DIME Courses Available
Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.)
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) together with the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
(DMME) are offering the Bachelor of Engineering (Hons), in Mechanical Engineering with Industrial and Materials Engineering, degree. This
Industrial Engineering Degree is a four-year interdisciplinary program created to meet the requirements of today’s industry. By spreading the
course over a period of 4 years, the technical and management skills imparted allow the graduates to be able to also take up management-,
entrepreneurial- or technically-oriented jobs. B.Eng.(Hons.) graduates will be able to deal with the conceptual, methodological and technological tools used by industrial and service companies in the design, processing and implementation of products and processes. Due to their interdisciplinary training, they will be in an excellent position to engage in a range of Industrial R&D activities, to take up technical managerial
posts and will also be eligible to embark on postgraduate degrees offered by the faculty including the M.Sc. in Integrated Product Development.
Prospective students and employers can learn more about this new exciting career by visiting http://www.eng.um.edu.mt/~dmeu/indeng.
Those interested in learning more about this career are asked to contact either Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg (Head DIME) or Dr Ing. John C. Betts
(Head DMME) by phoning 2340 2061 or 2340 2056 respectively.
Testimonials from 4th year B.Eng. Students:
“I am happy to say that I have found the industrial engineering course very interesting and it also helped me appreciate as
well as understand what is going on in the world of engineering, which is of great importance in today’s life styles. I was
also given the opportunity to visit the factory lines of a number of world renowned individual plants including BMW, KnorrBremse, and Eurocopter, all in Munich. Summing up, I can express my experience during the whole four years in a few
words: this course has been a great experience thanks to the highly professional and dedicated staff within the Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Department.”
Luke Camenzuli
“The course structure successfully addresses the requirements of the manufacturing and materials science industries. The
course content is rich and comprehensive, and therefore does not only provide the necessary knowledge to enable the
graduate to embark on an industrial career, but it also prepares s/he to pursue postgraduate study. Additionally, lecturers
constantly offer professional advice and supervision which is ultimately a very important contribution to enable students to
effectively engage in their studies. I therefore highly recommend this course to anyone wanting to develop a career within
this stream of industrial and manufacturing engineering.”
Diane Chircop
M.Sc. In Integrated Product Development
The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics, Accounts and Management
(FEMA) is offering for the fifth time the M.Sc. in Integrated Product Development (IPD). The M.Sc. IPD is aimed for engineers or scientists, who
have recently graduated in either mechanical or electrical engineering or who have already achieved experience in industry. This postgraduate
programme is intended to fortify skills and to maximize performance and success in the industry by integrating all the aspects of product development including product function and design, product materials and manufacturing, product use and environmental impact, product marketing and costing, entrepreneurship and business management.
Further information on the M.Sc. IPD course can be found on the website: http://www.eng.um.edu.mt/~dmeu/msc/. Application details for
the M.Sc. IPD course beginning in October 2012 can be obtained from the Office of the University Registrar on Tel: 2340 2848 or by email: info.registrar@um.edu.mt . For any information regarding the M.Sc. IPD course kindly contact the course coordinator, Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia on
Tel: 2340 2045 or by email: philip.farrugia@um.edu.mt
University of Malta
July 2012
Issue No. 14
Introducing the 14th Edition of our Annual
Newsletter
Message from the Head of Department
It is my pleasure to welcome you to our 2012
Newsletter. Once again, as you will be able to
see in this issue, the Department of Industrial
and Manufacturing Engineering has been very
active in both teaching and research activities.
The past 12 months have seen DIME
completing its work on "Innovation in
Manufacturing" as part of a 200K Euro
research tender. As part of our strategy to
provide our students with added value, we also organized a tour to
Munich-based industrial entities that attracted a good number of both
undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is of great satisfaction to
note that DIME's profile is attracting a number of postgraduate
students either for our taught M.Sc IPD course or for Masters by
Research we supervise. Of similar satisfaction is to see once again, a
number of industrial entities sponsoring final year projects. From an
international perspective, you will note that our department's
academics have been busy presenting their research results in various
conferences in Europe, Asia and the USA.
