This master thesis deals with the construction of multi-functional machining centre. The theoretical part describes the history of lathes, trends in production of lathes and individual machine parts. The practical part is the structural design of the spindle with positioning in the C axis, the second spindle (including drive in Z axis) and the turret (including drive in the X and Z axis). A 3-D model of the entire lathe assembly modeled in Autodesk Inventor 2010 is also included.

Design of multi-functional machining center The purpose of this diploma thesis is a design of turning table for multi-functional machining center. The first part is the background research of multi-functional machining centers, rotary tables, chip management and brief overview of chosen machining center’s manufacturers. The sphere of using of the designed machine, including parameters of turning table, and its basic parameters are determined on the basis of this research. Afterwards, the variants of turning table drives are drawn up and one variant of calculation and construction is made. Design of clamping desk and chip management of the machine is also made. Above a specified framework of this thesis, simplified machine foundation design and anchoring of machine parts to this basis is performed. The work also includes a 3D model of turning table and substructure. The complete set of constructed machining center was brought into immersion virtual reality environment.

Magister Educationis - MEd / The central aim of this study was to examine the Western Cape Education Department's restructuring process, which entails changing the centralised support service to a more decentralized one through the newly constituted Education Management and Development Centres (EMDCs), in particular, the aim of the study was to explore how one Multi-Functional Team (MFT) in an EMDC structure is attempting to provide more holistic and co-ordinated support to schools. Chapter 1 briefly discusses the South African context, providing a brief historical overview and description of education relevant policy challenges. This chapter also outlines and provides details of the decentralisation process, the challenges of developing an holistic and co-ordinated approach to support, and the research aims, questions and research methodology. In Chapter 2 a literature inter-sectoral collaboration in relation challenges of inter-sectoral to explore the concept of inter This includes an overview of the Chapter 3 provides an overview of the researcn approach,· research design, data collection methods, data processing methods and an ethics methods Chapter 4 provides an analysis and interpretation of data obtained under the categories of analysis provided by the research questions. Chapter 5 provides a summary of the findings as well as recommendations for the improvement of inter-sectoral collaboration within the EMDCs. It also includes a reflection on the research process. The study showed that there is a growing realisation in the EMDCs that services cannot be carried out in isolation and that collaboration, co-operation and co-ordination are necessary for more effective and holistic service delivery. Most of the participants in this study emphasized that services need to be better coordinated and that there was a need for better communication and leadership within the MFT. When asking the question about the difficulties experienced in trying to co-ordinate support services, they said that there is little co-ordination and management within the MFT. Some of the participants said that there is no time for reporting, recording or planning, and most of the time all the role players are not available to attend meetings or discussions. The primary reason given for poor co-ordination was that there was a lack of overall co-ordination in planning projects being run in the EMDC . This study should make a contribution to an understanding of how the EMDC can provide more coordinated and holistic support to schools. It should, among other things, give insight into the challenges of inter-sectoral collaboration and how to address these challenges.

