Editorial

Citation

Haupt, T.C. (2013), "Editorial", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 11 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt.2013.34311aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Volume 11, Issue 1

As the Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology enters its 11th year of existence this first issue contains papers covering performance monitoring systems, analysis of propagation delay and power in multi-walled carbon nanotube interconnects, improvement of surface properties of stainless steel, damping ratio of GRP-reinforced Glulam beams, durability and flexibility characteristics of latex modified ferrocement, redefining customer value in lean product development, and in-house or outsourcing on-site materials handling in housing.

The paper by Mamphweli and Meyer discusses the building of a low-cost gas and temperature profiling system for data acquisition at a biomass gasifier. They found that the results obtained using this approach were similar to those when using a gas chromatograph for gases.

Kaushik, Duksh, Sarkar and Singh analyze the effect of driver size and number of cells on propagation delay and power for multi-walled carbon nanotube interconnects at 22 nm technology mode. Their study found that multi-walled carbon nanotube interconnects had lower propagation delay than Cu interconnects. The delay ratio of the former to the latter decreased with increase in length of different driver sizes and number of shells multi-walled carbon nanotube interconnect. The delay ratio increased with reduction in number of shells. The study suggests that carbon nanotubes were better alternatives to copper.

In their paper, Muthukumaran, Selladurai and Kumar present the findings of a study the crystallographic orientation and surface morphology of stainless steel using X-ray diffraction analysis. The ion implanted specimens were more corrosion resistant and harder than bare specimens.

Gholampour, Naghipour and Nematzadeh used the weighted residual method to evaluate the damping ratio of unreinforced glue-laminated wood beams as well as reinforced glue-laminated wood beams with E-glass reinforced epoxy polymer plates. They argue that using this approach gave better results or values than other approaches.

The study reported on by Roslan, Sulieman and Ramli to compare the durability and flexibility characteristics of latex modified ferrocement with conventional ferrocement when exposed to severe environmental conditions. They found a significant improvement in reducing and bridging micro cracks. Fracture toughness and deformability increased. They argue that latex modification improved the mechanical properties of cement mortars.

In the paper by Gudem, Steinhert, Welo and Leifer they attempted to redefine the functional product values in Lean Product Development. They integrated emotional customer value into the traditional model based on minimizing operating cost and time to market. They found that a less-than-perfect match between customer needs and product offerings improved customer satisfaction.

The final paper by Josephson and Linden examines whether on-site handling of materials should be outsourced or done in-house. They studied visible and hidden costs of materials handling. They conducted interviews, held short on-site discussions and conducted direct observations on housing projects. They found that the indirect and waste costs were unknown and often underestimated during budgeting, planning, scheduling and organizing construction projects. The benefits of outsourcing outweighed the costs of on-site materials handling.

I trust that you will find the papers in this issue of interest. I am thankful for the contributions of not only the authors but also the reviewers of the papers who voluntary offer their time and expertise to review manuscripts for the journal.

Theo C. Haupt