We have also hosted a
number of internships from abroad, this all reflecting the trust our
foreign counterparts have in DIME. It is with great pleasure that I
announce that as part of our capacity building, the department has
recruited a new academic staff member to help DIME cover the
important the field of 'Sustainable Manufacturing.' I cannot conclude
this issue's message without announcing that in order to spend time on
a sabbatical, I have decided to step down from Head of Department, a
role I have happily assumed since 2001. I must indeed heartily thank
all the Department staff members for supporting me in their own
individual ways, throughout all these years. It is indeed through their
support that we have managed to achieve a number of important
milestones. I take this opportunity to wish the Designate Head of
Department, Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba every success in this
challenging yet important role that is of leading and facilitating the
formation of engineers that are able to make high value added
contributions to Malta's manufacturing industry.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 14th
edition of the Department of Industrial and
Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) newsletter. As
you can appreciate from the contents of this
newsletter, our department has been very active in
the last year in various knowledge transfer and
research generation activities. Over the last year
our department has also seen an increasing number
of students who enrolled for an M.Sc. by research degree in a range of
fields related to design and manufacturing. Our research also attracted a
number of students from France and Germany to spend an internship at
our laboratories. Other knowledge transfer activities included the
industrial visit of undergraduate and postgraduate students at BMW and
Eurocopter in Munich and a nice number of industry-partnered
undergraduate projects. Research related activities included the
dissemination of research results in international conference papers and
the successful completion of an European-funded applied research
project aimed at amplifying innovation in manufacturing. Two national
conferences were also organized as part of this project to disseminate the
project results. Our department has also won a new MCST Research &
Innovation project related to multi-material micro injection moulding.
Collectively all these activities contribute towards catalyzing high-value
added manufacturing which is one of the key sectors identified in the
government’s vision 2015.
On behalf of the academic and support staff members, I would like to take
the opportunity to thank, the outgoing head of our department, Prof. Ing.
Jonathan C. Borg for the sterling work he carried out since 2001. During
this period our department had outstandingly strengthened its expertise
and facilities in industrial and manufacturing engineering. We all wish the
new head of department success in the coming years.
I hope that you enjoy reading the newsletter and that you find the
information useful. Should you require any further information please do
not hesitate to contact us. We are interested to seek further cooperation
between our department and industry.
Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia
Testimonials from M.Sc. IPD Students:
‘’Currently I work as a Research Engineer at MARSEC-XL (Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence) Foundation.
Although I have an electrical engineering degree, I decided to pursue my masters degree in Integrated Product Development,
due to the challenges I might meet at work. The course provided essential tools for problem analysis, project management,
financial skills and production line planning. This course, takes into consideration all the stakeholders in product development,
including people with the entrepreneurial spirit. It provided me the basis for looking at challenges from different perspectives.’’
Emanuel Balzan, Research Engineer at MARSEC-XL
‘’Currently I work as a Jig Design Engineer at Methode Electronics Malta Ltd. The M.Sc. IPD course enabled
me to pursue further my career in manufacturing as well as in management. This M.Sc. enabled me to
learn further engineering related topics such as advanced manufacturing processes, entrepreneurship,
lean and agile manufacturing. What makes this masters course so unique is that it also deals with managerial topics such as finance and marketing which are essential for a practising engineer.’’
Highlights of this issue:
Editor : Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia
Editing &
Printing : Ms Therese Caruana
Secretary,
Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering,
University of Malta, Msida MSD2080.
Tel : +356 2340 2061
Direct: +356 21 346 761
Web: www.um.edu.mt/eng/ime
Fax: +356 21 343 577
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Sustainable Manufacturing & ERDF083 Research Tender Page 2, 3
Undergraduate & M.Sc. IPD Student Projects
4, 5
Postgraduate Research
6
Research Visits & Events
7
International Conferences
8
Research News
9
Funded Research Projects & External Visitors
10
Staff Training & Team Building Activities
11
Courses Available
12
Abigail Cutajar, Jig Design Engineer at Methode Electronics Malta Ltd.