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M. Tech (Department of Accountancy, Faculty of Management Sciences) Vaal University of Technology. / Numerous studies have been conducted to ascertain factors that impact on wealth creation of companies. It has been suggested by various researchers that economic value added (EVA) could be used to measure company wealth creation and a number of factors have been suggested that contribute to wealth creation for company shareholders. The purpose of this study is to determine the company characteristics that influence wealth creation. The study uses EVA, the dependent variable, as a measure of a company’s wealth creation. The company characteristics, independent variables, are operating capital size, capital gearing, export and domestic distribution market segments, sub-sectors and the type of product companies release into the market. Identifying company characteristics that influence wealth creation could enlighten investors on where capital should be directed in order to maximise wealth creation for the companies’ shareholders and the entire economy. Logistic regression analysis models were used to analyse 61 industrial companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock exchange (JSE) for the 10-year period of 2005 to 2014. The use of logistic regression for this analysis was necessitated by the binary nature of the data (EVA positive or negative) and logistic regression analysis is suitable for such binary data. A series of tests were conducted to assess the suitability of logistic regression analysis in evaluating the impact of company characteristics on EVA. The classification accuracy test, which shows the predictive accuracy or the forecast strength of the logistic regression model for this study yielded a forecast strength of the highest of 97.2 percent for 2006 and lowest of 63.2 percent for 2014. The results indicated the appropriateness of the logistic regression model for the study. The data on the EVA of companies were collected from INET-BFA. Other sets of data also obtained from INET-BFA include companies’ volume of operating capital, capital gearing, company product types, distribution channels and sub-sectors to which each company belongs. The historical inflation and exchange rates were also obtained and applied in comparing with EVA. The comparison was to determine if there was any relationship between EVA, exchange rates and inflation. Results of the logistic regression analysis model reveal that the sub-sector factor, capital size factor and capital gearing factor impact on EVA, while market segment and company product type do not impact on EVA. The results show that the sub-sector categories of manufacturing, retail and extraction have significant positive impact on EVA while property management does not impact on EVA. The large capital category of the capital size factor shows significant positive impact on EVA while the medium capital category shows a negative impact on EVA, leaving small capital size having no impact on EVA. The high as well as moderate capital gearing categories of the capital gearing factor show negative impact on EVA, while low gearing shows no impact on EVA. However, some years covered in the study did not have any significant factors. Results of wealth creation evaluation of the industrial companies using EVA as a metric reveals that the industrial companies created more value than was destroyed in terms of EVA. The results show that manufacturing, extraction and retail sub-sectors achieved net positive EVA, while the property management sub-sector achieved net EVA negative in the 10-year period. Furthermore, results of EVA comparison with foreign exchange and inflation rates indicated a relationship between EVA, exchange rate and rate of inflation. The results show that as inflation rises, foreign exchange depreciates, while EVA performance of companies drops during the same period. Findings and recommendations of this study are important to company managers as they offer crucial information regarding the types of activities organisations could engage in and for investors to consider the types of businesses in which to invest. The findings are also important in suggesting how companies could organise their capital structure as well as the size of the capital in order to optimise wealth creation. Such considerations by company managers and investors alike would help to increase wealth creation within the economic system. This study made use of five company characteristics, which were stated into various categories. Additional company characteristics should be used in a further study to identify other company attributes that may impact on EVA. There is also the need to carry out further studies using other methods to find out if different results could be achieved. In addition, a study is recommended to establish why no significant factor was identified in some of the years.

Suretyships given in favour of banks are being challenged in the courts on the basis of equitable doctrines of unconscionable conduct, undue influence, or statutory provisions dealing with unfair conduct or unfair contract terms. This thesis is an enquiry into a bank's duties of disclosure or advice to an intending surety. Such an investigation also necessitates a study of the relationship between banker and customer, as the surety is quite often a customer of the bank as well, and, as a surety's obligation to the bank is an accessory obligation, the obligation is dependent on a valid principal obligation between the bank and the principal debtor - the customer. The face of modern banking has, however, changed dramatically and most major banks have become multi-functional. As a result, the banker-customer relationship may often be seen as a fiduciary relationship. A major problem brought about my multi-functioning banks is that of conflicts of interest between the bank and its customer. Furthermore, the banker-customer relationship is providing much more scope for lender liability than in the past. Various factors are currently having an impact on the law of contract, and this is expected to affect the legal policy makers in their assessments of whether a duty of disclosure of material facts exits or not. A surety has long been a favoured debtor in the eyes of the law, and the courts have developed a plethora of technical principles on which a surety can be relieved of his obligation. The escape routes of the surety, especially if he is a consumer as well, on the new grounds of public policy, unconscionability, good faith or unreasonableness, are growing. The results of these trends is the expected demise of suretyship as an acceptable, cheap form of debt security in the banking sector. / Jurisprudence / LL.D.

