Electron beam welding is used for fabricating critical components for the aerospace and nuclear industries which demand high quality. The cost of materials and associated processes of fabrication is also very high. Therefore, manufacturing processes in these industries are highly controlled. However, it has been found that even minor changes in the electron beam gun itself can produce large variations in beam characteristics, leading to unpredictable welding performance. Hence, it is very important to ensure the beam quality prior to carrying out welds. This requires some kind of device and process to characterise the electron beam to indicate variations. A detailed review of different technologies used to develop devices to characterise electron beams has been carried out. At this time, it is uncommon for beam measurement to be carried out on production EBW equipment. Research carried out for this thesis is focused on development of a novel approach to characterise the electron beams using a slit-probe to maintain the quality of the welds. The challenge lies in deriving relevant features from the acquired probe signal which can effectively differentiate between the beams of different quality. Wavelet transformation, with its advantages over other methods for simultaneous time and frequency localization of signals, has found its application to feature extraction in many pattern based classifications. This technique has been used to analyse probe signals considering that different quality beams will possess unique signal profiles in the form of their distribution of energies with respect to frequency and time. To achieve the aim of the thesis, an experimental approach was used by carrying out melt runs on Ti-6Al-4V plates focusing on aerospace requirements, and varying beam properties and acquiring probe signals for all beam settings. Extracted features from the probe signals have been used in classification of the electron beams to ensure these will produce welds within the tolerance limits specified by aerospace standards for quality assurance. The features vector was compiled following statistical analysis to find the significant beam characteristics. By analysing the performance of classifier for different combination of parameters of the features vector, the optimum classification rate of 89.8% was achieved by using the parameters derived from wavelet coefficients for different decomposition levels. This work showed that the use of wavelet analysis and classification using features vectors enabled identification of beams that would produce welds out-of-tolerance. Keywords: Electron beam welding, probe devices, electron beam characterisation, quality assurance, wavelet transform, features vector, linear discriminant classifier, weld profiles, weld defects.

O acirramento da competição entre as empresas produtoras de tratores agrícolas tem levado ao aumento da exportação de produtos e a consequente necessidade da manutenção dos níveis de qualidade destes produtos. Os custos relativos ao retrabalho em tratores exportados para os mercados externos é um dos problemas enfrentados pelas empresas manufatureiras de máquinas agrícolas. Dentre as principais causas geradoras de retrabalho estão os problemas gerados pelo manuseio destes tratores quando transportados de um país para outro. No caso das máquinas exportadas para o mercado norte-americano este problema se torna ainda mais oneroso, uma vez que os custos de mão-de-obra naquele mercado são bastante elevados. Tendo em vista reduzir a níveis mínimos os custos com retrabalho, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar comparativamente duas propostas para o processo logístico de processamento de tratores nos portos norteamericanos. Desta forma decidiu-se comparar a proposta atual com uma proposta alternativa adotada pela indústria automobilística. Esta proposta envolve a utilização de VPC (vehicle processing center) que são centros de processamento de veículos com preparação completa das unidades para serem entregues às revendas. Desse modo a solução adotada pelo mercado automobilístico foi analisada para efeito de utilização na indústria de tratores através da consideração dos ganhos relativos à eliminação da perda de qualidade quando em comparação ao processo atual. De posse dos resultados desta análise foi concluído que a utilização da solução alternativa gera ganhos de qualidade, os quais foram quantificados em valores monetários. / The increasing competition among companies that produce agricultural tractors, has led to the increase in the export of products and the consequent need for maintenance of quality levels for these products Costs due to rework in exported tractors for foreign markets is one of the problems faced by agricultural machinery manufacturers. Problems generated by tractor handling when shipped from one country to another are among the main causes that produce rework. In the case of machines exported to the North American market the problem becomes even more costly, once labor costs are extremely high in that market. In order to reduce the cost of rework to a minimum level, this study had the target of analyzing comparatively two proposals for the logistic process of handling tractors at North American ports. Therefore, it was decided to compare the current proposal to an alternate proposal in use by the automobile industry. This solution involves the use of VPC (Vehicle Processing Center), with a complete preparation of units so as to be delivered to dealers. Therefore the solution adopted by the automobile industry was analyzed so as to be used by the tractor industry, by means of taking in consideration the gains related to the elimination of quality loss when compared to the current process in use. By use of the results it was inferred that the use of the alternative solution generates quality advantages, which were quantified in monetary values.

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Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration in Project Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / The nuclear industry has established stringent controls to ensure that electricity is produced in a safe and reliable manner. It is expected that a nuclear power plant should be operated safely, adheres to processes and procedures that govern those safe operations, and implements projects or modifications that are of a high quality; and this would be considered as ‘business as usual’. This is crucial for an industry that is under constant scrutiny, since every project or modification, which is implemented, is critically judged. One important contributing factor to the successful operation of any nuclear power plant is the implementation of projects and modifications in accordance with respective nuclear codes and standards, specifications, processes and procedures. The industry demands that this should be a norm, as quality is synonymous with safety and reliability; factors that cannot be compromised or divorced from each other on a nuclear power plant. Recently, however, there has been great concern relating to non-conformances experienced throughout the project lifecycle, which ultimately affects the quality of modifications and projects, which are implemented at the plant. The research project investigates factors that affect project quality at a nuclear power plant in South Africa. Against the above backdrop, the research problem was “the delivery of poor quality projects have an adverse effect on modifications and projects, which are implemented at the nuclear power plant in South Africa”. The primary research objectives of this study are the following: · To investigate the root cause and impact of inconsistent project quality practices on the project lifecycle; and · To recommend measures that should be established to improve the way in which project quality is conducted throughout the project lifecycle.