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Page 12
DIME Newsletter 2012
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Page 1
DIME Newsletter 2012
Towards Sustainable Manufacturing
by Ing. Paul Refalo
www.nist.gov/el/msid/lifecycle/sustainable mfg.cfm
Ing. Paul Refalo has recently joined the Department of
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering as an Assistant
Lecturer. Since 2009 he has been working on a research
project funded by MCST on optimization of solar desalination units which could be manufactured in Malta. He is
also reading for a PhD. on this subject. His research interests include sustainable manufacturing, clean production
technologies, energy/water management and renewable
energy technologies in manufacturing. He attended various courses and conferences held locally and abroad where he has presented a number of papers.
DIME Staff Training & Team Building Activities
Staff Training

As part of his Ph.D. research training, in June 2011 and January 2012, Ing. E. Francalanza paid research visits to the Fraunhofer IPA &
University of Stuttgart, in Germany.

In July 2011 and January 2012, Ing. Pierre Vella carried out two research visits to KIT , Karlsruhe Germany and MEC, Cardiff University,
Wales respectively as part of his Ph.D. research training. The research work was carried out via two EUMINAfab projects. EUMINAfab
is a European Research Infrastructure offering open access to state of the art of multi-material micro and nanotechnologies on a no fee
basis after the successful submission of a project proposal. The goal of the undertaken research was to create and test a new process
chain for mass production of micro components using a high wear resistant insert bulk metallic glass material. The feasibility of the
complete process chain had to be tested within the installations of the project partners and subsequently evaluated.
In a climate change scenario, reduction of the environmental footprint of industrial operations has become imperative. It is not sufficient for a company to be
financially profitable but it also has to consider its environmental impacts. Industry must change strategies to become sustainable in the use of its resources
including energy, water and raw materials. This in turn has a financial advantage due to the fact that companies around the world are facing higher
materials and energy costs. Sustainable manufacturing is about managing operations in order to minimise the resources required in an environmentally and
socially-responsible manner. In this regard, the Department of Industrial and
Manufacturing Engineering is amplifying its academic activities in the field of
Sustainable Manufacturing.
An internal basic training course on the operation of the Sodick AP3L
Spark Erosion machine was carried out during separate practical sessions held between December 2011 and February 2012. The course
was attended by DIME support staff and researchers. The training sessions were jointly delivered by Mr Joseph Curmi and Ing. Pierre Vella.
Energy in Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry uses energy-intensive processes to fabricate various products. Two possible ways to mitigate the energy demand in a manufacturing plant is by conserving energy used inside the building itself and by using renewable energy sources to power the
plant. Although these techniques do improve the sustainability of the manufacturing process, sustainable manufacturing goes beyond that
and starts from the design phase of a product. The design should factor in the energy required to manufacture and fabricate the final product. The manufacturing processes and their operating parameters should be identified whilst taking the energy requirement into consideration. For example, in a simple drilling process, various suitable rotational speeds should be analysed in order to minimise the energy consumed.
Water in Manufacturing
On the 17th February 2012, DIME academic staff members held a
one-day seminar off campus in Mount St. Joseph at Targa Gap, Mosta. During this seminar a five-year plan strategic plan for the department was outlined.
Manufacturing institutions, especially those in countries like Malta where water is becoming more of a scarce resource, should develop policies based on an effective water strategy including the whole range of water use and wastewater disposal and/or treatment. Having a very
high thermal capacity, water is widely used in cooling equipment in manufacturing plants. By reducing the heat generated in thermal applications, the water requirements for cooling are also reduced. Furthermore, water from one particular process could be re-used in another
process which requires second-class quality water. Rainwater harvesting and air-conditioning-condensate recovery should be utilised especially in large plants.
Handling Materials and Waste in Manufacturing
Raw material and waste disposal costs are on the increase. Reduction in material requirements does not only make sense from a sustainability point of view but also reduces costs. The product design should be modified in order to minimise the environmental impacts during its
whole life cycle. Operational procedures and equipment instructions should be modified to improve the processes efficiency and lower
waste and emission rates. Where possible waste material should be recycled onsite, reused in another application or transformed into a byproduct sold to companies.
On the 29th May 2012, DIME staff members and postgraduate researchers had lunch in Ta’ Xbiex, to pay farewell to Ing. Amanda Galea who
worked on various research projects at the Concurrent Engineering
Research Unit. The department would like to take the opportunity to
thank Amanda for her sterling work and contributions.
