Czochralski (CZ) process modification with cooling tube in the response to market Global silicon shortage

Recently, the silicon wafer producers, affected by Covid-19 and USA-China competition, looks for new production processes to increase the production. On the other hand, the common parts of CZ puller such as heater, crucible and thermal shield are optimized over time and now the common CZ process is reached to limitation for further improvement. Here, we propose a modified CZ method by adding a cooling tube into the growth zone. The new proposed Cz method is applied to the 8″ crystal growth process. A fully 3D transition model including energy equation, Navier–Stokes equation, surface-to-surface radiation heat transfer, moving mesh and thermal stress equations is implemented. The simulation is performed for both original and new CZ method. It was proved that the new CZ method increases the pulling speed up to 25 %. To ensure about the crystal quality, the thermal stress is compared between original and new proposed CZ method. Although it was found that the thermal stress increases about twice but still the maximum von Mises stress never exceeds the critical value 25 MPa. Additionally, the power consumption is also found to enhance maximum 2 kW under new conditions. To evaluate the model the interface and heater power for the original CZ puller is compared with industrial CZ process and it shows acceptable accuracy. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Research progress on circular RNA vaccines.

Owing to the success of linear mRNA coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, biopharmaceutical companies and research teams worldwide have attempted to develop more stable circular RNA (circRNA) vaccines and have achieved some preliminary results. This review aims to summarize key findings and important progress made in circRNA research, the in vivo metabolism and biological functions of circRNAs, and research progress and production process of circRNA vaccines. Further, considerations regarding the quality control of circRNA vaccines are highlighted herein, and the main challenges and problem-solving strategies in circRNA vaccine development and quality control are outlined to provide a reference for circRNA vaccine-related research.

Incentives to Enhance Production Reliability against Disruption: Cost-Sharing vs. Penalty

Two kinds of incentive strategies, cost-sharing and penalty, are examined in dealing with production disruption, with consideration of production process reliability as an endogenous factor for a two-echelon supply chain. Based on the Stackelberg game framework, we derive the optimal decisions of supply chain partners and compare their expected profits with different strategies. Considering the uncertain demand and the retailer’s preference against the risk, we further analyze how the partners’ decisions and the retailer’s expected profit are influenced by the feature of loss aversion. From theoretical analysis and numerical experiments, we find that: (1) overall, a penalty strategy dominates that of cost-sharing for the retailer, whereas the reverse applies with respect to the manufacturer;(2) a penalty strategy may outperform a cost-sharing strategy for the whole supply chain, depending on demand;and (3) a reasonable aversion against risk can help the retailer to achieve a more robust result when a penalty strategy is adopted under volatile and unpredictable demand.

A Remote Laboratory for Teaching Internet of Things in Online Education

Like almost in every field, application and design of IoT is also important in mechanical enginering for construction of automated machines, production lines and process plants. Education of engineers has to follow this trend. A new course on this field was established and had to be organised online according to Covid pandemic restrictions. The challenge to enable online programming exercises on an embedded system, where students at home control some process hardware over the internet, had to be solved. In this work, a solution is presented. Three communication paths were used, one was an office communication platform for creating a virtual classroom. Furthermore a server providing command line interfaces for communication of the programmers with the target hardware was established. Finally, an external MQTT broker was used for data exchange of the controller hardware with an application running on the PC. A low-cost hardware was contructed to provide a realistic thermal process. About twenty students completed the course with good results. © 2022 IEEE.

Emerging Technologies: Facilitating Resilient and Sustainable Manufacturing

In the global manufacturing business, more sustainable solutions are needed, and in parallel manufacturing companies also need a capability to react quickly to unpredictable changes in a highly competitive marketplace. This has become more visible at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when many companies experienced manufacturing constraints such as a shortage of raw materials as well as a need for transformation of manufacturing facilities to produce vital items. In parallel, many manufacturing companies also are in the transition towards more digitalization as well as automation in their facilities, which can contribute to the capability to manage unpredictable changes, but it might also contribute to challenges. Therefore, the digital transformation of production processes with innovative and emerging technologies, and the contribution and challenges of these technologies are of importance to understand. Specifically, in which way these emerging technologies contribute to a resilient and sustainable production process from a technological perspective, and how these production processes might contribute to achieving sustainability goals. Based on findings from literature an analysis is performed aiming to explore the emerging technologies perspective in relation to capabilities as well as challenges regarding implementing solutions that contributes to a resilient and sustainable production process. The overall findings indicated the importance of having flexible production facilities to be able to respond to customer expectations. However, the digital transformation of production facilities demonstrated other challenges such as energy consumption, lack of skilled personal, low level of standardization, financial sources, and security problems. To conclude, the relationship between the content of resilient and sustainable production systems that are influenced by emerging technologies are suggested, with the ambition to contribute to a more competitive manufacturing company that increase its capability to manage customer expectations. © 2022 The authors and IOS Press.

