Browsing by Subject "Quality control"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Open Access
Economic design of EWMA control charts based on loss function
(Elsevier, 2009) Serel, D. A.
For monitoring the stability of a process, various control charts based on exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) statistics have been proposed in the literature. We study the economic design of EWMA-based mean and dispersion charts when a linear, quadratic, or exponential loss function is used for computing the costs arising from poor quality. The chart parameters (sample size, sampling interval, control limits and smoothing constant) minimizing the overall cost of the control scheme are determined via computational methods. Using numerical examples, we compare the performances of the EWMA charts with Shewhart over(X, -) and S charts, and investigate the sensitivity of the chart parameters to changes in process parameters and loss functions. Numerical results imply that rather than sample size or control limits, the users need to adjust the sampling interval in response to changes in the cost of poor quality.
Open Access
Evaluate of braze joint strength and microstructure characterize of titanium-CP with Ag-based filler alloy
(2012) Ganjeh, E.; Sarkhosh H.; Khorsand H.; Sabet H.; Dehkordi, E.H.; Ghaffari, M.
This research investigates the influences of brazing parameters (temperature and time) on microstructures and the mechanical properties of commercially pure (CP) titanium sheet when it is brazed with CBS34 (Ag-20Cu-22Zn-24Cd) braze filler foil. Brazing was performed in a conventional atmosphere control furnace. The brazing temperatures and holding times employed in this study were 800-870°C and 10-20min, respectively. The qualities of the brazed joints were evaluated by ultrasonic test and the microstructure and phase constitution of the bonded joints were analyzed by means of metallography, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanical properties of brazed joints were evaluated by microhardness and shear tests. The diffusion between Ti, Ag, Cu, Zn and Cd from substrate and braze alloy, developed a strong reaction between each other. A number of intermetallic phases, such as TiCu and Ti2Cu in the Ag-Zn solid solution matrix have been identified especially at 870°C - 20min. Both the brazing temperature and the holding time are critical factors for controlling the microstructure and hence the mechanical properties of the brazed joints. The optimum brazing parameters was achieved at 870°C - 20min. Based on the shear test result, all cracks propagate along the brittle intermetallic compounds like Ti2Cu in the reaction layer which typically are composed of quasi-cleavage (Ag-Zn matrix) and brittle appearance. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
Exploiting index pruning methods for clustering XML collections
(Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010) Altıngövde, İsmail Şengör; Atılgan, Duygu; Ulusoy, Özgür
In this paper, we first employ the well known Cover-Coefficient Based Clustering Methodology (C3M) for clustering XML documents. Next, we apply index pruning techniques from the literature to reduce the size of the document vectors. Our experiments show that for certain cases, it is possible to prune up to 70% of the collection (or, more specifically, underlying document vectors) and still generate a clustering structure that yields the same quality with that of the original collection, in terms of a set of evaluation metrics. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Open Access
Investigation on braze joint strength and microstructure of Ti-CP with Ag and Ti base filler alloys
(American Welding Society, 2012) Ganjeh, E.; Khorsand H.; Sarkhosh H.; Ghaffari, M.; Sabet H.; Dehkordi, E.H.
This research investigates influences of brazing parameters (brazing alloy, temperature and time) on microstructures and mechanical properties of a commercially pure (CP) titanium sheet which is brazed with CBS 34 (Ag-based) and STEMET 1228 (Ti-based) braze-filler foils. Brazing was performed in a conventional inert furnace at temperature ranges of 800-870°C and 10-30 minutes for holding times. Qualities of the brazed joints were evaluated by ultrasonic testing, and then, microstructure and phase constitution of the bonded joints were analyzed by means of metallography, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Mechanical properties of brazed joints were evaluated by shear testing. Diffusion of titanium from substrate to filler alloy developed a strong reaction between them. A number of phases such as TiCu, Ti 2Cu, TiAg, Ag-Zn solid solution matrix (for Ag-based brazed samples) and Ti 2Cu, (Ti,Zr) 2Ni, Zr 2Cu (for Ti-based brazed samples) have been identified. The optimum brazing parameters were achieved at a temperature of 870 °C-20 min for CBS 34 and 870 °C-30 min for STEMET 1228. The specimen using STEMET 1228 braze alloy demonstrates best bonding strength (equal to Ti-CP tensile strength). Copyright 2012 ASM International® All rights reserved.
Open Access
Investing in quality under autonomous and induced learning
(Taylor & Francis, 2003) Serel, D. A.; Dada, M.; Moskowitz, H.; Plante, R. D.