In order to be able to manage and improve manufacturing processes in a sustainable way, continuous data collection, monitoring and analysis are essential. Tools such as Life Cycle Analysis, Design for Environment, Environmental Impact Assessments and Integrated Resource
Management Modelling are used to evaluate the effect of a product on long term sustainability.
DIME will be looking into techniques on how to improve manufacturing from a sustainability point of view by participating in research projects in collaboration with other academic institutions and with local and foreign industry.
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Page 2
DIME Newsletter 2012
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Page 11
DIME Newsletter 2012
ERDF 083 Research
Tender:
Amplifying
ERDF 083
Research
Tender: Innovation in
Amplifying
Innovation in Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Funded Research Projects & External Visitors
DIME wins new R&I project in Micro Injection Moulding
DIME was awarded a new project funded through the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) Research & Innovation 2012 programme. This cc. 140kEur project is entitled “Exploiting Multi-Material Micro Injection Moulding for Enhancing Manufacturing Competitiveness” (EX-MMIM). In Malta’s Vision 2015, advanced manufacturing has been clearly identified as one key target sector. Within this context and
given that Malta already has a strong plastic manufacturing base employing thousands of people, this project aims to contribute towards making a quantum leap in injection moulding to result in higher value added manufacturing i.e. that of Multi-Material Injection Moulding at the
micro-scale level. To achieve this objective, this project aims at generating and sharing new knowledge on the design and manufacture of
multi-material micro components fabricated by injection moulding. By exploiting multi-material micro injection moulding, it is expected that
the competitiveness of the Maltese manufacturing industry will be enhanced since, for instance, assembly of micro components can be partially or fully eliminated. In addition, by involving industrial partners with complementary expertise, this project will contribute towards clustering
a number of relevant Maltese companies to catalyse local multi-material micro injection moulding expertise. The three DIME key experts in
this project are Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia, Dr Ing. Arif Rochman and Ing. Pierre Vella.
Internal Research Grants
Staff of the Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering were awarded a number of internal research grants for the academic year
2011/2012.
Principal Investigator
Research Grant Title
Aim of project
Funding
Level
Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg
A computer aided design tool for the evaluation of module interfaces (ACADEMI)
To provide the user with computer support in
the evaluation of module interface design concepts
3,000€
Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia
Innovative ‘Early Design’ Product Prototyping
– Emotion-Driven Industrial Design
To develop a computer-based tool that guides
designers to amplify the emotional content of
end-users in consumer products
4,000€
Dr Ing. Arif Rochman
Hybrid
Manufacturing
Approach
Combining Additive Manufacturing With
Subtractive And Formative Processes
To optimize the EBM process for manufacturing
end-products and to investigate the most possible and optimum combination with subtractive
post-processing techniques
4,000€
Ing. Pierre Vella
Interchangeability in Microscale Parts
To investigate the use of various processes and
process chains for the mass production of interchangeable micro parts
4,000€
Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza
Digital Planning & Simulation for the Factory
of the Future
To investigate and propose a framework to produce a wide range of products at very low costs
from a Product Family vs.Manufacturing Systems perspective
4,000€
In April 2012, Prof.
Bojan Babic from the
Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering, University of Belgrade visited
DIME.
 Energy Efficiency in Manufacturing
 ICT in Manufacturing
 Innovation in Manufacturing
The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering has been responsible for the
third project and is overall research goal has been to amplify the degree of innovation in
product design and manufacturing. Two initiatives have been taken to accomplish this goal,
AIM Portal (http://www.wix.com/univmalta/
namely:
innov)
 Developing an Industrial Collaboration Framework for Amplifying Innovation in Manufacturing (IC-FAIM). The objective of this initiative
has been to amplify innovation and creativity in manufacturing through improved product development stakeholder collaboration.
 Developing a Life-oriented Product Development Simulation Framework for Amplifying Innovation in Manufacturing (LS-FAIM). The objective of this initiative concerned the amplification of innovation and creativity in manufacturing via the prediction of consequences
through the simulation of product life phases and the visualisation of product and manufacturing system performance measures during
manufacturing system design.
