we do not directly source components globally from here. However, we fully support our suppliers (chassis and power train suppliers) to produce world-class quality products for our global operations.

Tell us about the Lean Manufac-turing practices in MBIL.

We embrace and actively em-ploy the principles of lean manu-facturing—to achieve continuous improvement in manufacturing

processes and reduce our operat-ing costs. Our main objective is to systematically target and eliminate waste in all its forms. Wasteful activities, which do not add value to the product; like unnecessary movements, over-production, material waiting to be processed, extra inventory and non-value added product testing are continuously identified and eliminated.

The new plant is designed in a flexible manner to produce multiple products on the same production line. We have our ma-

jor aggregates (high value items) supplied Just-in-Sequence (JIS), by our module suppliers to ensure a lean logistic process. However, minimal safety stocks are main-tained for low cost items.

How do you manage your supply chain and production processes?

We analyse the supply chain in terms of lead time and costs. We have optimized our operations to improve margins and minimise costs. Our ‘best manufacturing practices’ is about active imple-mentation of Kanban, JIS and ‘call part’ concepts, depending on the frequency of usage and optimum space utilization.

For Kanban, small parts are issued when required by the production cycle. The making of a product is continuous; from

our main objective is to systematically target and eliminate waste in all its forms.


management & strategy

design, manufacture and distri-bution to sales and customer service. We constantly emphasise on fine-tuning our production and supplier scheduling systems, and we closely monitor work in prog-ress to minimize inventories by supplying these when required.

How do you manage to eliminate defects?

When defects or other is-sues arise, the defective part is checked jointly on a ‘Red Table’ with adequate representation from the production, logistics and quality team members. The quick feedback between teams results in well integrated solutions.

We also display a pictorial representation of production processes (information on parts and tools for a particular assem-bly) and goals, in high visibility locations on the shop floor. They depict interacting steps that determine product quality. This simplifies the understanding of correct processes.

Finally, we use quality loops and certification programmes. The process starts from identify-ing the customer needs to assess-ing whether those needs are fully satisfied. There are four quality loops integrated in this process.

What difficulties did MB face while implementing the ‘best

practices’ in India, in terms of cultural adaptation?

As a global organization, Daimler has production facilities in five continents. We have a well-entrenched diversity management philosophy, including understand-ing the social, legal, and cultural peculiarities of each country, and addressing them while ensuring the division is run in a man-ner that is internally consistent across the globe.

Also, our relationship with India dates back to the 1950s, when we introduced trucks here. In fact, Mercedes-Benz India has consecutively won the quality award for the ‘Best Mercedes-Benz Production Plant’ outside Germany and within the group for 5 years. Our journey in India has been very exciting.

Tell us about some innovations and seminal research contributed by MB Research & Development India (MBRDI).

MBRDI in Bangalore is Daim-ler’s largest R&D location outside Germany. Its expertise lies in the areas of simulation, compo-nent development, electrical & electronics and IT services. The design engineers are involved in component design, such as engine periphery, lighting and suspension systems, and chassis. It will also focus on independent R&D on seats, grab handles, and motor periphery. The simulation processes help studying crash, occupant safety, pedestrian pro-tection and durability.

The team is involved in dif-ferent loops of virtual validation for subsystems towards improv-ing design, cost and weight. The electricals and electronics involve model-based system development and testing for various models and covers research in the latest technologies for fuel cells and intelligent light systems. MBRDI is also working on develop-

ment, customization, testing and maintenance of IT applications for engineering and production.

There’s also plenty of activity in human body modeling (HBM), a new field researching advances in safety technology by recreating the human body on the computer. Engineers conduct simulations to determine what happens in, and to the bodies of virtual passen-gers during accidents. Although, non-virtual crash dummies have the same shape as a human body, their biomechanical properties are quite different. The dummy has a metal frame to give it stability, instead of a skeleton – where sensors replace muscles and the brain. The body consists of 80,000 elements, with num-bers, letters, and equal signs at various nodes.

We have achieved major suc-cess with this approach to create an innovative seat belt system. HBM simulations have helped our developers improving the protec-tive effect of the new seat belt system. HBM simulations have also yielded precise information on how far the car body’s central pillar should be from the seat so as not to endanger the driver and the front passenger during a side collision. It has also helped us in selecting materials to cushion the interior.

What is your perception of Indian manufacturing in comparison with global norms?

India has a rich pool of engineers and skilled resources. Additionally, it has rapid scalabil-ity. Component manufacturers in India are now leveraging a mature labour force and economies of scale to monetize their invest-ments. The key differentiator here is of developing end-to-end capabilities and maintaining con-sistent quality. Now, India seems to be well positioned to leverage its competitive advantage. n

A technician does spot weld-ing on a C-Class in the body shop at the Mercedes Benz assembly plant in Chakan.


Adoption of ‘Lean’ manufacturing techniques not only reduces the cost of production, but also enhances market credibility through timely delivery and improved quality. What exactly did Skylark Circuits, a small scale industry, gain from adopting ‘Lean’ manufacturing techniques?

by n c narayanan

Making MSMEs Competitive

The desire for achieving excel-lence through continuous improvement is as ancient as human civilization. In the

last century this planet has witnessed phenomenal progress in achieving best quality products and services through continuous improvement. In pursuit of excellence great thinkers and quality gurus gave many concepts, models, tools and techniques. One of those approaches is ‘Lean’, which revolutionized the way in which the manufacturing organizations think and function.

