SMEs constitute the backbone of the global economy possessing a vital role in future economic prosperity. Today, with the increasing competition due to globalization of markets and mass customization, as well as the increasing focus on green shift and sustainability, the need to take advantage of new technological innovations has never been more prominent. Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) is one ...

As the world is moving towards more personalized and customized manufacturing, the manufacturing system needs to adapt. One method can be to integrate industry 4.0 concepts in reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). This allows the manufacturing system to become more self-sustaining and flexible at the same time. There is however, a lack of research on how to integrate industry 4.0 concepts such ...

The outbreak of an epidemic disease may pose significant treats to human beings and may further lead to a global crisis. In order to control the spread of an epidemic, the effective management of rapidly increased medical waste through establishing a temporary reverse logistics system is of vital importance. However, no research has been conducted with the focus on the design of an epidemic reverse ...

This paper describes a brief overview of main issues related to atmospheric ice accretion on wind turbines installed in cold climate region. Icing has significant effects on wind turbine performance particularly from aerodynamic and structural integrity perspective, as ice accumulates mainly on the leading edge of the blades that change its aerodynamic profile shape and effects its structural dynamics ...

Wind energy assessment of a territory where a wind park is planned to be built is important. This can be performed through an appropriate evaluation of the wind characteristics in this territory. To simulate the wind speeds, a Weibull function is recommended whose parameters are classically determined either applying logarithms or using one of the formulas proposed in the literature. In the present ...

Since December 2020, the vaccines from several manufacturers, e.g., Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, etc., have been approved for mass vaccination to control the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused more than 100 million infections and 2.4 million deaths. These vaccines are produced and transported in large quantities to suffice the needs of several countries. Before arriving at the end-users, the vaccines ...

Regional research project are, as is also regional industry, highly need-based. That is, understanding the stakeholders’ (or customers’) real challenges and related needs is important. This study is based on interviews with SMEs in the Northern parts of Finland, Norway and Sweden, but also on available innovation agendas and strategies for each country. The differences among the companies in those ...

The location decision on service facilities is of significant importance in determining the accessibility of the service provided. Due to this reason, it has been extensively focused over the past decades by both researchers and practitioners. This paper investigates a novel two-phase hybrid method combining both optimization model and agent-based simulation in order to solve the location problem ...

The flow around the Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV) operating at a low Reynolds number regime of the O() is predominantly laminar and it leads to the formation of Laminar Separation Bubble (LSB). The pressure, shear stress, and heat flux distribution are considerably affected by LSB, which affects lift, drag, and pitching moment values. Most existing RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) turbulence ...