Annual Report Department

3.13Life cycle engineering

3.13.1Mc Know: Methods and Algorithms for Knowledge Management, GBOU project

Partners: Kuleuven-CIB (B), Kuleuven-SISTA (B)

Objective: The McKnow project (« Automated and User-Oriented Methods and Algorithms for Knowledge Management ») is a test platform aimed at transforming a number of new concepts about knowledge management into useful methods and algorithms. Keywords are user oriented, self organising, dynamic, with emphasis on automation and user friendliness. The envisaged application area is a chaotic and highly dynamic R&D environment.

Period: Sep 2001 – Aug 2005

Contact: J. Duflou

3.13.2CHASM: coping with health, environmental and safety aspects in standards for machinery.

Partners: K.U.Leuven, Universiteit Gent, ULG, WTCM

Objectives: Standards and legislations have a crucial impact both on the environment and on the occupational safety. However, many companies still lack profound knowledge of the current technical regulations. Moreover, research centers and universities provide only little support on how to practically apply the existing regulations. Meanwhile, these research centers and universities are insufficiently involved in the development of new regulations and standards. Consequently, technological and prenormative research at the universities is not always in line with upcoming legislation and standards. The major aim of this project is to contribute to solving these problems, in particular within the framework of selected directives and standardisation activities. To this aim, the project consists of the following tasks:

1. 
   to inform industry by promoting standardisation and technical regulation as a useful economic tool that has the potential to play a larger role in protecting the environment and the health and safety of workers.
   
2. 
   to transfer the knowledge and the results of research towards more applicable projects by the means of specialised international seminars and specific projects triggered by the Belgian industry.
   
3. 
   to participate in the standardisation activities of the Technical Committees of CEN/ISO, CENELEC/IEC related to each workpackage and to participate in the stakeholders meetings of the European Commission, international forums and the National Ministries regarding the future legislation.
   
4. 
   to create a dialogue between the industrial experts and the universities and WTCM/CRIF so that research programs will be more focussed on the technological challenges of the new directives and standards.
   

Period: Jan 2003 – Dec 2005

Contact: W. Dewulf, J. Duflou, W. Lowet

3.13.3Development of improved fastening and separation techniques in support of design for disassembly and design for recycling strategies

Partners: K.U.Leuven

Objectives: The introduction of product life cycle (PLC) control legislation increasingly forces companies to include strategies like DFD and DFR into their design process. These methods emphasize the reuse and reusability of components from discarded products and the resulting requirements during the disassembly stage. This research project aims to facilitate this transition of design paradigms by developing proactive tools that will help production oriented companies face the changing legal and thus economic framework of their markets. This project has two focal aspects. Firstly we plan to develop a set of adjusted design guidelines that will improve the efficiency of the disassembly process. Secondly we will integrate and apply our earlier findings to realise a number of disassembly tools relating to each respective solution proposed in the design guidelines. The final solution is validated into a working prototype of a disassembly tool.

Period: Jan 2003 – Dec 2004

Contact: B. Willems, J. Duflou

3.13.4Refining and applying the pro-active ecodesign method 'Eco-Pas'

Partners: K.U.Leuven, Atlas-Copco

Objectives: The Eco-Pas system (Eco-efficiency Parametric Screening) estimates the potential environmental impact of products based on functional requirements, known in the early phases of design. This contrasts with the technical parameters, such as the Bill of Materials, needed as input for traditional LCA methods. The project aims at refining and applying the Eco-PaS method. This entails:

1. 
   the integration of fuzzy set theory in Eco-PaS;
   
2. 
   the shift from mere ecological to combined economic/ecological evaluation;
   
3. 
   the inclusion of a large library of functions (bearing types, motors, gears, structural components and surface treatment techniques);
   
4. 
   the development of a web-based prototype; and
   
5. 
   testing of Eco-PaS in a real life design situation.
   