The concept of ‘Lean’ founded by Taichi Ohno from Toyota Motor Company, Japan during mid 50’s is intended to

achieve best business efficiency coupled with highest customer satisfaction. ‘Lean’ in the words of Taichi Ohno is, “All we are doing is looking at the time line form the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing time by removing the non-value-added wastes.”

The business benefit of application of ‘Lean’ is evident from Toyota holding the position of second largest automobile manufacturing company in the world—with sales over 6 million cars per year sold in 170 countries. According to the 2008 Fortune Global 500 companies, Toyota Motor is the fifth largest company in the world. By the application of ‘Lean’,

Kanban card system is in use to regulate material flow.

facilities & operations



Toyota reached the highest Mar-ket Capitalization, which is equal to the sum of all the largest car manufacturers in the World (GM, Ford and Chrysler) put together.

Several automobile and auto ancillary industries in India have applied the ‘Lean’ principles and benefited to a large extent. However, the ‘Lean’ manufactur-ing systems have not reached the rest of the 97 per cent of the industries, which come under the category of micro, small and medium scale industries.

What is ‘Lean’?Traditional manufacturing

system works on the principle of ‘Push-system’, where every manu-facturing process works on ‘Silo’, focusing on machine and resource utilization. This results in ac-cumulation of work in process (WIP) affecting the smooth flow of material, thereby increasing the lead time between order to collec-tion. The ‘Lean’ aims to break the barriers and ensures continuous flow of material—which reduces the lead time considerably.

Profile of the CompanySkylark is a small scale in-

dustry, located at Dombivali near Mumbai, engaged in manufactur-ing of printed circuit boards for

various applications. This had been facing heavy competition although having market demand twice as much as it can produce. As any other typical manufactur-ing company, they had space con-straints due to which all manufac-turing processes were arranged in three adjacent galas.

Status Before ‘Lean’ Implementation

The company was having a process layout like any other manufacturing company, arrang-ing the machines based on the manufacturing steps such as cutting, drilling, screen printing, etching, etc. It was carrying high inventory to the tune of 10 to 15 days of production. Due to poor housekeeping and jumbled up layout, there was no traceability of the material.

Due to fragmented layout there was no accountability of people and material, leading to profit leakages—resulting from scrap, re-work and excessive invento-

ries. The average lead time to manufacture the PCB was 2700 minutes, whereas the actual manufacturing time was 12 mins only. This huge difference was due to the ‘Push system’ of any tradi-tional manufacturing practices—in which the material moves and waits for the next operation to add value.

Poor traceability of material before ‘Lean’ implementation led to profit leakages.

Lead times in minutes before and after ‘Lean’ implementation.

When SSA proposed the idea of Lean application in our

industry, I and my partner Gangurde were very skeptical about its applicability for a small enterprise like ours. After the redesign of our manufacturing system applying ‘Lean’, we could improve our profitability by three times without any investment.”

A V KAmlApurKAr DireCtor, Skylark CirCuitS


As the material was not flowing smoothly the Skylark management had to grant overtime during the last 10 days of every month, in order to clear backlog of sales order resulting in erosion of profits. Since the manufacturing operations were fragmented and due to lack of accountability for the output, the senior manage-ment of Skylark had to co-ordinate between the various processes.

Benefits of ‘Lean’The ‘Lean’ manufacturing sys-

tem implemented at the company

has led to improvement in the following areas:

Productivity ImprovementSkylark’s productivity has gone

up from 3 lacs to 5.2 lacs quantity without any capital investment. This is a result of the smooth and continuous flow of material due to the ‘Pull System’ introduced.

Inventory Reduction

The ‘Lean’ manufacturing system introduced at the company has brought down the WIP inven-tory from twenty days to two days,

dramatically reducing the working capital for running the business.

Reduction in Floor SpaceThe cell manufacturing layout

introduced at Skylark to facilitate continuous and smooth flow of material and reduction of inven-tory has relieved 20 per cent of the floor space, which can be utilized for other purposes.

Improved ProfitabilityThe profitability has gone up

by three times due to increase in sales, reduced inventory, reduc-tion in overtime charges and reduction in rejection and rework.

ConclusionThe implementation of ‘Lean’

manufacturing system introduced at Skylark has proved that the plant is capable of tripling the profitability without any capital investment. This is achieved purely by changing the mindset of the people, creating a flow of raw material to finished goods, and creating accountability plus team work across all stages of manufacturing.

Skylark case study proves that ‘Lean’ can be successfully imple-mented across small and medium sized industries as efficiently as in large scale industries. n

N C Narayanan is the managing director of Six Sigma Alchemy. He extends apprecia-tion and gratitude to Skylark and MSME for giving this opportunity to share this article or case study.

Step

1Step

2Step

3

lean Implementation

after thorough study of the existing procedures, a ‘lean’ manu-facturing system was designed and implemented in Skylark, involving all workmen and the supervisors. the implementation

involved the following steps:

Studying current work flow from the raw material to finished goods. Collecting data of the cycle time of every process, inventory as WiP, machine down time, change over time from one model to another and rejection, rework level.

