26.606 Plastics Manufacturing Systems Engineering

SYLLABUS:

26.606 PLASTICS MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Instructor Information

Name: David Kazmer

Phone: (978) 934-2962

Fax: (978) 458-4141

Postal mail: David Kazmer, Dept. Plastics Engineering, 1 University Ave., Lowell, MA 01854 USA

Email: Please email me through this WebCT Course website only; this is a requirement of the Continuing Studies office.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course provides guidance about plastics manufacturing as an integrated system with broadly applicable analysis in three areas: 1) machinery, 2) controls, and 3) operations. The machinery topics include heating/cooling, hydraulics/pneumatics, electric drives, and sensors. The controls topics include signal conditioning, data acquisition, machine controllers, and related control laws. The operations topics include process characterization, process optimization, quality control, and automation. The course is developed to support plastics processing engineers and others involved with plastics manufacturing who are performing process development, research, and machine design.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this course, you should be able to:

· Identify the subsystems required to perform a closed loop plastics manufacturing process;

· Understand the design and operation of common actuators (heating, cooling, hydraulic, & pneumatics) as well as analyze their performance;

· Understand the design and operation of common process sensors (temperature, force/pressure, displacement) and specify their selection;

· Specify appropriate signal conditioners, calculate gains/bias for sensors, and develop low pass filters;

· Convert analog signals to a digital representation, and analyze the resolution & bandwidth of data acquisition systems;

· Understand different machine controller architectures, and identify components within a control cabinet;

· Develop and tune a PID controller;

· Characterize a manufacturing process through design of experiments and regression;

· Optimize a manufacturing process with resepect to yield and/or cycle time;

· Implement quality control systems including acceptance sampling and statistical process control;

· Integrate the above with auxiliary systems to deliver highly productive plastics manufacturing systems.

COURSE TEXTBOOK

David Kazmer, Plastics Manufacturing Systems Engineering, 1^st Edition, 2009, Hanser. Developed specifically for this course.

COURSE SCHEDULE

The syllabus and assignments for the course follow. New materials will be released on Monday at 9AM EST; assignments are to be completed by the 8:59AM EST the following Monday. Chats will be conducted on Thursdays from 8 to 9PM EST, with the intent to discuss the current week's concepts and cover any questions pertaining to the past or current homework.

Session	Topic	Reading	Due
1	Background	Chapter 1	Hmk 1
2	Plastics Manufacturing Systems	Chapter 2	Hmk 2
3	Heating and Cooling	Chapter 3	Hmk 3
4	Hydraulics and Pneumatics	Chapter 4	Hmk 4
5	Electric Drives	Chapter 5	Hmk 5
6	Process Sensors	Chapter 6	Hmk 6
7	Signal Conditioning	Chapter 7	Hmk 7
8	Data Acquisition Systems	Chapter 8	Hmk 8
9	Machine Controllers	Chapter 9	Hmk 9
10	Process Control	Chapter 10	Hmk 10
11	Process Characterization	Chapter 11	Hmk 11
12	Process Optimization	Chapter 12	Hmk 12
13	Quality Control	Chapter 13	Hmk 13
14	Automation	Chapter 14	Project

COURSE GRADING

The grading for the course is intended to provide students ample opportunity to practice and demonstrate the course concepts. Homework and project assignments are to be completed individually.

Grading Component	Weighting	Total
Best 12 of 13 Homework Assignments	5%	60%
Course Project	20%	20%
Course Participation	10%	10%
Final Exam	10%	10%
Total		100%

ASSIGNMENTS AND SUBMISSION

Homework assignments are listed in the schedule above. The homework questions can be submitted directly on-line. Most questions are in short answer format, though a few questions each week will require some analysis.

While much of the homework grading is automatic, I can and will manually correct many of the problems that the system either messes up or can not otherwise grade. As such, a feedback question will be provided in each homework assignment where you can paste any analysis, discussion, etc. to support your solution.

You can also scan written solutions and upload to the on-line course drop box. If so, please note these important items:

· Please provide your homework solutions as Adobe pdf or TIF files… you can use word, excel, ppt and the Adobe pdf printer. Alternatively, you can write & sketch on paper and then scan the solutions.

· Please, please, please name your file using the assignment number (below) followed by your last name (e.g. HMK2Smith, or PRJ3Gupta).

· Always keep copies of your work.

The solution will be posted at 9 AM EST on Mondays, so the 8:59 AM deadline is very firm. The good news is that we drop the lowest homework grade.

I should be able to grade and provide written feedback for you within the week, and usually before the chat on Thursday night.

COURSE COMMUNICATION AND PARTICIPATION

Just like as in a conventional course, student participation is a vital component to the learning environment. Students are of course expected to complete the readings and assignments. To make the most of the on-line environment, students are expected to communicate via e-mail, discussion boards, and real-time chat.

E-mails are welcomed and certainly appropriate for private inquiries. If you believe that even one other student may be interested, then the discussion forum is likely a better mechanism for posting your ideas and soliciting feedback since: 1) it provides an archive of the communication, and 2) it allows others to consider and contribute to the conversation.

For this reason, 10% of the course grade is derived based on student's course participation. The participation score is awarded on a 1% weekly pass/fail basis. If the student is involved in the chat and/or discussion boards, then the full 1% is awarded. While I hope your engaged every week, you only need to sincerely contribute to 10 of the 14 weeks to earn full credit for participation.

The weekly chat will be conducted via the Chats link on Thursdays from 8 to 9 PM EST. The chat is an important part of the course as it will incorporate the current week's concepts and cover any questions pertaining to the homework. As such, participation in the chat should assist your learning and may improve your performance in the course.