Browse Topic: Cleaning
With the increasing demand for material microimaging analysis, there is a growing need for advanced precision grinding and polishing equipment, especially for metals, ceramics, and composites. Existing automated systems struggle with handling complex material challenges. This paper presents a fully automated adaptive grinding and polishing machine based on an STM32 microcontroller that handles multi-material samples. The system includes modules for sample access, cleaning, pad replacement, human-computer interaction, and equipment communication. The STM32 microcontroller executes grinding and polishing tasks based on instructions from the host computer while dynamically adjusting PID control parameters using an improved weighted average optimization algorithm. This approach enhances control accuracy, stability, and overall surface treatment quality compared to traditional PID control methods.
Static electricity is an electrical imbalance on the surface of a material which can interact with other components having same or different materials. Fluid flow within the hose assembly generates static voltage due to friction caused by fluid flow in pipes, that needs to be appropriately quantified and dissipated. Accumulation of such static charge may lead to sudden discharge leading to spark generation. Spark generation around fuel flow might lead to system failure and failure in aircraft engines. Test experiments were conducted to analyze static voltage generated in hose assembly due to fuel flow with the objective that voltage achieved is within the acceptable range to avoid ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) failure. Procedure includes flow rate monitoring and voltage measurement using fuel as test fluid. The testing revealed that the curvature of the hose affects the readings, highlighting the importance of consistent meter alignment. Using a grounding strap is essential to prevent electrical damage and ensure accurate reading. Other functional factors such as proper set up and cleaning methods are crucial were also studied. It's important to check electrical continuity using an ohmmeter before testing. Initial results showed static voltage values beyond acceptable limits which may have resulted in ESD failure. The readings were optimized through electrical grounding and changes in the cleaning process. The revised static voltage readings increased with the flow rate non-linearly emphasizing that voltage testing is critical for aircraft safety.
Using waste to purify water may sound counterintuitive. But at TU Wien, this is exactly what has now been achieved: a special nanostructure has been developed to filter a widespread class of harmful dyes from water. A crucial component is a material that is considered waste: used cellulose, for example, in the form of cleaning cloths or paper cups. The cellulose is utilized to coat a fine nanofabric to create an efficient filter for polluted water.
In today's dynamic driving environments, reliable rear wiping functionality is essential for maintaining safe rearward visibility. This study sharing the next-generation rear wiper motor assembly that seamlessly integrates the washer nozzle, delivering improved performance alongside key benefits such as better Buzz, Squeak, and Rattle (BSR) characteristics, reduced system complexity, cost savings, and enhanced perceived quality. This integrated design simplifies the hose routing which improves the compactness and the efficiency of the design. This also enhances the spray coverage and minimizes the dry wiping unlike the traditional systems that position the washer nozzle separately. A non-return valve (NRV) is incorporated to eliminate spray delays ass it maintains consistent water flow giving cleaning effectiveness. Since this makes the nonfunctional parts completely leak proof due to the advanced sealing, it increases the durability and reliability in long run. As this proposal offers a sustainable solution, it can be considered as the new benchmark in rear wiper technology.
The automotive industry is rapidly advancing towards autonomous vehicles, making sensors such as Cameras, LiDAR, and RADAR critical components for ensuring constant information exchange between the vehicle and its surrounding environment. However, these sensors are vulnerable to harsh environmental conditions like rain, dirt, snow, and bird droppings, which can impair their functionality and disrupt accurate vehicle maneuvers. To ensure all sensors operate effectively, dedicated cleaning is implemented, particularly for Level 3 and higher autonomous vehicles. It is important to test sensor cleaning mechanisms across different weather conditions and vehicle operating scenarios to ensure reliability and performance. One crucial aspect of testing is tracking the trajectory of the cleaning fluid to ensure it does not cause self-soiling of vehicles and affects the field of view or visibility zones of other components like the windshield. While wind tunnel tests are valuable, digitalizing this process is vital for making design decisions early in vehicle development. This work presents a digital methodology to test the self-soiling of a vehicle due to the cleaning systems present on vehicle exterior components, e.g. during mud cleaning at different vehicle speeds. The cleaning mechanism involves multiple water nozzles positioned above, below, or on the sides of these components, which spray water jets to remove dirt or mud deposits. The developed numerical method models the motion of cleaning fluid and contaminants after component cleaning. Steady-state aerodynamic simulations using the Finite Volume Method (FVM) are used to capture airflow, while the interaction of air with cleaning fluid and components is analyzed using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) solver. Correlations from this study and wind tunnel tests reveal potential optimization opportunities for existing cleaning systems by inspecting surrounding airflows at various vehicle speeds. Preliminary design evaluations indicate a specific vehicle speed range where self-soiling of vehicle components such as the windshield occurs due to mud cleaning. The proposed numerical method provides the capability to evaluate and qualitatively compare vehicle self-soiling due to various cleaning system designs of exterior components, offering valuable insights for optimizing cleaning mechanisms in autonomous vehicles.