Re-engineering the process flow from ‘Push System’ to ‘Pull System’, in which the raw material will flow into small batches from one manufacturing process to another without waiting as WiP.

Establish visual controls such as quantity planned, quantity produced, Kan-ban system to communicate between one stage of manufacturing to another to ensure that the raw material converted into finished goods sold on the same day.

the ‘lean’ system was implemented within 60 days from the com-mencement of the project.

Pull System after ‘Lean’ Implementaion ensured no waiting of materials as WIP.

We had to work for 16 hours a day to ensure that we

keep up our commitments for delivery. Now, after implementing ‘Lean’ systems, we have been relieved of working late hours.”

V m GHAnGurdeDireCtor, Skylark CirCuitS



Lean manufacturing techniques ensure waste reduction, which ultimately leads to higher profitability for any manufacturing organization. They establish an overall cultural change in the organization enhancing productivity.

by william davis

Alleviating differences between ManageMentand Personnel


Lean manufacturing (LM) is the processes, tech-niques, strategies and initiatives being imple-

mented by companies around the world—that aim to reduce unnecessary and unproductive tasks, activities and behaviours in the work environment.

Because the times have really gone hard, demanding and intense due to political and turbulent con-cerns affecting all nations, firms are currently facing challenges to be able to keep their profitability and efficiency.

LM not only reduces operation-al costs but also targets to boost, restore and significantly raise the competitiveness of a company.

There are seven identified ‘forms of waste’ within the work environment and systems that lean manufacturing principally aims to alleviate, if not totally eliminate. These are over produc-tion, over processing, transporta-tion, motion, inventory, waiting and scrap & defects.

Several Advantages

The first advantage identified by experts from implementing LM techniques and strategies is the reduction of manufacturing time.

When the manufacturing lead time is significantly lowered, it follows that the operational costs incurred from the use of energy, utilities and wages from labourers’ time will also be sig-nificantly reduced.

Thus, LM helps companies retain, maintain and significantly increase their earnings, widen their margins and help them gen-erate savings from lower costs.

Space is another area where lean manufacturing advantages are clearly and effectively exhib-ited. Working space, it is under-stood, is one of the primary and basic factors that keep operations of businesses going.

Labour and human resource experts estimate that adoption of good and effective lean manu-facturing techniques and strate-gies—will likely help companies reduce their physical floor space requirements by as much as five to thirty per cent.

The figures involved could be small and miniscule for your eyes, but, actually, that will signifi-cantly contribute to much more efficiency and savings. That would be an advantage almost all busi-nesses will surely look after.

The advantage in productivity: It is found that in general, compa-nies implementing and adhering to lean manufacturing practices significantly boost and increase their manufacturing productivity by as much as 75 to 125 per cent. It is because time and efforts are principally targeted by LM processes. Thus, elimination of wastes, non-productive practices, unnecessary and disturbing ob-jects in the workplace will surely and practically help workers get on to their tasks with much smooth pacing and comfort.

You know how it is when work-ers work without any distractions and interruptions. Productivity is very much maximized. Thus, LM becomes a necessity for firms to be able to achieve that goal.

Advantages in terms of waste to profit relation: It follows that elimi-nation and reduction of wastes will gradually and efficiently help boost profits in companies. Thus, elimination of wastes and un-necessary objects & activities in the workplace will surely help the company and its personnel focus on the requirements and demands of the customer.

The advantage of that, above all is—when customer satisfaction is achieved, sales will surely rise. The best way to establish a good relationship with customers is to improve the products and services offered to them. LM would be of

great help to achieve a good cus-tomer or client relations.

Advantage of cost and time sav-ing: Another advantage brought about by LM techniques among various companies adopting it worldwide is—streamlined and rationalized organization. You should know that elimination of excess and unnecessary job posi-tions and tasks in a company is a sure way to help that firm reduce labour costs, and eventually lead to generate savings.

LM without a doubt brings that advantage of leanness upon orga-nizations and companies practis-ing and adopting it.

Advantage on culture improve-ment: Various companies around the world are practising and implementing different cultures. It is usually a cause of problems, conflicts and issues around and within the organization.

In lean manufacturing, the cultures are standardized, thus, unfavourable practices and behaviours of both the employees and the management are reduced, if not eliminated.

The greatest advantage of LM in terms of cultures adopted by companies is that lean manufac-turing makes the differences be-tween management and personnel reach to a verging point.

LM principles should really be implemented by companies. It is high time to reap its advantages. n

Courtesy: Reprinted from http://www.

content4reprint.com.

LM helps companies retain, maintain and significantly increase their earnings, widen their margins and help them generate savings from lower costs.


information technology

Improving Profitability with

GPS FleetManagement Solutions

GPS fleet management tools are a simple and effective way to track company vehicles.