The framework developed in each initiative has been implemented into an AIM portal which can be accessed by relevant stakeholders in industry. The AIM portal has been evaluated using real product design and manufacturing case studies at the project partners, which included
Rayair Automation Ltd., Techniplast Group of Companies Ltd., FXB Group of Companies Ltd., Toly Malta Products Ltd. and Playmobil Malta Ltd.
The evaluation results demonstrated that the AIM portal has been found beneficial by the industrial stakeholders in amplifying the degree of
innovation in their products and/or manufacturing processes.
First First Conference on ERDF 083 project - November 2011
A Conference on “Amplifying the Competitiveness of Manufacturing in Malta”
was held at Le Meridien Hotel, in St Julians on Wednesday, 23rd November
2011. The research results obtained during the first year of the project were
disseminated in this conference, which was well-attended by people from
academia and industry. Three workshops on an assessment of the local Research in Manufacturing, on industry-academia collaboration and on means of
attracting Foreign Direct Investment with focus on research activities were
carried out.
The second Conference on ‘’Industrial Research Case Studies Contributing to
Manufacturing Industrial Competitiveness’’ was held on Wednesday 6th June
2012 at the same venue. The conference was opened by the Hon. Dr Jeffrey
Pullicino Orlando, Chairman MCST. In his opening speech, Dr Pullicino Orlando explained that for MCST, high value added manufacturing (HVAM) is one
of the supported sectors. In his speech he also outlined the work and funding
provided by MCST to support research in HVAM in Malta. Three workshops
on the exploitation of the research results obtained in each sub-projects were
held.
First Academic Staff Appointments
In February 2012, DIME was visited by Dr Sue Vella then COO of Malta Enterprise and Dr Mike Tremblay (M.E. Consultant) to explore how the
department can possibly support the BioMalta Campus through its expertise and facilities, in particular regarding the design of biomedical
devices.
Page 10
The ERDF 083 project – Research Services for Amplifying Innovation in Manufacturing was
concluded successfully in April 2012. This 600k, two-year duration project is constituted of
three applied research projects related to manufacturing, which collectively contribute towards Europe’s Strategic Vision for Manufacturing for 2020. The projects are:
First Second Conference on ERDF 083 project - June 2012
Visits at the Department
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Project Background
DIME Newsletter 2012

Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba was appointed to the grade of an Associate Professor by Council on 9th February 2012.

During the 31st May Council, Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba was appointed Head of Department as from 1st October 2012.

Ing. Paul Refalo was appointed as Assistant Lecturer by Council on 26th April 2012.
All department staff members would like to take the occasion to congratulate Prof. Saliba and Ing. Refalo for their achievement.
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Page 3
DIME Newsletter 2012
DIME Research News
Undergraduate Student Projects
Recent Research Publications
Final Year Projects 2011/2012
NAME OF
STUDENT
TITLE
SUPERVISOR (s)
INDUSTRIAL PARTNER
Dr C. Pace
Prominent Ltd
Caruana M. and Saliba M. A. (2012) “Robot Time and Cost Management in the Application to Multiple Low-Volume Production Processes”,
Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM 2012), Helsinki, Finland.
Saliba M. A. and Caruana A. (2012) “Migrating from manual to automated assembly of a product family: procedural guidelines and a case
study”, in Manufacturing System, ed. F. Abdul Aziz, INTECH Publishers, ISBN 978-953-51-0530-5.
Micallef Martha
Automation Consideration in a Product Testing Process
Borg Mark
A Concurrent Engineering Approach to Product Development
Case Study: Methode Electronics Ltd
Prof. Ing. J. C. Borg
Methode Electronics
Malta Ltd
Bartolo Marija
Development of Novel ‘Cosmetic Cases’ Opening & Closing
Devices
Prof. Ing. J. C. Borg
Toly Malta Ltd
Camilleri Miguel
Design and Manufacture of Micro Inserts for Injection Moulding of Micro Testing Specimen
Dr Ing. A. Rochman
N/A
Bonnici Mark
The Development of Environmentally Conscious Cosmetic Packaging through ECO-Design and Design for Manufacture
Dr Ing. A. Rochman
Toly Malta Ltd
Francalanza E., Borg J.C. and Constantinescu C. (2012) "A Case for Assisting 'Product Family' Manufacturing System Designers", in Proceedings
of the International Conference on Manufacturing Systems (ICMS 2012) Athens, Greece.
