Overview in PDF format - Tallinna Tehnikaülikool

PREFACEThe mankind of the 21 st century is in constant need of new products, rarely thinkingabout how these are manufactured. The production of the 21 st century is still mandependentand the dreams of the 90s of unmanned enterprises have been buried asunprofitable by financial calculations.The current study has been targeted onto development of models for monitoringtechnological processes and production systems starting from a single machine tooland ending with an extended enterprise. The subject has been initiated by researchtowards development of a machining unit capable of testing new cutting tools andtool materials. Scepticism is a basis of science, therefore both composition andverification of models have been included in this work. During the research the roleof a human being became evident – in similar manufacturing situations and withsimilar equipment results can be different depending on competence of workforce.Considering the presence of manpower and making the corresponding competencesmeasurable has been an additional task to be solved. The proposed solutionencompassing the sectors of metal industry, machinery and apparatus engineering inEstonia today has been financed by the European Union.AKCNOWLEDGEMENTSThe thesis has been strongly influenced by the late Professor Jyri Papstel whosupervised this work from 2001 up to September 2004.Special thanks belong to Professor Rein Kyttner who took over supervising,offering encouragement and valuable advice in finalising the work.Many thanks to Jyri Vain, Tatyana Karaulova, Gennady Aryassov, Alar Kuusik,Svetlana Gromova, Lembit Kurik – the co-authors of several articles – and all theother colleagues from Tallinn University of Technology. During the research I havefelt the constant support of the Estonian Federation of Engineering Industry (EML)and its chairman Dr Jyri Riives. I would also like to thank Leo Teder for hisassistance in experiments. It has been a pleasure to realise the ideas with partnersfrom INNOMET project. In realisation of IT solutions Markus Keerman and AlertixLtd. have been of great help.The Estonian Science Foundation (Grant No 6795) is acknowledged forsupporting the research. Likewise, TUT Department of Research, ArchimedesFoundation and IVA are thankfully acknowledged for their assistance in coveringseveral travelling and subsistence costs connected with the research andpresentations at conferences. The EU Leonardo Centre, Foundation Innove andEnterprise Estonia are acknowledged for financing the testing of the research resultsin practice.This thesis would not have been possible without the support of my wife Kairiand son Tanel. I am also grateful to my relatives and friends for patience andunderstanding.5