Implementation of GPS fleet management systems in company vehicles, increases employees’ productivity by cutting down waste of time, saves expenses by eliminating unnecessary payments for overtime, reducing fuel costs through controlled routing and eliminating idling. Also, it ensures better customer service.

by thomas pretty

Picture courtesy: www.photos.com


All business owners want to run an operation that is efficient and cost ef-fective, nowhere is this

truer than in the world of fleet management—where the manage-ment of vehicles can make or break the profitability of the busi-ness. Fleet management tracking tools can help business owners and managers keep track of their mobile assets and the activities of their employees at any point throughout the working day. By having access to this information, the task of increasing efficiency is made that much easier.

GPS fleet management tools are a simple and effective way to track company vehicles. As such, this technology and the fleet management solutions it provides is one of the fastest growing technological markets on the planet today. No matter what’s the size of your company, it is worth investing in GPS technologies—as a way to increase your business’ efficiency. However, choosing the right fleet management package can be difficult, seemingly the options are endless and if you are new to this variety of technol-ogy—you may be understandably baffled. Fundamental in your choice is determining what your company needs and how a GPS tracking system will increase the efficiency of your operations.

First in your list of decisions to make—should be the rapidity of the updates you will need. Pre-dominantly this will fall into two categories, ‘real time’ or ‘passive’. Both will provide you with the in-formation you need to make your business more efficient, including details of vehicle speed, direction, stops, routes and location.

Real time fleet management tools allow the user to view all of the information above, as it hap-pens. This is rapidly becoming the most popular form of GPS track-ing for the rate at which it gives the manager information. In addi-tion, many systems give the user live updates by email or text even if they are away from the system of any incidences of speeding or going off-route.

The main benefit of this type of fleet tracking system is—by providing real time data, it allows the user to monitor operations—making it easier to find ways to increase efficiency. For example, by monitoring vehicle idling, a process that uses fuel when the vehicle is stationary, it is possible to reduce the occurrence hence making fuel bill cheaper; some companies have found that fuel usage has gone down by around twenty per cent purely by moni-toring the idling times of vehicles.

Passive tracking differs from real time as it does not give the

manager live feeds on what com-pany vehicles are doing. Instead of live data, a GPS recorder fitted to all vehicles in the fleet; it records all the relevant data and is then downloaded to a main terminal at the end of each working day. This download can either be carried out manually or wirelessly—as the vehicle enters the yard. While they do not provide information in real time, they do allow company managers to increase efficiency using data built up over time.

These are the two main types of fleet management systems that will allow you to increase the effi-ciency of your business. Depend-ing on how you run your business operations, each will have its own benefits and downsides. While it may be tempting to go for the all singing, all dancing model; be sure to look around and shop wisely to find a great deal.

Reprinted from: www.articlesbase.com.

By monitoring vehicle idling, it is possible to reduce the oc-currence, hence making fuel bill cheaper.

Global Positioning System (GPS) is a revolutionary

tool, which provides unequal accuracy and flexibility of positioning for navigation,

surveying and Geographic Information System (GIS) data capture. Growing usage in automotive and consumer applications is propelling the mobile location

technologies market, which is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of more than 20 per cent to

cross US$ 75 bn by 2013.

World GPS Market Forecast to 2013, RNCOS.

Pict

ure

cour

tesy

: www

.pho

tos.

com


information technology

Drop tests provide designers with the advantage of understanding complexities of the underlying physical phenomena that are present in drop impacts. They predict the effects of such impacts on the product dropping from different heights, in different orientations, on different hardness of floors.

by manoj mehta

How can the working parts of your PDA or cell phone be protected if someone jars your

arm while you’re using it, and the device falls to the ground? Or, what happens to the structure of a storage tank if the crane putting it in place should drop it? Until now, learning the results of such accidents required running physical tests that destroyed the structures under study, or else

performing very difficult nonlinear and dynamic response finite ele-ment analyses (FEA) better suited to simulating car crashes.

Simulation now makes it possible for design engineers to run up-front drop tests on their designs easily and quickly, despite the fact that running them involves studying tens of thousands of very short time steps to capture the results within microseconds of the impact. This

Drop test simulation can easily predict the effect on the structure of a storage tank falling from a height.

Simulating Drop TesTs


article focuses on what a user needs to do to perform such a test, the kinds of results he or she will obtain, and the technology behind such simulations. Setting up a drop test is just like setting up any other study.

Steps Involved in Setting up a Drop Test

Define study and choose mate-rial: The user opens a study and names it ‘drop test’. Then, if the material has not already been defined in the model, the user en-ters it, different materials can be assigned to different components in an assembly. The user then goes to the set-up menu.

Specify drop height, floor orien-tation and floor hardness: In setting up the study, the user chooses either to specify the drop height (that is, the distance to impact) or velocity at impact, which may be defined by a motion study con-ducted prior to the drop test. If he/she chooses a height study, he/she then defines whether to mea-sure from the centroid (or centre of the object) or from the bottom of the object, and also enters the direction of gravity - or orienta-tion of the object as it drops. When he/she specifies a drop height, the program automatically calculates the velocity just before impact (2gh)1/2. The default angle of the floor or other surface onto which the object drops is normal to gravity. However, the user can change that angle and, if desired, enter data about any friction the falling object would experience when hitting the floor. Such fric-tion depends on the material of the surface on which it drops—(say) asphalt or concrete. Also, the default floor is assumed to be relatively much harder (or rigid) than the object being dropped. Users can change the floor to be flexible and specify a hardness to it—wood floor has a different hardness than (say) carpeted

floor. Users can simulate interac-tions between components within an assembly after impact—by specifying the faces or surfaces of various components that are likely to come in contact with each other.