Swarm robotics is the study of developing and controlling large groups of robots. Collectives of robots possess advantages over single robots such as being robust to mission failures due to single-robot errors. Experimental research in swarm robotics is currently limited by swarm robotic technology. Current swarm robotic systems are either small groups of sophisticated robots or large groups of simple robots due to manufacturing overhead, functionality-cost dependencies, and their need to avoid collisions, amongst others. It is therefore useful to develop a swarm robotic system that is easy to manufacture, that utilises its sensors beyond standard usage, and that allows for physical interactions. In this work, I introduce a new type of low-friction locomotion and show its first implementation in the HoverBot system. The HoverBot system consists of an air-levitation and magnet table, and a HoverBot agent. HoverBots are levitating circuit boards which are equipped with an array of planar coils and a Hall-effect sensor. HoverBot uses its coils to pull itself towards magnetic anchors that are embedded into a levitation table. These robots consist of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), surface mount components, and a battery. HoverBots are easily manufacturable, robots can be ordered populated; the assembly consists of plugging in a battery to a robot. I demonstrate how HoverBot's low-cost hardware can be used beyond its standard functionality. HoverBot's magnetic field readouts from its Hall-effect sensor can be associated with successful movement, robot rotation and collision measurands. I build a time series classifier based on these magnetic field readouts, I modify and apply signal processing techniques to enable the online classification of the time-variant magnetic field measurements on HoverBot's low-cost microcontroller. This method allows HoverBot to detect rotations, successful movements, and collisions by utilising readouts from its single Hall-effect sensor. I discuss how this classification method could be applied to other sensors and demonstrate how HoverBots can utilise their classifier to create an occupancy grid map. HoverBots use their multi-functional sensing capabilities to determine whether they moved successfully or collided with a static object to map their environment. HoverBots execute an "explore-and-return-to-nest" strategy to deal with their sensor and locomotion noise. Each robot is assigned to a nest (landmark); robots leave their nests, move n steps, return and share their observations. Over time, a group of four HoverBots collectively builds a probabilistic belief over its environment. In summary, I build manufacturable swarm robots that detect collisions through a time series classifier and map their environment by colliding with their surroundings. My work on swarm robotic technology pushes swarm robotics research towards studies on collision-dependent behaviours, a research niche that has been barely studied. Collision events occur more often in dense areas and/or large groups, circumstances that swarm robots experience. Large groups of robots with collision-dependent behaviours could become a research tool to help invent and test novel distributed algorithms, to understand the dependencies between local to global (emergent) behaviours and more generally the science of complex systems. Such studies could become tremendously useful for the execution of large-scale swarm applications such as the search and rescue of survivors after a natural disaster.

Cette thèse propose d’analyser dans la métropole de Lima les réponses des producteurs agropastoraux de la ville face aux renouvellements des fonctions de l’agriculture urbaine. Dans un contexte de forte pression métropolitaine, la capitale péruvienne –incarnée par les autorités, les consommateurs, les citadins- fait preuve d’une attitude ambivalente en ce qui concerne l’activité agricole en ville : entre désintérêt et formulation de nouvelles attentes. Dans une démarche au carrefour de la géographie sociale, de l’étude des relations villes-campagnes et de la place de la nature en ville, la recherche s’attache à identifier les capacités des producteurs –en termes de moyens disponibles et de pratiques– à répondre à des demandes toujours plus complexes, allant de l’engouement pour une consommation locale, en passant par les loisirs, aux exigences de la durabilité urbaine, et émanant d’acteurs extérieurs à l’activité, aussi bien des habitants que des instances internationales.Les attentes autour d’une agriculture de proximité dépassent la seule fonction alimentaire pour intégrer des problématiques