Period: Oct 2003 – Sep 2005

Contact: W. Dewulf, J. Duflou, P. Sas

3.14Education

3.14.1The EU project Mabuse, within the LEONARDO Program nr. 112 467

Partners: RWTH Aachen, T.U.Twente, TSM Twente, KULeuven, Barcelona UPC, Univ. Warwick

Objective: There is an increasing awareness in companies of the importance of continuous education. Not only the initial education of employees is crucial. For a company to remain at the edge of global competition the speed of learning within an organisation becomes of vital importance for both managers and employees.

Both modern entrepreneurship and management require an excellent technical background and very good organisational and managerial capacities. There is a large need in modern enterprises for the qualified engineer-manager, specialized in “business engineering”, who can act effectively and efficiently in a European, multinational business context.

The project Mabuse aims at developing a “Master of European Business Engineering” program for executives. The program will develop specific study modules.

Period: Jan 2002 – Dec 2004

Contact: D. Cattrysse, J. Duflou, P. Valckenaers, L. Pintelon, H. Van Brussel, D. Van Oudheusden

3.14.2K.U.Leuven – OOI - Implementation of 'guided self-study' to teach design capabilities to first and second year engineering students

Objective: In the course of this project so-called 'open' engineering design problems will be developed for engineering students in their second year of study. This is their first exercise in the area of design methodology. The students will work in small groups, and the method of guided self-study will be used to teach them the principles of good engineering design practice. The specific difficulty of this project will be the definition of the project subjects. On the one hand they have to take into account the limited technological background of these students, but on the other hand the problems must feature enough challenges. Dedicated documentation files will be developed for the students, and tutors will monitor the student's progress. At the end of the design project, the students write a report and present it orally.

Period: Oct 2000 – Sep 2002

Contact: J. Vander Sloten

URL: http://mech.kuleuven.ac.be/bmgo

3.14.3K.U.Leuven – OOI – Development of case-studies and didactical ICT-tools to support guided self-study in the exercise sessions of mechanics in the second year of engineering education

Objective: The aim of this project is to make the learning of mechanics for second year engineering students more interesting and effective. Traditional exercise-sessions will be transformed into sessions where student-teams discuss technical problems (case-studies), make a mechanical model of the system and analyze it quantitatively. Students will be evaluated both permanently during the sessions, and based on an endreport (with a thorough analysis of the case) and an exam. The first concrete goal is the production of case-readers for students and tutors. The second concrete goal is the development of ICT-support for the presentation of cases and for the tutoring of students. A third concrete goal is the development of evaluation-procedures and -instruments for this form of guided self-study and training for the educational team.

Period: Sep 2001 – Aug 2003

Contact: G. Van Der Perre

URL: http://mech.kuleuven.ac.be/bmgo

3.14.4Leonardo Da Vinci project – Integration of clinical and biomechanical competencies into on-line course material for prosthetic dentistry and implant dentistry (ICB Dent)

Partners: I. Naert, K.U.L. – Prosthetic Dentistry; P. Petit, Dental Partner Group (NL); J. A. Planell, Universitat Polytècnicia de Catalynia (ES); A. Natali, Università degli Studi di Padova (IT); G. Clemente, Consorio Padova Ricerche (IT); J. Middleton, University of Wales – College of Medecine (UK); A. Netherclift, Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK).

Objective: This project aims at the development of on-line course and training material in the area of prosthetic dentistry and implant dentistry. The material is aimed at an audience of both professionals working mainly in SMEs distributed throughout Europe and clinical professionals. The course material will be offered on-line through the establishment of a dedicated website. An innovative element will be the integration of numerical models and simulations into this website, allowing the user to perform a number of what-if analyses to assess the influence of certain parameters related to e.g. implant placement and materials choice. This will allow the user to gain insight in some basic principles of dynamics and statics, structural mechanics and applied elasticity, which is necessary to understand the relation between prosthetic restoration and load transfer to implants and bone.

Period: Decr 2002 – Jun 2005

Contact: J. Vander Sloten

URL: http://icbdent.custom8.com/home.html