The reduction of variability in product performance characteristics is an important focus of quality improvement programs. Learning is intrinsically linked to process improvement and can assume two forms: (i) autonomous learning; and (ii) induced learning. The former is experientially-based, while the latter is a result of deliberate managerial action. Our involvement in quality and capacity planning with several major corporations in different industries suggested that it would be instructive to devise a model that would prescribe an optimal combination of autonomous and induced learning over time to maximize process improvement. We thus propose such a model to investigate the optimal quality improvement path for a company given that quality costs depend on both autonomous and induced types of learning experienced on a number of quality characteristics. Several properties of an optimal investment path are developed for this problem. For example, it is shown that decisions maximizing short-term gains may actually lead to suboptimal resource utilization decisions when total costs associated with a longer planning horizon are taken into account. Numerical examples are used to assess the sensitivity of the optimal investment plan with respect to changes in several model parameters.
Open Access
Optimization of the gain-bandwidth product of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers
(IEEE, 2005-12) Olcum, S.; Senlik, M. N.; Atalar, Abdullah
Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (cMUT) have large bandwidths, but they typically have low conversion efficiencies. This paper defines a performance measure in the form of a gain-bandwidth product and investigates the conditions in which this performance measure is maximized. A Mason model corrected with finite-element simulations is used for the purpose of optimizing parameters. There are different performance measures for transducers operating in transmit, receive, or pulse-echo modes. Basic parameters of the transducer are optimized for those operating modes. Optimized values for a cMUT with silicon nitride membrane and immersed in water are given. The effect of including an electrical matching network is considered. In particular, the effect of a shunt inductor in the gain-bandwidth product is investigated. Design tools are introduced, which are used to determine optimal dimensions of cMUTs with the specified frequency or gain response.
Open Access
Quality control chart design under jidoka
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009) Berk, E.; Toy, A. Ö.
We consider design of control charts in the presence of machine stoppages that are exogenously imposed (as under jidoka practices). Each stoppage creates an opportunity for inspection/repair at reduced cost. We first model a single machine facing opportunities arriving according to a Poisson process, develop the expressions for its operating characteristics and construct the optimization problem for economic design of a control chart. We, then, consider the multiple machine setting where individual machine stoppages may create inspection/repair opportunities for other machines. We develop exact expressions for the cases when all machines are either opportunity-takers or not. On the basis of an approximation for the all-taker case, we then propose an approximate model for the mixed case. In a numerical study, we examine the opportunity taking behavior of machines in both single and multiple machine settings and the impact of such practices on the design of an X̄ - Q C chart. Our findings indicate that incorporating inspection/repair opportunities into QC chart design may provide considerable cost savings.
Open Access
Source and filter estimation for Throat-Microphone speech enhancement
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2016) Turan, M. A. T.; Erzin, E.
In this paper, we propose a new statistical enhancement system for throat microphone recordings through source and filter separation. Throat microphones (TM) are skin-attached piezoelectric sensors that can capture speech sound signals in the form of tissue vibrations. Due to their limited bandwidth, TM recorded speech suffers from intelligibility and naturalness. In this paper, we investigate learning phone-dependent Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based statistical mappings using parallel recordings of acoustic microphone (AM) and TM for enhancement of the spectral envelope and excitation signals of the TM speech. The proposed mappings address the phone-dependent variability of tissue conduction with TM recordings. While the spectral envelope mapping estimates the line spectral frequency (LSF) representation of AM from TM recordings, the excitation mapping is constructed based on the spectral energy difference (SED) of AM and TM excitation signals. The excitation enhancement is modeled as an estimation of the SED features from the TM signal. The proposed enhancement system is evaluated using both objective and subjective tests. Objective evaluations are performed with the log-spectral distortion (LSD), the wideband perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) and mean-squared error (MSE) metrics. Subjective evaluations are performed with an A/B comparison test. Experimental results indicate that the proposed phone-dependent mappings exhibit enhancements over phone-independent mappings. Furthermore enhancement of the TM excitation through statistical mappings of the SED features introduces significant objective and subjective performance improvements to the enhancement of TM recordings. ©2015 IEEE.
Open Access
Univariate X̄ control charts for individual characteristics in a multinormal model
(Taylor & Francis, 2000) Serel, D. A.; Moskowitz, H.; Tang, J.
The early work on multivariate statistical process control was built upon Hotelling's T2 control chart which was developed to simultaneously monitor the means of correlated quality variables. This chart, however, has a drawback, namely, the problem of identifying the responsible variable(s) when an out-of-control signal occurs. One alternative is to use a separate X̄ control chart for each individual characteristic with equal risks, based on Bonferroni inequality. In this study, we show that, from an economic perspective, it may be desirable to have unequal type I risks for the individual charts, because of different inspection and restoration costs associated with each variable. We obtain their risk ratios, which are measures of relative importance of the variables monitored. Then, based on these risk ratios, we develop computer algorithms for finding the exact control limits for individual variables from a multinormal distribution, in the sense that the overall type I risk of the charts is equal to the desired value. Numerical studies show that the proposed methods give optimal or near-optimal results from an economic as well as statistical point of view.