Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2013 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 4 Articles
Automobile workers are at high risk for lung, urinary tract, brain and skin cancers due to their direct\r\nexposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and lead (Pb) toxicity. The current study was\r\naimed to assess the effect of automobile workshop environment on health of auto mechanics in N. W. F.\r\nP. Pakistan. A questionnaire was designed and blood samples were collected from the auto mechanics\r\nand students. Students of University of Malakand were selected as control, that is, that were not\r\nexposed to automobile workshop environment. Serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), uric\r\nacid, calcium, bilirubin, haemoglobin levels and the prevalence of hepatitis B and C were observed. The\r\nresults of the workers showed an increase in concentrations of SGPT (104.4 �± 49.46 IU/L), calcium (18.96\r\n�± 0.04877 mg/dl), bilirubin direct (0.877 �± 0.206 mg/dl) and bilirubin indirect (0.986 �± 0.324 mg/dl) as\r\ncompared to students. Significant decrease was observed in haemoglobin (9.635 �± 0.2405 mg/dl) level.\r\nThe mean value of uric acid was (6.93 �± 1.077 mg/dl), 50% of the workers had high uric acid level and\r\n12% had low level of uric acid as compared to control group. The percentage of occurrence of hepatitis\r\nB and C in the workers was 10 and 18% respectively and 4% of the workers were positive for both. The\r\nresults for uric acid, SGPT, calcium, bilirubin and haemoglobin were in normal range in students. The\r\nprevalence rate of hepatitis was zero among the control group. We concluded that workshop\r\nenvironment has significant ill effect on liver and kidney function. However, further studies should be\r\ndone on large population size to avoid all these risks to the workers of such environment....
The increased number of new sub-systems in modern automobiles, intended to improve upon their\r\nsafety, economy and comfort among other things, have made them more sophisticated and complex to\r\nmaintain. The curriculum for the training programmes of their maintenance personnel in Nigerian\r\nTechnical Colleges has however, remained rigid since 1985, over two decades behind the state-of-theart\r\ntechnologies. This study thus, identified the innovations perceived as important to be integrated into\r\nthe curriculum to enhance its relevance and adequacy. A researcher-designed structured questionnaire\r\nwas used to survey the opinions of mechanical staff of two automobile assembly plants and the subject\r\nteachers in technical colleges in three purposively selected states of Nigeria, being Benue, Enugu and\r\nKaduna states. Data obtained from 56 respondents were analyzed. Three null hypotheses were tested\r\nusing the t-test statistics. It was found that 41 innovations including Anti-lock Braking System (ABS),\r\nElectronic Fuel Injection (EFI), Variable Valve Timing Intelligence (vvt-i), On-board Detection and\r\nDiagnostic System (OBD), etc. were perceived as important to be integrated into appropriate modules of\r\nthe curriculum. Interventions to upgrade both human and material resources in order to facilitate the\r\nteaching and learning of skills related to these innovations were recommended....
For years, the interest of the UDR1 research group has focused on the\r\ndevelopment of a Hybrid Series (HS) vehicle, different from the standard one thanks to the\r\nuse of a Gas Turbine set (GT) as a thermal engine. The reason for this choice resides in the\r\nopportunity to reduce weight and dimensions, in comparison to a traditional Internal\r\nCombustion Engine (ICE). It is not possible to use the GT engine set directly for the\r\nvehicle traction, therefore the UDR1 HS configuration shows the GT set connected with\r\nthe electric generator only. The result is that the traction is purely electric. The resulting\r\nengine configuration is a commonly defined Hybrid Series. Many efforts are spent in the\r\ndefinition of a generic scientific method to define the correct ratio (Degree of\r\nHybridization) between the installed power of the battery pack and that of the GT electric\r\ngenerator, which simultaneously guarantees the life of the battery pack and the capacity of\r\nthe vehicle to complete a common mission without lack of energy or stopping. This article\r\nreports a method to define the power ratio between battery pack and GT generator, applied\r\nto a recent commission for the development of a mini city bus....
The automobile industry is one of the most important industries in global economics. The automobile\r\nmanufacturing industry consists of many shops and many stations. Each station has a number of\r\noperations, which depend on the number of welded pieces in those stations. One of these shops is the\r\nbody shop. The problems that occur in the body shop concern queuing and the lead time between\r\nstations. This paper focus on optimize queuing processes and lead time in the body shop at the\r\nproduction line. A multi-objective model was applied to create a balance of equal finishing of all\r\noperations in all stations at the same time and to reduce the lead time in transferring the car structure\r\nbetween stations. The result showed that saving time and ensuring maximum production can increase\r\nprofits in the automobile manufacturing industry....
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