Azzopardi Matthew
Post Processing of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) Parts
Dr Ing. A. Rochman
N/A
Galea A., Francalanza E., Farrugia P. J. and Borg J. C. (2012) ‘’Analysing product development working practices for enhancing innovation
through collaboration and simulation’’ in Proceedings of the 12 th International Design Conference, Design 2012, Cavtat, Croatia.
Schembri Elaine
Manufacturing Cell Improvements at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions (Malta)
Dr Ing. A. Rochman
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions (Malta)
Gatt Roderick
Towards an Improved Methodology for the FMEA Implementation at Methode Electronics Malta (MEM) Ltd
Dr Ing. P. J. Farrugia
Methode Electronics
Malta
Cassar Christopher
Towards an Emotion-Based CAD Tool For Amplifying Product
Branding
Dr Ing. P. J. Farrugia
N/A
Calleja Quinton
Artificial Rib Replacement using Additive Manufacturing
Dr Ing. P. J. Farrugia
Mr A. Casha
N/A
Camenzuli Luke
Machining of Dies and Moulds by Electrical Discharge Machining
Ing. P. Vella
N/A
Design of a Simulated Experiment of a Manufacturing System:
An Injection Moulding Department Case Study
Ing. Emmanuel
Francalanza
Saliba Daniel
Methode Electronics
Malta Ltd
Rochman A., Thermo Flow Forming (TFF) (2012) “A Novel Method for Manufacturing Thin-Walled Polymeric Micro Components”, 2012, LAP
Publisher, Saarbrücken.
Rochman A., Frick A. and Martin P. (2012) “An Alternative Method for Processing High Viscosity Polymers: 1. Development and Feasibility
Study”, Polymer Engineering and Science, online available as from 11th April 2012.
Borg J.C. and Farrugia P.J. (2011) “Mapping Design Theory Into Industrial Applications: Best Practices From Malta”, in Proceedings of the DesignEd Asia Conference 2011, Hong Kong, pp. 281-293.
Vella P. C., Dimov S.S., Brousseau E.B., Minev E. , Dobrev T. , Petkov P. and Velkova V. (2011) “Length Scale Integration: Implementation of a
New Process Chain for Producing Replication Masters with Micro and Nano Scale Features”, in Proceedings of the 4M 2011 Conference, Germany, pp. 343 – 347.
Dickerhof M. , Vella P., Azcarate S., Temun A. and Anson S. (2011) “Towards a European Approach for Modelling of Multimaterial Micromanufacturing Technologies”, in Proceedings of the 4M 2011 Conference, Germany, pp. 348 – 353.
Farrugia P.J. Francalanza, E. and Coppini K. (2011) "A Framework Supporting the Selection of Advanced Product Development Technologies",
in Proceedings of the ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering
Conference (IDETC/CIE 2011) Washington D.C., USA.
Francalanza, E., Borg, J.C. and Constantinescu, C. (2011) "A Framework Supporting Concurrent 'Product Family and Manufacturing System'
Synthesis Decision Making", in Proceedings of the 44th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems (ICMS 2011) Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Industrial Sponsors
Farrugia P.J., Borg J.C. and Camilleri K.P. (2011) "Exploiting Hand Sketching In Educating ‘Mechanically Oriented’ Engineering Students", in
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED11), Vol. 8, pp. 45-54.
The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering would like to take this opportunity to thank our industrial partners who have
supported us during the past year, these include: Toly Malta Products Ltd., Playmobil Ltd., Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Ltd., Methode Electronics Malta Ltd., Techniplast Group of Companies Ltd., Tek-moulds Precision Engineering Ltd., Rayair Automation Ltd., FXB Group of Companies
Ltd. and Promiment Ltd.
Galea A., Borg J.C., Gech A. and Farrugia P.J. (2011) "Can Designers be Proactively Supported as from Product Specifications?", in Proceedings
of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED11), Vol. 10, pp. 139-148.
