• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.96-101
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• 2024

Background: Silicosis among workers who fabricate engineered stone products in micro or small-sized enterprises (MSEs) was reported from several countries. Workplace exposure data of these workers at high risk of exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust are limited. Methods: We surveyed workers performing cutting, shaping and polishing tasks at 6 engineered stone fabricating MSEs in Sydney, Australia prior to regulatory intervention. Personal exposure to airborne RCS dust in 34 workers was measured, work practices were observed using a checklist and worker demography recorded. Results: Personal respirable dust measurements showed exposures above the Australian workplace exposure standard (WES) of 0.1 mg/m³ TWA-8 hours for RCS in 85% of workers who performed dry tasks and amongst 71% using water-fed tools. Dust exposure controls were inadequate with ineffective ventilation and inappropriate respiratory protection. All 34 workers sampled were identified as overseas-born migrants, mostly from three linguistic groups. Conclusions: Workplace exposure data from this survey showed that workers in engineered stone fabricating MSEs were exposed to RCS dust levels which may be associated with a high risk of developing silicosis. The survey findings were useful to inform a comprehensive regulatory intervention program involving diverse hazard communication tools and enforcing improved exposure controls. We conclude that modest occupational hygiene surveys in MSEs, with attention to workers' demographic factors can influence the effectiveness of intervention programs. Occupational health practitioners should address these potential determinants of hazardous exposures in their workplace surveys to prevent illness such as silicosis in vulnerable workers.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1652-1663
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• 2002

It is desirable to perform nondestructive evaluation to assess material properties and part homogeneity because manufacturing of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites requires complicated and costly processes. In this work several ultrasonic techniques were applied to carbon/carbon composites for the evaluation of spatial variations in material properties that are attributable to the manufacturing process. In a large carbon/carbon composite manufactured by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) method, the spatial variation of ultrasonic velocity was measured and found to be consistent with the densification behavior in CVI process in order to increase the density of C/C composites. Ultrasonic velocity and attenuation depend on a density variation of materials. Low frequency through-transmission scans based on both amplitude and time-of-flight of the ultrasonic pulse were used for mapping out the material property inhomogeneity These results were compared with that obtained by dry-coupling ultrasonics. Pulse-echo C-scans was used to image near-surface material property anomalies such as the placement of spacers between disks during CVI. Also, optical micrograph had been examined on the surface of C/C composites using a destructive way.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1611-1611
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• 2001

The main selection parameters used by forage grass (rye and Italian rye grass) breeders are dry-matter yield, seasonal growth, persistency, disease resistance, heading date, and heading. These characteristics can all be identified usually in the segregating F2 population, however characteristics such as soluble carbohydrate level, protein, lipid and digestibility cannot be identified. The emphasis of this work is to introduce a quantitative selection process for characterization of herbage quality e.g. protein, water-soluble carbohydrates, fiber fractions, dry matter digestibility. NIRS calibrations are currently being developed for identifying grass genotypes to assist the selection process, thereby allowing the opportunity to actively breed improved herbage quality. The changes in fibre fractions, associated components and digestibility of a number of grass clones at different growth stages are being assessed changes taking place during a growing season. This will provide a database of the major changes taking place during a growing season. Attempts to classify quality differences between genotypes will be carried out using multivariate analysis of the spectral data. I addition changes associated with maturity of grass will be considered in order to develop robust calibrations.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.1 s.85
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• pp.157-166
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• 2005

This article involves architecting prototype-fuzzy expert system for designing the nominal cover thickness by means of fuzzy inference for quantitatively representing the environment affecting factor to reinforced concrete in chloride-induced corrosion environment. In this work, nominal cover thickness to reinforcement in concrete was determined by the sum of minimum cover thickness and tolerance to that defined from skill level, constructability and the significance of member. Several variables defining the quality of concrete and environment affecting factor (EAF) including relative humidity, temperature, cyclic wet and dry, and the distance from coast were treated as fuzzy variables. To qualify EAF the environment conditions of cycle degree of wet-dry, relative humidity, distance from coast and temperature were used as input variables. To determine the nominal cover thickness a qualified EAF, concrete grade, and water-cement ratio were used. The membership functions of each fuzzy variable were generated from the engineering knowledge and intuition based on some references as well as some international codes of practice.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.66-71
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• 2008

Diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coatings could be good candidates as solid lubricants for cutting tools in dry machining of aluminum alloy. In this work, DLC thin films were produced as a friction reduction coating for WC-Co insert tip using the plasma immersion ion beam deposition (PIIED) technique. DLC coatings were also coated on $Al_2O_3$ specimens and high temperature wear tested up to $400^{\circ}C$ in dry air to observe the survivability of the DLC coating in simulated severe cutting conditions using a pin-on-disc tribotester with Hertzian contact stress of 1.3GPa. It showed reduced friction coefficients of minimum 0.02 up to $400^{\circ}C$. And cutting performance of DLC coated WC-Co insert tips to Al 6061 alloy were conducted in a high speed machining center. The main problems of built-up edge formation in aluminum machining are drastically reduced with improved surface roughness. The improvements were mainly related to the low friction coefficient of DLC to Al alloy and the anti-adhesion of Al alloy to WE due to the inertness of DLC.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.285-288
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• 1997

