Rapid advances in the use of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and electric grid storage have led to a large number of end-of-life (EOL) LIBs awaiting recycling to reclaim critical materials and eliminate environmental hazards. This article studies automatic mechanical separation methodology for EOL pouch LIBs with Z-folded electrode-separator compounds (ESC). Customized handling tools are designed, manufactured, and assembled into an automatic disassembly system prototype that consists of three modules. Verification experiments utilizing dummy cells prove that the main components of pouch LIBs (cathode sheets, anode sheets, separators, and polymer-laminated aluminum film housing) can be automatically separated and extracted with well-preserved integrity using our proposed disassembly strategy.

Abstract:Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing unmanned aerial delivery vehicles in delivery networks. We investigate the notion of the reduced overall delivery time and energy for a truck-drone network by comparing the in-tandem system with a stand-alone delivery effort. The objectives are (1) to investigate the time and energy associated to a truck-drone delivery network compared to standalone truck or drone, (2) to propose an optimization algorithm that determines the optimal number of launch sites and locations given delivery requirements, and drones per truck, (3) to develop mathematical formulations for closed form estimations for the optimal number of launch locations and the optimal total time of delivery.Design/methodology/approach: The design of the algorithm herein computes the minimal time of delivery utilizing K-means clustering to find launch locations, as well as a genetic algorithm to solve the truck route as a traveling salesmen problem (TSP). The optimal solution is determined by finding the minimum cost associated to the parabolic convex cost function. The optimal min-cost is determined by finding the most efficient launch locations using K-means algorithms to determine launch locations and a genetic algorithm to determine truck route between those launch locations.-374-Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management -http://dx.doi.org/10. 3926/jiem.1929 Findings: Results show improvements with in-tandem delivery efforts as opposed to standalone systems. Further, multiple drones per truck are more optimal and contribute to savings in both energy and time. For this, we sampled various initialization variables to derive closed form mathematical solutions for the problem.Originality/value: Ultimately, this provides the necessary analysis of an integrated truck-drone delivery system which could be implemented by a company in order to maximize deliveries while minimizing time and energy. Closed-form mathematical solutions can be used as close estimators for the optimal number of launch locations and the optimal delivery time.

Reliable flexible assembly workstations depend ultimately on the physics of assembly tasks performed. Multiple-peg insertions, as a practical assembly class, is complicated by the large number and kind of interaction between mating parts.In this article, geometric and quasi-static analyses of multiple-peg insertions are presented. First, a possible contact-state enumeration, geometric conditions for each contact-state, and the force-moment equations for static-equilibrium states of two dimensional dual-peg insertions are derived. The jamming diagrams and the taxonomy of dual-peg insertions are obtained. Then, an experiment to verify the analysis is presented.

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The synthesis of four-bar mechanisms is a well-understood, classical design problem. The original systematic work in this field began in the late 1800s and continues to be an active area of research. Limitations to the classical theory of four-bar synthesis potentially limit its application to certain real-world problems by virtue of the small number of precision points and unspecified order. This paper presents a numerical technique for four-bar mechanism synthesis based on genetic algorithms that removes this limitation by relaxing the accuracy of the precision points.