Increasing use of Additive Manufacturing Equipment for Knowledge Transfer and Research Activities
During the last academic year, there was a significant increase in the use of the Additive Manufacturing equipment at the DIME labs. This
increasing use was registered on both the Electron Beam Melting (EBM) machine and on the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printer.
The former produces Titanium parts whereas the latter produces ABS parts. The FDM printer is being used by third year engineering design
students and final year mechanical engineering students in order to produce physical prototypes of their design concepts. The EBM is being
used by undergraduate students as well as by postgraduate students in pure research-oriented projects.
DIME Industrial Visit to Munich
In September 2011, a group of industrial engineering and M.Sc. in Integrated
Product Development (IPD) students went for an industrial study tour in Munich, Germany. The group was led by Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia and Dr Ing. Arif
Rochman. Students had the opportunity to visit the manufacturing line of the
BMW 3 series model, the manufacturing of helicopters at Eurocopter and the
production of locomotive braking systems at Knorr-Bremse. The group of students also visited the industrial automation labs at the Munich University of
Applied Sciences and the Deutches Museum, the world's largest museum of
science and technology. Students compiled a technical report on each industrial visit mentioned above.
Custom-made Cranial Implant fabricated with EBM
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Page 4
DIME Newsletter 2012
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Prototype cosmetic case fabricated with FDM
Page 9
DIME Newsletter 2012
DIME Staff Participation in Conferences
In May 2011, Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza attended the 44th CIRP International Conference on Manufacturing Systems (ICMS 2011) held in
Madison, Wisconsin, USA. The paper entitled “A Framework Supporting Concurrent 'Product Family and Manufacturing System' Synthesis Decision Making” was presented.
In August 2011 Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia and Ing. Amanda Galea attended the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED11), in Lyngby, Denmark. The papers “Exploiting Hand Sketching
In Educating ‘Mechanically Oriented’ Engineering Students” and “Can Designers be Proactively Supported as from Product Specifications?" were presented. Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia chaired the session
on User-Centred Design.
In August 2011 Dr Ing. Philip Farrugia attended the ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC) and Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Conference in Washington D.C., USA. The paper “A Framework Supporting the Selection of Advanced Product Development
Technologies” was presented.
M.Sc. IPD Student Projects
NAME OF
STUDENT
TITLE
SUPERVISOR (s)
Borg Paul
An Integrated Product Development Approach for Custom-Made Cranial Implants
Dr Ing. P. J. Farrugia
Balzan Emmanuel
A Computer-Aided Mould Material Selection Tool for Material Suppliers In Integrated
Product Development Context
Dr J. C. Betts
Dr Ing. P. J. Farrugia
Pace Laura
An Integrated Product Development Approach to Biomedical Devices: Aerosols CaseStudy
Prof. Ing. J. C. Borg
Attard Reuben
Methodology for Exploiting FEA in The Product Life Cycle
Desira Luke
Intelligent Support for Lean Integrated Product Development
Muscat Maria Rita
Lean Six Sigma Critical Business Process
Dr P. Mollicone
Ing. E. Francalanza
Ing. P. Vella
Research at DIME attracts international students
The research being carried out by our academic staff members attracted a number of foreign students from Germany and France to study at
our department:
In November 2011, Ing. Pierre Vella attended the 8th International Conference on multi-material micro-manufacture which is organised by
the 4M Association. The venue of the conference was Haus der Wirtschaft, in Stuttgart, Germany. The main goal of this conference is to
provide a forum for experts from industry and academia to share the results of their investigations in an open environment and in so doing
to advance the creation of micro-manufacturing capabilities and possibilities. The paper entitled “Length Scale Integration: Implementation of
a New Process Chain for Producing Replication Masters with Micro and Nano Scale Features” was presented.
From 28th November till 2nd December 2011, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C.
Borg and Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia attended the DesignED Asia
Conference organized by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in
Hong Kong, as part of the Business of Design Week. The paper
entitled “Mapping Design Theory Into Industrial Applications: Best
Practices From Malta” was presented by Prof. Ing. Jonathan C.
Borg.
Gautier Lombart
Gautier Lombart from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne in France, investigated the relationship between different aesthetic curves on
consumer products, culture and how they elicit
emotions in end users. Mr Lombart carried out
numerous interviews with Maltese and French
people to investigate this relationship. From the
preliminary study obtained, it emerged that product branding elicits positive emotions, irrespective
of the culture.