POTENTIAL SCENARIOS FOR OVERCOMING THE COVID-19 CRISIS IN FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS IN LATVIA

The Covid-19 pandemic has produced another era on the planet while we sort out the outcomes in various parts of our everyday life. The food sector and food supply chain do not incorporate an exception. In Latvia, the agricultural and food sector is important for the national economy;therefore, it is important that production, processing, logistics, supply and trade disruptions are successfully overcome during the pandemic and the food sector develops rapidly after the crisis and is more resilient in the future. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to examine potential scenarios for overcoming the crisis in food supply chains with the aim of promoting sectoral development and resilience after Covid-19 crisis in Latvia. The research identified two key drivers of food supply chains during the crisis and post-crisis period: 1) market demand for a particular product;2) capability to ensure the production process is uninterrupted, with the availability and sufficiency of individuals/employees at all stages of the food supply chain. Any case of Covid-19 in a company could lead to production interruptions, thereby causing losses to the company and affecting the market situation. The research developed four scenarios for food supply chains for the crisis and post-crisis period, gave descriptions of the scenarios for key food sector segments and found that the scenarios and the resilience of the food sector during the post-crisis period were determined by the duration of the crisis. © 2021 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference. All rights reserved.

Formaldehyde Levels in Fabrics on the Ghanaian Market

Background: Formaldehyde is a chemical used in several textile production processes, such as hardening of fibers and antimold finishing. However, it has varying effects on humans, such as irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, wheezing, chest pains and bronchitis. In the midst of COVID-19, individuals are using various fabrics for face mask production, which may be containing levels of formaldehyde that can negatively affect their health. Methods: This study investigated formaldehyde levels in fabrics on the Ghanaian market to determine compliance to standards set by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) with the aid of experimental procedures. Thirty-two (32) different brands of fabrics were selected for the investigation. Formaldehyde levels were determined using a spectrophotometer (DR6000). Data were analyzed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) for Windows version 22. The mean performance attributes and the formaldehyde levels of the sampled fabrics were determined before and after washing. Inferential statistics (Analysis of Variance and Paired Samples t-test) at 0.05 alpha levels were used to determine significant differences between and among the groups involved. Results: The fabric samples tested positive for formaldehyde before and after washing, with some exceeding the standard limits set by the GSA before washing. Significant differences existed between and among the samples with regard to formaldehyde levels as well as weight and weave types of the samples and formaldehyde levels. Conclusion: Washing significantly reduced the formaldehyde levels in the fabrics. It is recommended that Ghana Standards Authority takes a further look at the fabrics on the Ghanaian market to ensure manufacturers comply with set standards and consumers are also advised to wash their clothes at least once before use to reduce the level of impact formaldehyde resin may have on them. © 2022 Bentham Science Publishers.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING IN THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

Problems of planning, management and optimal use of available human resources in the production process are very important for rational business management. The training of workers to service more jobs or vast number of machines with the aim of reducing the number of workers in the production process, thus balancing the workload, is an economic imperative. With the COVID 19 pandemic, the problem of reducing the number of workers in the production plant became even more notable. This paper presents a mathematical model for human resource planning. The application of the model was examined on the work potential, in terms of the interdisciplinarity of individuals, in the production system. © 2021 Danube Adria Association for Automation and Manufacturing, DAAAM. All rights reserved.

BioSecure Digital Twin: Manufacturing Innovation and Cybersecurity Resilience

U.S. national security, prosperity, economy, and well-being require secure, flexible, and resilient Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing. The COVID-19 pandemic reaffirmed that the biomedical production value-chain is vulnerable to disruption and has been under attack from sophisticated nation-state adversaries. Current cyber defenses are inadequate, and the integrity of critical production systems and processes are inherently vulnerable to cyber-attacks, human error, and supply chain disruptions. The following chapter explores how a BioSecure Digital Twin will improve U.S. manufacturing resilience and preparedness to respond to these hazards by significantly improving monitoring, integrity, security, and agility of our manufacturing infrastructure and systems. The BioSecure Digital Twin combines a scalable manufacturing framework with a robust platform for monitoring and control to increase U.S. biopharma manufacturing resilience. Then, the chapter discusses some of the inherent vulnerabilities and challenges at the nexus of health and advanced manufacturing. Next, the chapter highlights that as the Pandemic evolves, we need agility and resilience to overcome significant obstacles. This section highlights an innovative application of Cyber Informed Engineering to developing and deploying a BioSecure Digital Twin to improve the resilience and security of the biopharma industrial supply chain and production processes. Finally, the chapter concludes with a process framework to complement the Digital Twin platform, called the Biopharma (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) OODA Loop Framework (BOLF), a four-step approach to decision-making outputs from the Digital Twin. The BOLF will help end users leverage twin technology by distilling the available information, focusing the data on context, and rapidly making the best decision while remaining cognizant of changes that can be made as more data becomes available. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Resources, Production Scales and Time Required for Producing RNA Vaccines for the Global Pandemic Demand.

To overcome pandemics, such as COVID-19, vaccines are urgently needed at very high volumes. Here we assess the techno-economic feasibility of producing RNA vaccines for the demand associated with a global vaccination campaign. Production process performance is assessed for three messenger RNA (mRNA) and one self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vaccines, all currently under clinical development, as well as for a hypothetical next-generation saRNA vaccine. The impact of key process design and operation uncertainties on the performance of the production process was assessed. The RNA vaccine drug substance (DS) production rates, volumes and costs are mostly impacted by the RNA amount per vaccine dose and to a lesser extent by the scale and titre in the production process. The resources, production scale and speed required to meet global demand vary substantially in function of the RNA amount per dose. For lower dose saRNA vaccines, global demand can be met using a production process at a scale of below 10 L bioreactor working volume. Consequently, these small-scale processes require a low amount of resources to set up and operate. RNA DS production can be faster than fill-to-finish into multidose vials; hence the latter may constitute a bottleneck.