History of Manufacturing Engineering
The history of manufacturing engineering can be raced back to the 19TH century in the United States and to 18TH century in the United Kingdom when home based mass production gained roots in the industrial productions in the two countries. However, many historic scholars view Matthew Boulton Soho`s manufactory that was established in Birmingham in 1761 as the beginning of the modern production firms. There are similar claims attributed to John Lombe`s silk mill that was constructed in 1721 at Derby or 1771 Cromford mill done by Richard Arkwright (In Quickenden, In Baggott & In Dick, 2013).
Significant contribution towards the manufacturing engineering was introduced by Henry Ford in the United States in a venture that led to consumerism. He introduced mass production and process segregation that resulted to low cost of production and decreased pricing of the finished products. The first universities to offer manufacturing engineering course can be inferred from the revolution established by Ford or from the creation of the manufacturing engineering society that was formed in 1932. Auburn university, the University of Texas Pan American, United States Military Academy, University of California, University of Michigan, and Stanford University. The courses offered takes about four to six years and the students wishing to join the society for manufacturing engineers must spend four years in practical application to qualify. The students are also required to take professional exams, one after completion of the college degree and one course after two years of practical application McKinstry, 1997).
Latest Innovations in Manufacturing Engineering
Manufacturing engineering is a discipline that is open to continuous improvement as the engineers engage in innovative research and development for better production methods and improved products. In the recent past, many innovative ideas have been introduced in the manufacturing engineering with significant improvement to the production processes and improved products. Among the most notable ones are the robotic insects, fiber lasers, and biomimicry.
Robotic Insects
The research in the robotic insects has been taking place for more than a decade in the Harvard University. The researchers in the University have been developing small flying robots with funds from US defense advanced research projects agency. The agency wished to acquire stealth surveillance products for the use in the battle fields and in the city settings. The technology was developed from the inspiration of a fly. The earlier developments were focused on making the robot fly that was achieved in 2007. However, the forward movement of the robot needed to be guided form the ground as the guidance system could not be incorporated in the model. The challenges of the forward flight were addressed by a group of researchers comprising of various disciplines such as material scientists, biologists, vision experts, and electric engineers. In the year 2012, the challenges were overcome and the first robotic insect code named RoboBee took its first controlled effect. The robotic insects will be used for stealth surveillance, search and rescue mission, as well as in artificial pollination (Sabine, 2013).
Fiber Lasers
One of the recent developments in the manufacturing engineering was the innovation and continued development of the fiber lasers. Fiber lasers were introduced in the manufacturing industry in the year 2002. LPG Photonics introduced the technology. Since its introduction, many manufacturing enterprises have adopted and benefited from the technology for increasing efficiency and accuracy in the production processes. Traditional cutting and welding industries have adopted the laser technology rapidly and it has revolutionized the industry. The fundamental applications of the laser has made it endeared to the consumers because they produce lasers at affordable costs per watt, offer quality beams, have the minimal electricity consumption, and are easy to maintain. The lightweight lasers are easy to install because they do not require special installation features such as required by solid-state lasers. The lasers are extensively used in the welding, medical devices, battery, cell phones, computers, and consumer product manufacturers (Bill, 2016).
Biomimicry
Biomimicry is an innovation that was introduced in the manufacturing engineering in the year 2011. The Times Magazine named it among the best 50 innovations of the year 2011. The technology looks into nature for its inspiration. It entails taking the best ideas to create processes and designs, resulting to stronger, lighter, efficient and suitable products. Biomimicry is the innovation behind many manufacturing products and equipments such as strong materials and coatings inspired through abalone, synthetic gecko tapes, nanophotonic crystal coloration, and synthetic leaves that trap solar energy. The design was introduced in 2011 (Sme.org, 2013).
Biomimicry is simply observing nature to get inspiration for ideas. The best ideas are then used to inspire designs of processes as well as products that can better in efficiency, or stronger, or just exhibit better sustainability. Nature can thus be thought of as the ultimate engineer. Biomimicry has inspired generations of innovators including those that developed synthetic gecko tape, durable coatings as well as materials that are inspired by things like abalone and coloration using nanophotonic crystals that is undoubtedly inspired by peacock.
Latest Innovations in Petroleum Engineering
Nanotechnologies
The technology employs organic and inorganic hybrids in the manufacture of gels and surface active agents for use in the industrial applications. The technology produces surfactants that can be modified to serve the diverse metal qualities by use as coating materials that prevent corrosion in adverse industrial conditions. Nanotechnologies were introduced in the petroleum industry in 1986, and its use has increased rapidly for the production of coating materials. K Eric Dexler produced the advance works in his Ph.D works in 1991 (Parreiras & De S, 2015).
Use of Microorganisms in oil Extraction
Although the technology has not been fully effected, manufacturing engineers are considering possible ways if employing organisms to bring out the oil in the oil fields. The use of insects to flush oil is a farfetched idea but scientifically applicable and could save the industry billions of shillings in mining costs. Microorganisms can lubricate the oil tunnels or help in breaking it to simpler and easily flowing liquids. DuPont and the Energy Bioscience Institute is the leading researcher in the project (Antonio, 2016).
The technology is yet to be introduced to the market but it is believed once the preliminary researches are done, the use of microorganisms in the oil fields and wells will form a critical improvement in the mining sector. The technology is based on the useful characteristics of the microorganisms in breakdown of organic matter in the decomposition process. In the same manner, the specific organism can be used to digest/decompose crude petroleum and make it to simpler and easily flowing substance thus saving the costs of crude oil chemical breakdown processes (Antonio, 2016, p. 3).
IT Technology: Rignet
In the oil exploration and mining processes, the miners are sometimes lost in the wild world. In their working conditions, injuries and accidents may occur that requires immediate communication for rescue missions. Rignet technology offers high performance communication network in the oil and gas industry. Marty Jimmerson founded the firm in 2012 and since then it has formed a critical component in the oil mining fields where communication, safety, and disaster management is highly significant. The network enables distress calls and emergency responses transmission from the connected sites to the host. The communication enables rapid responses to safety, hazards, and disaster management, as they are common in the wild mining sites (rig.net, 2016).
References
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Bill Shiner. (2016, January 2). Fiber Lasers Continue to Gain Market Share in Material
Processing Applications. Manufacturing Engineering Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.sme.org/MEMagazine/Article.aspx?id=8589937872&taxid=3440.
In Quickenden, K., In Baggott, S., & In Dick, M. (2013). Matthew Boulton: Enterprising
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McKinstry, S. (1997). The Rise and Progress of John Brown Engineering, 1966-97: US
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Applied to the Petroleum Industry. Recent Patents on Nanotechnology, 9(2), 106-113. doi:10.2174/187221050902150819152708. Retrieved from: http://benthamscience.com/journals/recent-patents-on-nanotechnology/volume/9/issue/2/page/106/
Rig.net. (2016, February 2). About RigNet | Business Communications Services for Upstream
Oil & Gas Industry RigNet. Retrieved from http://www.rig.net/about-us/
Sabine Hauert. (2013). First controlled flight of an insect-sized robot | Robohub. Retrieved from
http://robohub.org/controlling-insect-sized-flying-robots/
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Tang, Z., Alvarez, N., & Yang, S. (2002). Organic / Inorganic Hybrid Material for Coating on
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