Run analysis and study results: To get the most out of the simula-tion, some questions should be addressed before running the analysis, which are listed in the subsequent paragraphs.

For how long after impact should one observe or capture the solution?

Solution time after impact is measured in microseconds. The total duration depends on how much time elapses before the object experiences all the likely impact stress it will undergo—after it bounces. If a user wants to account for any secondary impacts, that time will add to the duration. When the object under study hits the floor, a stress wave originates from the point of impact and travels through the length of the object and then travels back. This effect is similar to the ripple effect when a stone hits water in a pond. The analysis software internally calculates the time it would take this wave to travel through the length of the body few times—and assumes that all major stress events would occur and be captured within that time.

Think of a toy glider impact-ing nose first onto the floor. The stress wave generates from the nose of the glider hitting the floor, and then travels towards the wing and the tail.

How do you select the time steps to save from your results?

By default, analysis saves detailed results for 25 steps and location results for 20 steps within every major step. Because each simulation can have tens of thousands of time steps, it makes sense only to save the impor-

tant ones, rather than wasting computer resources on the entire series. A user may be able to cut more time from analysis runs by performing a first pass run, using default settings, to obtain initial results. Those may indicate time windows that need to be refined—and the user can choose which windows to refine, saving time in the overall solution.

Why do you want to run drop tests inside the analysis software?

Running a drop test in the analysis makes it easy to study the impact on objects dropped in different orientations. Containers that carry hazardous materials, for example, have different design requirements to account for being dropped in different orientations. Drop test simulations also sup-port plasticity, so that engineers can determine such permanent deformations as dents after im-pact. Plastics and metals exhibit permanent deformations—the definition of plasticity—when stressed beyond their yield points. For example, a paper clip will lose its shape when bent beyond

A toy glider is impacting nose first onto the floor.


information technologya certain point. The drop tests discussed here can account for such material behaviour coupled with impact analysis.

Technology Behind Fast Drop Test Analysis

Although experienced users will find the steps involved in running drop tests familiar, the technology behind them is more complex than it looks. To simulate an object dropping and hitting a hard surface, the simulation software has to solve the follow-ing equation iteratively—because as the object falls and hits the floor the forces and stiffness keep changing.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) can use two approaches for solving this equation. They are called implicit and explicit solu-tions. Drop test simulation uses the explicit solution technology,

although both approaches are equally accurate. Implicit solu-tions of impact problems, such as dynamic drop tests take longer to solve. Implicit solvers first compute displacement ‘x’, caus-ing them to invert the stiffness matrix. All computers have to work harder and longer on matrix inversion than on matrix multi-plication—the approach used by explicit solvers.

The explicit approach com-putes accelerations, and thus has to invert only the mass matrix—much easier because this is a diagonal matrix. On the other hand, explicit techniques have the drawback of requiring very small time increments to provide a good, stable solution.

Real life problems generally can be solved with either ap-proach, but depending on the na-ture of the problem, one method

will be faster than the other. Lin-ear problems, which have slowly varying loads with no dynamic component, are more cost-effec-tive or faster to solve with implic-it methods. However, problems with short duration loading, such as impact or drop tests, are more economical to solve with explicit methods. Problems with gross nonlinear behaviour that requires a constant update to the stiffness matrix are also more economical to solve with explicit methods.

The speed gained through technology and through the analy-sis software ease-of-use makes it simple for users—to run drop tests on their designs, and adds another dimension to overall up-front simulation. n

Manoj Mehta is the country manager (India

and SAARC Operations) at Dassault Sys-

tèmes SolidWorks Corporation.


Uninterruptible Power Supply System

Delta has launched the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) series, viz., NH Plus 20 kVA - 480 kVA. The new product includes a modu-

lar structure and provides easy inventory management and minimized mean time to repair. The unit maintains 94 per cent efficiency under 25 per cent loading conditions.

Each power module delivers 20 kVA high power density in a 3U height chassis. The power options available include 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 up to 480 kVA in two different cabinet styles.

The product enables a maximum input current Total Harmonic Distortion (iTHD) of less than three per cent. The low iTHD helps reduce capital investment and also the installation cost of cabling and upstream circuitry.

Delta Electronics IndiaTel : 0124-4169040E-mail: [email protected]: www.deltaelectronicsindia.com

product updateTurbine Flow Meter

AIDA has launched a new servo press version of its ULX series

precision metalform-ing press, the ULX-D.

ULX series high precision presses incorporate a rigid 9-point support sys-tem, zero-clearance slide gibs and a no con-rod design. The product increases the life of the die and achieves high accuracy.

The press provides the ability to produce products with higher accuracies, products formed via ironing, flattening, or bulging pro-cesses that are easily influenced by changes in forming speeds.

The product includes a capaci-tor bank system, which enables

the production of products with minimal energy consumption.

The direct drive servo presses feature ServoPro technology. They are available in a wide variety of capacities, 80 to 2500 tonnes and designs comprising gap frame,

straightside, large capacity trans-fer and progressive die.