d’aménagement du territoire urbain et de création d’espaces de sociabilité par et pour les citadins. Ces attentes impliquent une transformation des espaces agropastoraux des périphéries, et la création de nouveaux territoires agricoles au sein du tissu urbain.Nous analysons d’une part les pratiques des producteurs liméniens et leurs rapports distendus à la ville ; et d’autre part la manière dont ces mêmes acteurs s’approprient les attentes citadines et leurs conséquences sur la construction territoriale métropolitaine. La tension entre les producteurs et la ville, mais également entre les producteurs et les attentes des acteurs urbains permet de mettre en lumière la mise en place de rapports de pouvoir inégaux. / This thesis draws on fieldwork conducted in Greater Lima, Peru, to examine how the city’s farmers have responded to recent changes in the role ascribed to urban agriculture. Amidst a context of severe urban pressure, the metropolis has shown an ambivalent attitude towards agricultural activities, with a norm of indifference stirred to a certain degree of interest as new expectations arise. This investigation is based on an approach that stands at the crossroads of social geography, research into relationships between urban and rural frames of reference, and examination of the natural world’s place within the city environment, in order to characterize the strategies available to farmers – in line with their material resources and traditional or innovative practices – to meet the increasingly complex demands of the city, imposed by other stakeholders: both residents and international bodies now see urban agriculture as a means of responding to the growing significance of urban sustainability. Expectations for local agriculture transcend the function of food production, expanding to include urban planning issues and the creation of spaces for social interaction by and for the city’s inhabitants. These multifaceted objectives demand the transformation of farmland areas located around the outskirts, and the creation of new agricultural spaces within the fabric of the city. This study first addresses the current practices of Lima’s farmers and their weak linkages with the city, before going on to analyze how they have adapted to the expectations placed on them, and resultant effects on both the manner in which urban land is conceptualized and the ways in which unequal power balances can emerge. Municipal policies aspire to integrate the city’s agriculture with urban planning and residents’ quality of life, and must therefore be designed and assessed taking into account local stakeholders’ personal experiences and specific characteristics. / A partir del caso de la ciudad de Lima, esta tesis se interesa en las repuestas de los productores agropecuarios de la ciudad frente a la reestructuración de funciones de la agricultura urbana: en un contexto de fuertes presiones de la ciudad, la capital peruana muestra una actitud ambivalente en lo que se refiere a la actividad agropecuaria, entre la indiferencia y la formulación de nuevas necesidades. Siguiendo una línea reflexiva que combina la geografía social, el estudio de las relaciones ciudad-campo y el rol de la naturaleza en la ciudad; la investigación se centra en identificar las capacidades de los productores – en términos de recursos disponibles y de prácticas – para cumplir demandas urbanas cada vez más complejas, que provienen de actores externos a la actividad (tanto de los habitantes como de organizaciones internacionales que ven en la agricultura urbana una repuesta a la exigencia de la sostenibilidad urbana). Las expectativas alrededor de una agricultura de proximidad van más allá de su función de producir alimentos al integrar las problemáticas relacionadas al ordenamiento del territorio urbano y a la creación de espacios de sociabilidad por y para los habitantes de la ciudad. Estas expectativas implican una transformación de los espacios agropecuarios ubicados en las periferias, y la creación de nuevos territorios agrícolas dentro de la mancha urbana. De un lado, analizamos las prácticas de los productores limeños y sus vínculos débiles con la ciudad; y de otro lado, estudiamos las apropiaciones de las demandas de los productores et las consecuencias en la construcción territorial metropolitana así como en la creación de relaciones de poderes desiguales. Las políticas públicas de la ciudad aspiran a una integración de la agricultura urbana con el ordenamiento territorial urbano y la calidad de vida de los habitantes, por lo que no pueden ser pensadas sin tomar en cuenta las historias y las particularidades de los actores locales.

