Editorial

Citation

Haupt, T.C. (2011), "Editorial", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 9 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt.2011.34309baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Volume 9, Issue 2

This issue of the Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology features papers on the effects of solid lubricant of metal surfaces, development of a digital product catalog, use of water mist fire suppression systems, remote sensing techniques in earthquake prediction, data flow analysis of the health and safety management of plant and equipment and reliability-centered maintenance of a chipping and sawing mill.

Sunday J. Ojolo, Olatunde Damisa and Folashade O. Tokede argue that the benefits of using solid lubricants as a coolant have not been harnessed in Nigeria. Their study found that the final surface finish of metals was considerably improved using this approach instead of wet machining. Surface roughness was also reduced.

The paper by S. Vinodh, K.R. Arvind and D. Rajanayagam discusses the development of a digital product catalogue as a means of achieving agility in manufacturing. They used a manufacturer of electronic switches as a case study. Increasing competition provides the opportunity to use information technology more broadly in the manufacturing sector with the benefits of reduced cost, reduced manufacturing times, leanness and flexibility.

In the next paper, W.K. Chow and L.Y. Chan advocate the use of water mist fire suppression as an environmental-friendly system which can substitute total flooding Halon systems. Their study is conducted in Hong Kong. Their findings suggest that in the cases they examined total flooding systems might not be as effective as the water mist approach. However, the latter approach may be practical only in the case of class B fires with very little residual water.

Habibeh Valizadeh Alvan and Husaini B. Omar describe the remote sensing techniques to predict earthquakes. Remote sensing can measure earth deformation, surface temperature and humidity, air humidity, gas and aerosol content which are all phenomena related to earthquakes. They present arguments for using various types of remote sensing such as interferometric synthetic aperture radar and differential synthetic aperture radar on board satellites as monitoring and predictive devices.

Zainab Riaz, David J. Edwards, Gary D. Holt and Tony Thorpe evaluate the use of data flow diagrams (DFD) techniques to evaluate health and safety systems of construction plant and equipment. They found that causes of unsafe practices included aspects of the plant and equipment themselves, management processes and operator competence. They argue for the increased use of DFD analysis to improve plant and equipment health and safety performance.

In the penultimate paper, Stanley Fore and Thabani Mudavanhu examine the application of reliability-centered maintenance in a chipping and sawmill company. He presents RCM as a step towards improving preventive maintenance in a sawmill. He recognizes that in developing countries the approach might have limited application but suggests that when applied the benefits are substantial.

Robin Clark in the final paper, provides a critical analysis of UK Government policy in respect of recent moves to attract young people into engineering. He critically examines the various factors influencing young people’s decision-making processes in respect of entering the engineering profession. He provides a diagrammatic representation of the “push” and “pull” factors involved. He argues that a relevant and sustainable learning experience that will equip students with the necessary skills and competencies can be achieved by promoting transferable skills and competencies or by the introduction of a capabilities-driven curriculum which brings together generic and engineering skills and abilities.

Special thanks to each of the contributing authors and reviewers for their contribution to the papers in this particular issue.

Theo C. Haupt