AIDA-AmericaTel: +1-937-2372382E-mail: [email protected]: www.aida-global.com

Metalforming Press

Clark Solutions has launched a new family of liquid vortex flow

sensors. The new product, viz., the DN series Vortex flow sensors are designed specifically for equip-ment manufacturers for system flow monitoring and control.

The unit is consid-ered to be ideal for water and water glycol-based heat exchange systems (with the usual additives) and other fluids.

The DN series is suitable for flow ranges

from 0.9 to 150 litres per minute (0.24 to 39.6 GPM).

Clark SolutionsTel: +1-978-5683400E-mail: [email protected]: www.clarksol.com

Liquid Flow Sensors

Temperature Sensor

Micro-Epsilon has introduced an infrared ratio temperature sen-sor (ratio pyrometer), viz., the thermoMETER CT ratio pyrometer.

The fibre optics ratio pyrometer measures temperatures from 700°C up to 1800°C. The sensor functions as per ratio principle and is insensitive to contaminants such as dust, smoke or steam that may partially obstruct the target.

The product operates on two-channel measurement principle. Two integrated infrared detection channels with close spacing, but with mutually different measur-ing wavelengths, produce two independent electrical signals.

The signals depend on the in-frared radiation emitted from the target and signal components.

The product is considered to be ideal for OEMs that need to measure the temperature of metals, metal oxides, ceramic or semiconductor materials in harsh, high temperature environments, including metal casting, welding, forming and sintering.

Micro-Epsilon UK Tel: +44-151-3556070E-mail: [email protected]: www.micro-epsilon.co.uk

Centre Wheels

Camel Grinding Wheels has introduced 1/4-inch thick

aluminium oxide depressed centre wheels branded under its Ultra series of wheels.

The new product is produced from a premium grain and N-grade bond. The wheels are available in a type 27 shape and in 4-1/2, 5, 6, 7 and 9 inch diameters with 7/8 or 5/8-11 arbor holes.

The products find use in weld grinding, rail car manufacturing and ship building.

Camel Grinding WheelsTel: +1-800-4474248E-mail: [email protected]: www.cgwheels.com

Exact Flow has introduced the Mini-Comp dual-rotor turbine

flow meter that is supported by a miniature flow computer.

The new product includes an electronic processor and an en-hanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) tech-nology, which allows signal characteriza-tion and fast response

(3 mS) to output data in engineering units.

The unit also incorporates a pickoff system, which provides

an RTD temperature sensor ther-mal well for improved response to temperature or viscosity com-pensation.

The flow computer offers multiple scaled outputs (two fre-quency, one voltage), temperature compensation, universal viscos-ity curve compensation, user interface software and RS485 communications.

Exact FlowTel: +1-480-9483789E-mail: [email protected]: www.exactflow.com

product update


Magnetic Retriever

Industrial Magnetics has launched a magnetic retriever, designed to retrieve

broken drill bits from oil and water wells.The new product captures metal objects

from any wet or dry area that requires large lifting capacity in a small package.

The unit includes a rare earth perma-nent magnet encased in a stainless steel housing for a long, non-corrosive life. The large lifting lug allows for fast attachment to chains, rope, slings, cable, etc.

The retriever magnet (HDR3045) measures 3” diameter by 5-3/4” high, weighs about 5 lbs and has a 300 lb. holding value.

Industrial MagneticsTel: +1-800-6624638E-mail: [email protected]: www.magnetics.com

Pigmented Coating

Aremco Products has introduced Corr-Paint (CP) 4040-S, a new high temperature, white pigmented, ceramic-glass-silicone coating.The new product can be used as a reflective coating on high tem-

perature mercury vapour lamps and other applications up to 1200 °F (649 ºC). The coating dries rapidly at room temperature and can be cured in-situ or by heating to 500 ºF for one hour. The resultant coat-ing is colour stable at high temperatures and resistant to oxidation, ultraviolet light, humidity and salt spray.

The product can be applied easily using pneumatic spray equip-ment, brush, dip or roller. The coating can also be applied to relatively

smooth surfaces or directly to rusted surfaces found in many maintenance and repair applications.

The product also finds use as corrosion protection on heat exchangers, crackers, reformers, exhaust ducting, and other structures that experience high temperature oxidation and corrosion due to conden-sation products.

Aremco ProductsTel: +1-845-2680039E-mail: [email protected]: www.aremco.com

Crank Handles

GAO Instruments has launched a digital insulation resis-

tance tester. The new product is designed to predict, prevent and identify insulation failures that may cause appliance failure, stop production and create power prob-lems or even put lives at risk.

The tester accurately tests insulation integrality on all kinds of electric equipment and insulation materials—found in equipment such as transformers, electro-motors, cables, switches and other installed wiring.

The model A0300029 tests insulation resistance up to 2000 MW. The product also measures alternating current and tests volt-age below 750 V AC.

GAO InstrumentsTel: +1-416-2920038Website: www.gaoinstruments.com

Delkor Systems has introduced a new Capstone flange

seal carton closing system. The fully-automatic system employs Delkor’s precision belt drive technology to accurately position, close and seal cover flange seal cartons at line speeds of up to 150 cartons per minute.