Les alliages NiMnSb, matériaux multifonctionnels nouveaux, ont attiré une attention en raison de leurs multiples propriétés, telles que l'effet de mémoire de forme, magnétocalorique, de biais d'échange, de magnétorésistance. Jusqu'à présent, de nombreux aspects des NiMnSb, tels que structure cristalline, microstructure, propriétés magnétiques et mécaniques ont été étudiés. Cependant, de nombreuses questions fondamentales de ces matériaux n'ont pas été entièrement révélées, ce qui limite leur développement. Une étude a été menée sur les alliages ternaires NiMnSb en termes de structures cristallines de l'austénite et de la martensite; Caractéristiques microstructurales et cristallographiques de la martensite; La relation d'orientation (OR) de transformation martensitique et sa corrélation avec l'organisation des variantes; Les caractéristiques de déformation de la transformation et l'autoaccommodation de la déformation de transformation. Le travail a confirmé que l'austénite possède une structure cristalline L21 cubique, groupe spatial Fm3m (No. 225). La martensite a une structure orthorhombique modulée (4O) à quatre couches, groupe spatial Pmma (No. 051). Les constantes de réseau de martensite de Ni50Mn37Sb13 et Ni50Mn38Sb12 sont aM = 8.5830 Å, bM = 5.6533 Å et cM = 4.3501 Å, et aM = 8.5788 Å, bM = 5.6443 Å et cM = 4.3479 Å. La microstructure de la martensite 4O NiMnSb modulée possède une caractéristique d'organisation hiérarchique. Les lamelles fines de martensite sont d'abord organisées en larges plaques. Chaque plaque possède 4 variantes apparentées aux jumeaux A, B, C et D formant des jumeaux de type I (A et C, B et D), de type II (A et B, C et D) et des macles composées (A et D; B et C). Les interfaces des variantes sont définies par les plans de maclage correspondants. Les éléments de maclage sont entièrement déterminés pour chaque relation de maclage. Les plaques sont ensuite organisées en sous-colonies et les sous-colonies en colonies de plaques. Les plaques voisines d'une sous-colonie et d'une colonie de plaques partagent une interface de plaque commune. Des colonies de plaques avec différentes interfaces de plaques ayant différentes orientations occupent finalement l'ensemble du grain d'austénite original. La OR de Pitsch, spécifiée comme {011}A // {221}M et <011>A // <122>M, est l'OR effective entre l'austénite cubique et la martensite 4O modulée. Sous cette OR, un maximum de 24 variantes distinctes peut être produit. Les 24 variantes sont organisées en 6 colonies de variantes distinctes, 12 sous-colonies distinctes et enfin 6 colonies de plaques distinctes. Le plan de maclage de type I et les interfaces intra-plaques correspondent tous à la même famille de plans {011}A de austénite. La formation des colonies de variantes martensitiques peut être à la fois intragranulaire et intergranulaire pendant la transformation de phase La colonie de variantes structurée en sandwich est l'unité micro-structurale de base de la martensite. Cette structure est composée de variantes de relation macles et possède des interfaces de variantes internes totalement compatibles et les plans d'habitat invariants. Les caractéristiques de déformation des variants en relation de macles conduisent à la fraction de volume élevée de macles de type II et affecte la morphologie des colonies en sandwich. La structure en forme de coin est composée de deux sandwichs compatibles et reliés par un plan de nervure médiane avec une petite incompatibilité atomique. Tous ces résultats indiquent que la transformation martensitique est autoaccommodée et la microstructure est déterminée par l'auto-accommodation des constituants microstructuraux. Ce travail vise à fournir des informations cristallographiques et micro-structurales fondamentales des alliages NiMnSb pour l'interprétation de leurs caractéristiques magnétiques et mécaniques associées à la transformation martensitique et des recherches complémentaires sur l'optimisation des propriétés / NiMnSb based Heusler type alloys, as a novel multi-functional material has attracted considerable attention due to their multiple properties, such as magnetic shape memory effect, magnetocaloric effect, exchange bias effect, magnetoresistance effect. To date, many aspects of the NiMnSb alloys, such as crystal structure, microstructure, magnetic properties and mechanical properties etc., have been widely investigated. However, many fundamental issues of this family of materials have not been fully revealed, which largely restricts the development of this new kind of multi-functional materials. In the present work, a thorough investigation has been conducted on ternary NiMnSb alloys in terms of crystal structures of austenite and martensite; microstructural and crystallographic features of martensite; martensitic transformation orientation relationship (OR) and its correlation with variant organization; transformation deformation characteristics and self-accommodation of transformation strain. The work confirmed that the austenite