Researchers have developed novel ISM-based sweat sensors that feature enhanced signal stability and performance and avoid skin contact, while also being reusable, making them practical for daily use.
Animals like bats, whales, and insects have long used acoustic signals for communication and navigation. Now, an international team of scientists have taken a page from nature’s playbook to model micro-sized robots that use sound waves to coordinate into large swarms that exhibit intelligent-like behavior. The robot groups could one day carry out complex tasks like exploring disaster zones, cleaning up pollution, or performing medical treatments from inside the body, according to team lead Igor Aronson, Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics at Penn State.
In the highly regulated world of medical device manufacturing, post-production cleaning is essential for ensuring safety, compliance, and best performance. Beyond removing surface contamination, it must address intricate geometries, sensitive materials, and strict industry standards. Effectively managing these challenges is key to meeting regulatory requirements and ensuring reliable device function.
Spray washing is commonly used in car manufacturing to clean and prepare surfaces for subsequent processes like coating and painting. It uses high-pressure spray to deliver cleaning solutions or water onto vehicle surfaces to remove dirt, oils, metal shavings, and contaminants. For optimal washing quality, it is important to have proper nozzle arrangements, spray configuration, and vehicle positioning. Numerical simulations can be used to minimize the trial-and-error process and improve the quality. Spray washing involves strong discontinuities, fragmentation, violent free-surface changes, and complex multiphase flow, which are difficult to simulate using conventional grid-based methods. Lagrangian differencing dynamics (LDD) is a novel numerical method which has the features of being Lagrangian, meshless, and second-order accurate. It employs a meshless finite difference approximation scheme over scattered points and solves the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in an implicit way. It is suitable for spray simulation because of the Lagrangian and meshless properties. In this work, the spray washing free airless jet validation and simulation of a car body is performed using LDD approach. The LDD solver can accurately predict the cone angle of an airless water jet with a deviation of less than 1.3° from the experimental value. Important information, including fluid reachability and water contact time are obtained from the simulation and the results are analyzed. The influence of nozzle arrangement and configuration are discussed. The final section presents the result of optimizing the nozzles arrangement, which allows achieving complete washing of the car body.
Researchers have taken the first steps toward finding liquid solvents that may someday help extract critical building materials from lunar and Martian rock dust, an important piece in making long-term space travel possible.
Imagine having to straighten up a messy kitchen, starting with a counter littered with sauce packets. If your goal is to wipe the counter clean, you might sweep up the packets as a group. If, however, you wanted to first pick out the mustard packets before throwing the rest away, you would sort more discriminately, by sauce type. MIT engineers have developed a method that enables robots to make similarly intuitive, task-relevant decisions.
Today, advancements in industrial laser cleaning automation show great promise in boosting productivity and safety when rust and contaminant removal or surface preparation is required for higher volumes of components and equipment.
As aerospace engineers push the boundaries of new frontiers, the need for advanced materials that can withstand the rigorous demands of these advanced applications is relentless. These materials go beyond functionality; it is about ensuring reliability in the skies, where failure is not an option. Fluorosilicone can help do exactly that. In the 1960s, the U.S. Air Force noticed that conventional silicone-based sealants, coatings, and other components degraded rapidly when exposed to fuels, de-icing fluids, and other hydrocarbon-based solvents. Dimethyl-based silicones are non-polar and easily absorb hydrocarbon-based solvents, which may result in material swelling, mechanical weakening, and ultimately, failure.
This study aims to design a supersonic ejector, referred to as a liquid spray gun, with a simple operating procedure for producing an aerosol spray with adjustable droplet size distributions. A CFD model was developed to determine the influence of nozzle exit position and the primary air pressure on the supersonic patterns formed within the ejectors, providing a valuable insight into their internal physics. Based on the single-phase numerical results, at an air primary pressure of 2 bar, the flow may not reach a choking condition, possibly resulting in unstable ejector operation. However, at pressures exceeding 5 bar, the jet patterns emerging from the primary nozzle cause flow separation or the formation of vortex rings. This phenomenon leads to a flow configuration comparable to the diameter of the mixing tube, thereby reducing the available area for entrainment of suction flow. The suitable ejector was identified with a nozzle exit position of 13 mm and a primary pressure ranging from 3 to 4 bar. Consequently, a high-speed imaging shadowgraph system was successfully developed to experimentally analyze the water spray pattern within the designed ejector. The experimental results indicate that the ejector performs effectively under different operating conditions, producing a fine water spray with predominantly small droplet sizes below 30 μm when the air pressure is within the range of 3 to 4 bar. These results highlight the capability of the supersonic ejector as a spray gun for generating aerosols suitable for contaminated surface cleaning and other relevant applications.