The precision positioning mechanism within the new system accommodates a full range of carton sizes and includes coun-ters to ensure repeatable high-speed production of consumer packages at profitable production line speeds.

The system employs a compact (38 in. wide by 104 in. long) inline configuration.

Delkor SystemsTel: +1-800-3285558E-mail: [email protected]: www.delkorsystems.com

Digital Tester

Dispensing System

Sealant Equipment & Engineering has

introduced Program-A-Bead 692, a robotic integrated bead dispens-ing system for structural bonding or sealing applications.

The Servomotor-pow-ered, advanced robotic system meters, mixes and dispenses precisely sized beads of two-component adhesives or sealants.

The Servomotor drive with external reduction and positive

displacement pistons are interfaced with robot con-troller to dispense specific bead diameter throughout adhesive panel.

SNUF-BAK 2-com-ponent dispense valve with disposable No-Flush static mixer nozzle blends materials at point of ap-plication.

Sealant Equipment & EngineeringTel: +1-734-4598600E-mail: [email protected]: www.sealantequipment.com

Lowell Corporation has launched ratcheting crank handles for

machine control in both OEM and retrofit applications.

The new product is de-signed for perma-nent mounting on shafts or studs. The handles have far less chances to slip, stick or freeze.

The unit in-cludes a small arc of operation, which makes adjust-ment faster, safer, and easier for the operator and also reduces wear on the machinery.

The standard models available are with either fixed or rotat-ing metal handles or lower cost

rotating plastic handles.

The arm lengths range from 7” to 12”.

The unit is built for hard use and utilizes stamped steel

handle plates, solid steel gears, hardened

and powder-coated, corrosion-resistant

epoxy paint. The gears are pre-assembled at the factory

and are not replaceable.

Lowell CorporationTel: +1-800-4569355E-mail: [email protected]: www.lowellcorp.com

Carton Closing System


Foam Plank Line

Bag Gripper

SAS Automation has introduced a bag gripper that can be adjusted quickly for different production runs using a simple hand wheel.

The product is considered to be ideal for plastic, woven cloth and paper bags containing heavy products such as grains, chemicals, dog food, minerals and plastic resins.

The machine uses stainless steel fingers for strength and is ca-pable of withstanding harsh manufacturing environments.

The product includes a decker mechanism to facilitate an accu-rate bag drop once positioned over the pallet.

The unit includes pneumatic valves, which provide an open/close cycle in less than 600 mil-liseconds.

SAS Automation Tel: +1-937-3725255E-mail: [email protected]: www.sasgripper.com

Duct Slitter

Pregis has added a 3-inch thick offering to its PolyPlank EXT

extruded foam plank line. The new size provides fabricators with flexibility in creating custom lami-nated structures for a wide range of applications.

Premium grade PolyPlank EXT single cross section, polyethylene foam plank is produced via an extrusion process, which creates

a homogeneous foam product with dimensional stability, helping provide easier and precise fabrica-tion.

The new size comes in 48-inch width. The line addition is expected to help minimize the number of layers needed to create thicker structures.

The product is suitable for packaging applications such as industrial parts, appliances, air-craft components, marine parts, industrial equipment, furniture and consumer electronics.

The product is resilient, springs back into shape after multiple compressions.

Pregis Tel: +1-847-5972200Website: www.pregis.com

General Machine Products has introduced a cordless

power duct slitter featuring a battery-powered blade that offers a mechanized method for trim-ming and slitting innerd-uct utility conduit.

The product, comprising a blade diameter of 3 to 3/8 inches (85 mm), is adjustable to cut innerduct of 1 to 2 inches (25.4 to 50.8 mm) in diameter. The unit has a length of 12-3/8 inches (313 mm) and weighs 6 lbs. (2.72 kg).

The device comes with a rechargeable 9.6-volt battery and a battery charger.

The product is constructed with a multi-directional cutting guide to assist with cut-

ting innerduct longitudinally and also around its circumfer-

ence. The other features of the tool include a blade guard and a safety stop built into the switch to prevent accidental starts.

General Machine ProductsTel: +1-215-3575500Website: www.gmptools.com

ITW Ransburg has launched the

Vector AA90 air-assisted airless gun, a rugged, but lightweight spray gun.

The new product combines air-assisted airless technology with electrostatic features. The integration results in a spray gun with spray pattern characteristics, pattern adjustabil-

ity and transfer efficiency.The device is available

with a wide selection of air cap and fluid tip combina-tions to maintain optimum performance with the coating materials.

The gun is available in classic or cascade technology.

ITW Ransburg Electrostatic SystemsTel: +1-419-4702000E-mail: [email protected]: www.itwransburg.com

Spray Gun

Pressure Sensor

American Sensor Technologies has launched the new 5100 wet differential pressure sensor for differential pressure measure-

ment ranges as low as 0 to 5 inches of water column and up to 0 to 15 PSID.

The new product is available with 1/8” NPT female pressure ports and two mounting holes for easy installation. The unit includes an optional 4-20 mA or 0-5V output signal, which makes it compat-ible with most PLCs and controllers. The sensor is designed for a variety of applications including filter monitoring, flow calculation across an orifice and level measurement.