Generally the high dielectric films, such as PZT(Pb(Z $r^{1-x}$ $Ti_{x}$ ) $O_3$) and BST(B $a_{l-x}$S $r_{x}$ Ti $O_3$) have been formed on the Pt thin films. However it is generally known that the dry etching of Pt is difficult because of its chemical stability. So, the dry etching of Pt remains at the preliminary work. Therefore, in this study, Pt etching mechanism was investigated with Ar/C $l_2$gas plasma by using XPS(X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and QMS(Quadrupole mass spectrometry). Ion current density was measured with Ar/C $l_2$gas plasma by using single Langmuir probe. XPS results shoved that the atomic % of Cl element on the etched Pt sample increased with increasing Ar/(Ar+C $l_2$). And QMS results showed that the increase of Ar partial pressure in the plasma resulted in the improvement of C $l_2$dissociation and Cl redical formation and simultaniously the increase of ion bombardment effects.s.s.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.78-83
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• 2008

In recent years, small boats used for marine leisure have been steadily increasing because of the increase in national income and the desire for marine leisure. But the repair of such small boats in dry dock has pointed out many faults in small FRP-shipbuilding in terms if workspace and manpower. Lifting a boat from the water to land is done with a crane or by hand using a sling around the bottom of the boat. But dry dock work is limited by the scale of the boat, which corresponds to the crane capacity, with carelessness making it possible to capsize a boat and endanger life. The purpose of this study was the development of a marine docking system that would improve economical efficiency and safety, for which we carried out concept design, model tests, structural analysis, etc.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2003

Recently, buildings with transparent glazing on exterior walls have increased. The transparent glazing on exterior walls gives an impression of opening through introducing external environment's elements to inside of the building, and has various merits and so on, but has defects in controling indoor environments. Especially, the excess of solar radiation in summer increases cooling load causing discomforts to occupants providing radiant environment with high temperature. Cooling load mainly depends on electricity comparing to heating load and intents to centralize specific time. So it is necessary to work out a countermeasure. In this study, showed P building with transparent glazing on exterior walls as a case, investigated indoor thermal performance, numerical analysis of P building in summer through comparing dry-sauna which is represented as radiant environment with high temperature. In the results of this study, transparent glazing space has radiant environment with high temperature such as dry-sauna because of the excess of solar radiation. Accordingly countermeasures are considered in building planning. As concrete methods, there are adiabatic effects using double glazing, use of sunscreen, blind, ventilation facilitation using natural draft, decrease of surface temperature through evaporation cooling and cooling coils.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.1378-1385
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• 2002

The importance of direct genetic, maternal, heterosis and epistatic effects were examined on post-weaning weight, height, length, girth, fat depth and muscle (ratio of stifle to hip width) with dry and wet season gains in these traits. The breeds used were two pure breeds (Jersey and Limousin), the Limousin${\times}$Jersey $F_1$, and two backcrosses ($F_1{\times}$Jersey dams and $F_1{\times}$Limousin dams). Direct genetic effects were large (p<0.001) for all traits except for length. Jersey maternal effects were large for weight, girth, fat depth and muscle in the post-weaning wet season gains which is an evidence of the impact of Jersey dam on progeny beyond weaning. There were large heterosis effects on fat depth and muscle relative to other traits. Epistatic effects were observed for post-weaning performance in weight, girth, fat depth and muscle. There are indications that there were different genetic effects for post-weaning compared to preweaning growth traits. Thus, it could be hypothesized from this study that different quantitative trait loci (QTL) affect early and late growth in Jersey and Limousin cross cattle breeds. The follow up work will examine the different chromosomal gene effects on pre- and post-weaning growth.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.221-226
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• 2002

As environmental restriction has continuously become more strict, machining technology has emphasized on development of environment-friendly technologies. In cutting technology, it has been well recognized that cutting fluids might have undesirable effects on workers health and working environment and, hence, recently there have been numerous attempts to minimize harmful effects of cutting fluids on environments. To minimize the use of cutting fluids in machining, conventional cutting fluids have been replaced with the technologies of pressurized cold air and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). Compared with milling, turning is continuous cutting process, where tools are continuously heated up and lack of lubricity could lead to tool wear and deteriorated surface roughness. In this work, it has been investigated how tool wear and surface roughness could be affected by cutting conditions, supply and cooling methods. The experimental results show that MQL technology is able to minimize conventional cutting fluids.