Special Issue

Energy Efficiency in Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing: Emerging Trends, Models and Applications in the Industry 4.0 Era

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2021 (Closed)

Guest Editor

Marco Bortolini, PhD

Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum - Bologna University, Italy

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Research Interests: energy efficiency, advanced production system, Industry 4.0, multi-attribute model, renewable energy for industry, sustainability

Co-Editor

Francesco Gabriele Galizia, PhD

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Industrial Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum - Bologna University, Italy

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Research Interests: reconfigurable manufacturing system, collaborative assembly, optimization in production, Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing

Introduction

Industry 4.0 is the present of production. Starting from a theoretical concept to draw the future of industry, Industry 4.0 is, now, much more than a vision. This term comes from a project in the high-tech strategy of the German government in 2011 for promoting the computerization of manufacturing and, in the last few years, the Industry 4.0 emerged as the fourth industrial revolution. In this new era, digital manufacturing plays a crucial role and digital manufacturing technologies are key enabling technologies for the future manufacturing.

Nine enabling technologies, characterizing the upcoming industrial revolution, support the transition to the industrial practice:

• Advanced Manufacturing Solutions
• Additive Manufacturing
• Augmented Reality
• Simulation
• Horizontal and Vertical Integration
• Industrial Internet
• Cloud
• Cyber-Security
• Big Data and Analytics

Each of these technologies and, much more, the synergic coordination of these, allow disruptive changes and upgrades to almost all the industrial and advanced tertiary sectors with performance improvement, waste reduction, cost and time savings, etc. At the same time, all these technologies are fueled by energy, representing the power for their use.

Within this scenario, this Special Issue aims at investigating the synergies and conflicts between Industry 4.0 techs applied to flexible production and energy efficiency, introducing the energy saving dimension together with other, almost highly discussed, metrics, such as quality, cost and productivity.

Scientists and Experts from academy and industry are highly welcomed to contribute with methods, reviews and case histories from the field presenting innovative research and experiences.  

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Energy assessment in advanced manufacturing;
2. Business strategies and operation models to spread energy efficiency in manufacturing, assembly and the auxiliary production services;
3. Model and reviews of the energy dimension in modern production;
4. Reviews of application of Industry 4.0 technologies to industrial sectors and districts;
5. Human-Automation interaction in production systems with energy metrics;
6. Design and management of Smart and Learning Factories to improve lean and green performances;
7. Machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques for manufacturing and energy efficiency.

Keywords

industry 4.0; flexible production; energy efficiency; advanced production; flexible assembly; reconfigurable manufacturing; sustainability; enabling technology; case histories; models, strategies and reviews.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted through the LIDSEN Submission System. Detailed information on manuscript preparation and submission is available in the Instructions for Authors. All submitted articles will be thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process and will be processed following the Editorial Process and Quality Control policy. Upon acceptance, the article will be immediately published in a regular issue of the journal and will be listed together on the special issue website, with a label that the article belongs to the Special Issue. LIDSEN distributes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License in an open-access model. The authors own the copyright to the article, and the article can be free to access, distribute, and reuse provided that the original work is correctly cited.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). Research articles and review articles are highly invited. Authors are encouraged to send the tentative title and abstract of the planned paper to the Editorial Office (jept@lidsen.com) for record. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office.

Welcome your submission!

Publication

Open Access Original Research Traffic NOx Pollution Prediction and Health Cost Estimation Using Machine Learning: A Case Study of Toronto, Canada by Hamidreza Shamsi  , Ehsan Haghi  , Manh-Kien Tran  , Sean Walker  , Kaamran Raahemifar  and Michael Fowler Received: 11 March 2022;  Published: 25 December 2022;  doi: 10.21926/jept.2204043 Abstract Road traffic is a significant source of air pollution that has a harmful impact on human health. To reduce the health and environmental impacts of fossil fuel consumption in the transportation sector, many countries have implemented policies to promote the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs). A vital factor to consider when designing policie [...]

Open Access Original Research A Data-Based Reliability Analysis of ESP Failures in Oil Production Wells by Shaikha Al-Ballam  , Hamidreza Karami  and Deepak Devegowda Received: 27 September 2022;  Published: 14 November 2022;  doi: 10.21926/jept.2204036 Abstract Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESPs) are one of the most widely used artificial lift methods in the petroleum industry. However, ESP failures are unanticipated and common occurrences with significant financial impacts for the operators. Analysis of the ESP performance and failures are essential in its design and optimization. This paper present [...]

Open Access Original Research Development of the Flash Ironmaking Technology (FIT) for Green Ironmaking with Low Energy Consumption by Hong Yong Sohn  , Mohamed Elzohiery  and De-Qiu Fan Received: 28 June 2021;  Published: 23 September 2021;  doi: 10.21926/jept.2103042 Abstract This article describes the development of a novel ironmaking technology based on flash reduction. The development started with the proof of the kinetic feasibility, considering that a typical flash reactor provides only a few seconds of residence time. This was followed by tests in a laboratory flash reactor and finally a pilot [...]

Open Access Original Research A Highly-efficiency Position Sensorless Electric Vehicle Synchronous Reluctance Motor Drive by Ganisetti Vijay Kumar  , Min-Ze Lu  and Chang-Ming Liaw Received: 02 May 2021;  Published: 11 August 2021;  doi: 10.21926/jept.2103037 Abstract The development of high-efficiency motor drives for various applications is important in the industry 4.0 era, especially for their extensive application to electric vehicles (EVs). In this study, a position sensorless EV synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) drive has been developed, which exhibits good driving performance and [...]

Open Access Original Research Design and Implementation of a Laboratory Sucker Rod Pumping Unit Using Industry 4.0 Concepts by Aditya Sharma  , Opeyemi Bello  , Catalin Teodoriu  and Hamidreza Karami Received: 15 February 2021;  Published: 30 June 2021;  doi: 10.21926/jept.2102030 Abstract The Industry 4.0 is here, and advanced technologies are widely available for domains such oil and gas which are traditionally slow in adopting extreme new technologies. This paper presents the design architecture and implementation of effective data acquisition (DAQ) and monitoring system applied to an experimental sucker rod pumpi [...]

Open Access Research Article Numerical Investigation of Pyrotechnical Initiators and Their Impact in Airbag Inflator Applications: Ballistic Modeling and Functional Analysis by Peng Li  , Chi-Yao Chang  and Amsini Sadiki Received: 02 April 2021;  Published: 28 June 2021;  doi: 10.21926/jept.2102026 Abstract A numerical model describing the ballistic behavior of a commercially used initiator is presented in this article. This model was built on the principle of conservation of mass and energy in the multi-phase framework incorporated with multi-loaded