With the use of an orifice, the product can be used to measure flow rates of liquids or gases based on the size of the orifice. Level measurement of sealed tanks can be measured by mounting the high pressure side to the bottom of the tank, with the low pressure side connected into the top of the tank.

American Sensor TechnologiesTel: +1-973-4481901E-mail: [email protected]: www.astsensors.com

Vertical Machining Centre

Mazak has launched the FJV-35/60 II, a double-

column vertical machining centre designed for production of large workpieces. The product is suit-able for a wide range of industries such as aerospace, construction, die and mold and heavy machine.

The machine accommodates up to 5,500 lbs on a 59.1” x 31.5” work table. The tool includes a 50 taper, 40 hp, 10,000-rpm integrated spindle that generates up to 433 ft-lbs of torque for heavy duty cutting of large cast iron, steel and aluminium workpieces.

The other features of the machining centre include a larger envelope due to an extended Z-axis stroke of 25.98.”

Mazak Tel: +1-859-3421700Website: www.mazakusa.com

product update


Behringer Saws has launched a line of automatic and semi-

automatic bandsaws to cut large sized materials. The new product, viz., the HBP series band-saws accurately cut solid forgings, slabs, profiles, molds or bundled materials up to 82.6” in diameter.

Each saw in the HBP Series is constructed with cast iron frame and a twin column parallel down feed design for proper saw blade tensioning to provide forceful low vibration cutting for smooth cuts.

The tools are available in auto-matic, table and gantry designs. These are also available with roller conveyors in the tabletop or gantry versions with a traversing

saw frame for handling of heavy materials pre- and post-cut.

The other features of the product comprise hydraulic and

hardened clamping jaws, which help provide steady and precise cuts at all speeds.

Behringer SawsTel: +1-610-2869777E-mail: [email protected]: www.behringersaws.com

Cylinder Testing Machine

Digital Wave has launched UE23 ultrasonic DOT cylinder testing machine to handle small cylinders at higher throughput speeds.

The machine functions by utilizing a water column created by UE squirter design.

The product accommodates diverse testing needs across all cylinder types. The unit is considered to be ideal for facilities that test 200 to 1,000 cylinders per month or up to 4,000 Med E’s monthly

(up to 60 M6/Med E or 10 T/K size per hour).

The product can handle from steel to aluminium to exemption cylinders.

Digital Wave Tel: +1-303-7907559E-mail: [email protected]: www.digitalwavecorp.com

Omega Engineering has launched the handheld OS-

DT8855W infrared non-contact temperature measurement instru-ment featuring a laser circle or dot sight.

The laser sighting system de-fines the target for point and shoot measurement of temperatures from -50 to 1370°C.

The unit also reads surface temperature in less than a sec-ond. The product is offered with hard carrying case, mini-tripod, one type K thermocouple, USB wireless data receiver, PC software and probe lead adaptors.

OMEGA Engineering Tel: +1-800-8484286E-mail: [email protected]: www.omega.com

Semi-automatic Saws

Infrared Thermometer

Vacuum Pump Inlet Trap

MV Products has launched a new vacuum pump inlet trap for processes such as LED manufacturing that produce a large

amount of condensable byproducts and fine particulates.The multi-trap for LED manufacturing features a knock-

down stage with an integral 500 in2 water-cooled baffle that is wrapped with a 3/8” cooling tube to help condense material entering the trap. The product can col-lect up to 3,000 in3 of solids.

The unit measures 30” H x 12” O.D. and has an ISO 80 port. The water-cooled baffle is 20” H x 10” O.D. and surrounds two stages of five 9.5” filter elements.

Filters offered include stainless steel, copper-gauze, and polypropyl-ene in 2-, 5- and 20 µm sizes.

Mass-VacTel: +1-978-6672393E-mail: [email protected]: www.massvac.com

Vibrating Screens

General Kinematics has launched a new line of high

volume vibrating screens for the mining and mineral processing industries.

The new product, viz., the STM-S series of vibrating screens, comprises two-mass or sub-natu-ral frequency drive design, which helps in reducing energy con-

sumption and cost. The product includes dual in-board vibratory motors, which eliminate expensive belts, shafts, and bearings for increased uptime and longer service intervals.

The unitized design facilitates rapid unit removal for recondition-ing. The modulated polyurethane screen decks are designed for convenient installation and replacement.

The screens are available in standard sizes to handle from 580 to 1800 metric tonnes per hour.

General Kinematics Tel: +1-815-4553222Website: www.generalkinematics.com

Expansion Tank

Young Engineering has introduced a

UL-approved one-gallon, non-repairable Bladder Ex-pansion Tank (BET) for the fire protection industry.

The new product pro-tects anti-freeze sprinkler systems from the damag-ing effects of thermal expansion.

The unit has a compact design, which makes it easier to fit and install in small commercial or resi-

dential systems. The tank is manufactured in ac-cordance with ASME code Section VIII, Div. 1. The sizes range from one-gallon to 150 gallon.

The product is designed to 175 psi design pressure.

Young EngineeringTel: +1-909-3943225E-mail: [email protected]: www.youngeng.com

Embracing Green Technology

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