of NiMnSb alloys possesses a cubic L21 crystal structure belonging to the space group Fm3m (No. 225). The martensite has a four-layered orthorhombic (4O) structure with space group Pmma (No. 051). The lattice constants of the Ni50Mn37Sb13 and Ni50Mn38Sb12 martensite are aM = 8.5830 Å, bM = 5.6533 Å and cM = 4.3501Å, and aM = 8.5788 Å, bM = 5.6443 Å and cM = 4.3479 Å, respectively. The microstructure of the 4O NiMnSb modulated martensite possesses a hierarchical organization feature. Martensite fine lamellae are first organized into broad plates. Each plate possesses 4 distinct twin related variants A, B, C and D forming type I twins (A and C; B and D), type II twins (A and B; C and D) and compound twins (A and D; B and C). The variant interfaces are defined by the corresponding twinning planes. The complete twinning elements for each twin relation are fully determined. The plates are further organized into sub-colonies and sub-colonies into plate colonies. The neighboring plates in one sub-colony and plate colony share one common plate interface orientation. Plate colonies with different oriented plate interfaces finally take the whole original austenite grain. The Pitsch OR, specified as {011}A // {221}M and <011>A // <122>M, is the effective OR between the cubic austenite and the 4O modulated martensite. Under this OR, a maximum of 24 distinct variants can be produced. The 24 variants are organized into 6 distinct variant colonies, 12 distinct sub-colonies and finally 6 distinct plate colonies. The twinning plane of type I twin and the intra-plate plate interfaces all correspond to the same family of {011}A planes of austenite. The formation of martensite variant colonies can be both form intragranular and intergranular during the phase transformation. The sandwich structured variant colony is the basic microstructural unit of the martensite. This structure is composed of twin related variants and possesses the full compatible inner variants interfaces and invariant habit planes. The deformation manner of the twin related variants result in the high occurrence frequency of the type II twins and affects the morphology of the sandwich colonies. The wedge-shaped structure is composed of two compatible sandwiches and conjoined by a midrib plane with a small atomic misfit. All these results indicate that the martensitic transformation is self-accommodated and the microstructure is determined by the self-accommodation of the microstructural constituents. The aim of this work is to provide fundamental crystallographic and microstructural information of NiMnSb alloys for interpreting their magnetic and mechanical characteristics associated with the martensitic transformation and further investigations on property optimization

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:14:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 61080100012.pdf: 349585 bytes, checksum: c166ddca584efaa59fe8373e748ad30e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-24T00:00:00Z / Através de um estudo de caso, este trabalho apresenta evidências empíricas que reforçam e ampliam as descobertas de trabalhos anteriores sobre as contribuições dos modelos 3D digitais no processo de inovação tecnológica de uma empresa da indústria de manufatura, e oferece contribuições para a academia e para a prática. A inovação tecnológica é um dos fatores essenciais da competição e do desenvolvimento industrial. Na medida em que as mudanças tecnológicas ocorrem em complexidade e ritmo crescentes, as empresas têm procurado aumentar a flexibilidade e a velocidade de suas atividades através de sofisticados sistemas de tecnologia de informação e de comunicações. Na indústria de manufatura, os modelos 3D digitais têm sido cada vez mais utilizados ao longo do ciclo de vida dos produtos das empresas e a sua difusão não apenas tornou-os elementos chave para o processo de inovação tecnológica, mas a sua adoção está forçando muitas empresas a rever a forma como elas conduzem e gerenciam suas atividades de inovação. / Through a case study, this work presents empiric evidences proving and enlarging the discoveries of previous works about the contributions of 3D digital models to the technological innovation process of manufacturing industry. It also contributes to the academy and to the practice. The technological innovation is one of the essential factors of competition and industrial development. As technological changes happen in growing flexibility and rhythm, the organizations have been trying to increase the flexibility and the speed of its activities through sophisticated information technologies and communication systems. In the manufacturing industry, the 3D digital models have been used more and more along the product life cycles of the organizations and their diffusion didn’t just turn them into key elements to the technological innovation process: their adoption is also forcing many organizations to review the way they conduct and manage their innovation activities.