Usually hosted in Southern California, the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo moved about 265 miles (425 km) north and east for its latest edition, taking place in Las Vegas from May 20-23. Interestingly, that distance challenges the range limits of most Class 8 battery-electric trucks, particularly if traversing hilly terrain or hauling heavy loads. One electric truck capable of covering such a stretch - with its estimated range of up to 500 miles (805 km) fully loaded at 82,000 lb GCW - is the Tesla Semi, which made its trade-show debut at the ACT Expo. “Achieving strong range-to-mass ratios is only possible with a dedicated, purpose-built, ground-up electric platform - exactly what the Semi is. There's no wasted space, the powertrain and the vehicle work hand in hand,” Dan Priestley, senior manager of engineering for the Tesla Semi, said during a keynote in Las Vegas.
When it comes to making batteries that last longer, a team of researchers including engineers at Brown University and Idaho National Laboratory believes the key might be in how things get clean — specifically how soap works in this process.
Billions of people around the world lack access to clean, drinkable water. A research team led by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a new water filtration system using locally sourced materials for members of the Navajo Nation in the Southwest.
The lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles (EVs) are key to a clean energy economy. But their electrodes are usually made using a wet slurry with toxic solvents, an expensive manufacturing approach that poses health and environmental risks.
Dubbed an “engineered living material,” a new type of material developed at the University of California San Diego could offer a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to clean pollutants from water.
In 1978, NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler theorized that an increasing amount of space pollution would lead to more collisions between objects in orbit, and thus more debris — the Kessler Syndrome. Multiple teams of researchers at USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI), a unit of the Viterbi School of Engineering, are working on solutions.
In Penn’s Clean Energy Conversions Lab, researcher Peter Psarras and colleagues are repurposing waste from industrial mines, storing carbon pulled from the atmosphere into newly formed rock. The team sees great environmental potential in mine tailings, the sand and sludge left behind after the sought-after ore gets removed. With samples in the lab, they’re trying to determine just how much calcium and magnesium each contains, how to best carbonate it with CO2, how and where they can store the result, and whether the process is scalable.
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) processes deposit material on all surfaces in a process chamber. Over time, the thickness of these deposits increases to the point that material begins to delaminate, producing gas-phase particulates that negatively impact process yield. Remote and in situ chemical etching processes are used to periodically remove these deposits from chamber walls, maintaining chamber cleanliness.
The startup plans to apply lessons learned in Europe to the U.S. market, bringing a “small fleet” of electric trucks for potential customers by the end of the year. Volta Trucks has been operating its all-electric Volta Zero delivery trucks in Europe for three years. Now, the map is expanding. Fleet operators soon will be able to get behind the wheel of a Class 6 or 7 Zero in the U.S., adding to a growing list of electric options for moving freight. Volta displayed a Zero at the 2023 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Anaheim, California, in May as a sort of ambassador. Volta will tour this truck around the U.S. for a few months before bringing over a “small fleet” for potential customers to test out and perhaps integrate into their operations before the end of the year, according to Volta Trucks CEO Essa Al-Saleh. It's all part of a dramatic shift towards electrification throughout the industry, he said.
In this paper, an innovative EGR valve, containing an integrated self-cleaning function to mitigate the progressive buildup of carbon deposits, is described. Conventional EGR valves use Butterfly and Poppet mechanisms to open and close a round shaped exhaust gas port with limited ability to remove exhaust carbon deposits from the affected surfaces and mechanical elements. The self-cleaning EGR valve, instead, combining both rotational and linear motions, continuously sweeps its internal passages while delivering the gas flow, removing the carbon deposits before they can adhere to the internal surfaces.
This recommended practice is intended to provide general guidelines for the selection and proper use of cleaning and disinfecting product characteristics acceptable for use on vehicle interiors and exterior touch points (cleaning before disinfecting being best practice in general for vehicles, as with other situations), and the effectiveness of the disinfecting products with certain characteristics, as well as indicating the product characteristics that will not cause damage to those surfaces.
This SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) provides processes for achieving the required cleanliness standards during the fabrication, assembly, and functional test of aircraft hydraulic systems. It covers exclusion and removal of solid and liquid contaminants from tubing during manufacture and final assembly, flushing of the installed system, and final checks to ensure cleanliness requirements are met.
Sustainable energy is a cornerstone of the global effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Research and development work continue to deliver cleaner, more efficient, and more diverse ways of generating the energy we need to power modern society. As we improve our ability to produce clean energy, we should also consider the holistic environmental impact of power systems that convert energy into work — driving our cars, trucks, airplanes, and other machines.
This SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) contains guidance to assist users by providing a method to install an AS6224/2 repair sleeve.
Researchers have successfully developed a novel optical fiber design allowing the generation of rainbow laser light in the molecular fingerprint electromagnetic region. This new optical fiber with a self-cleaned beam, developed by researchers at Tampere University, can help in developing applications, such as cancer diagnostics. The finding was published in the journal Nature Communications.
A new, highly sensitive system for detecting the production of hydrogen gas may play an important role in the quest to develop hydrogen as an environmentally friendly and economical alternative to fossil fuels, according to Penn State scientists.
As it became clear at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic that the novel coronavirus was transmitted through the air, several companies realized their NASA-derived air-quality technologies could help combat its spread. And they soon found themselves overwhelmed by demand from schools to hospitals, shopping centers, office buildings, airports, and even buses.
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