Karoline Lotzsch
Thierry Saliou and Hugo Mestre from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of
Technology of Troyes in France, provided their input in the development of a web-based portal to
amplify innovation in manufacturing. They generated a set of templates of innovation management tools (e.g. morphological charts) which relevant stakeholders in industry can download during different stages of the design process. The students also contributed in the testing and debugging of the portal.
In May 2012, Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza attended the 45th CIRP International Conference on Manufacturing Systems (ICMS 2012) held in Athens, Greece. The paper entitled “A Case for Assisting 'Product Family' Manufacturing System Designers” was presented.
Thierry Saliou
In May 2012, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg and Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia attended a half day conference on the Future of Manufacturing in Malta organized by the Manufacturers and Other
Industries Economic Group (MEG) of the Malta Chamber of Commerce.
In May 2012, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg and Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia attended the
DESIGN2012 conference in Cavtat Croatia. The paper entitled “Analysing product development
working practices for enhancing innovation through collaboration and simulation” was presented by Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia. The Maltese delegation played a very active role in the
workshops on Collaborative Design and A Balancing and Alignment of End User Issues in Product Development.”
Timo Dolde
Timo Dolde
Hugo Mestre
Timo Dolde from Aalen University in Germany is
carrying out an M.Sc. by research on Integrative
Development of Fibre Reinforced Polymer Parts
with High Load-Bearing Capacity. Fibre reinforced
polymers (FRPs) show a highly anisotropic material behaviour, thus the mechanical properties of
the part depend strongly on the morphology,
which is influenced by the injection moulding
process. In consequence, for a successful development of such parts, an integrative development
concept, which takes into consideration all development steps and their correlation, should be
used. On the example of a novel, highly loaded
chain wheel, a concept for the integrative development of FRPS, which includes the currently
available simulation methods, is elaborated in his
masters.
In November 2011, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg delivered a presentation on ‘Amplifying Innovation for Manufacturing Competitiveness’ in a national conference on Amplifying the Competitiveness of Manufacturing in Malta organized by MCST as part of an ERDF project.
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Karoline Lötzsch from the Mechanical Engineering at the Otto-von-Guericke University,
Magdeburg in Germany contributed in the
development of a simulation using augmented reality (AR) for tool making. She
also provided valuable feedback in the compilation of a user manual for an AR simulation software and in the evaluation of the
portal developed in the ERDF 083 project –
Amplifying Innovation in Manufacturing.
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DIME Newsletter 2012
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Andreas Obermaier from the Department of
Precision and Micro Engineering, Engineering
Physics at the Munich University of Applied
Sciences in Germany, worked on his masters
project concerned with the development of a
novel revolute micro joint produced by injection moulding. A literature review on the types
of joints available on the market was compiled. Biological analogies of joints found in
insects etc. were employed to come up with Andreas Obermaier
an innovative design solution of the revolute
joint. Once the final revolute design was finished, the drawings of the component and of
the required injection tool were generated.
Andreas Obermaier
Mould filling simulation was carried out. Simulation tests on the mechanical properties of
the joint were also conducted. Andreas had
also the opportunity to meet and share his
ideas with experts in the field in the local plastics injection industry.
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DIME Newsletter 2012
Postgraduate Research at DIME
Research Visits
Research on the Development of an Engineering Tool for Module Interface Design and Evaluation
The research by Mr Lawrence Farrugia which is being conducted under the supervision of Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg, has
the objective of providing support to the end user in the early evaluation of design concepts. Multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is being applied to this problem, where the user has to evaluate and subsequently select the most suitable
design concept from a set of potential design concept candidates. The aim of this project in the near future will be to
implement this life oriented decision support approach into a computer design tool. This research is funded through
STEPS.
Lawrence Farrugia
Dr Ing. Arif Rochman had applied for a funding to the EUMINAfab for carrying out research experiments at their research facilities. The project
entitled “Micro Hot Embossing of High Temperature Semicrystalline Polymers Using Induction Heating” was granted by the EUMINAfab which is an
European Research Infrastructure offering access to state of the art of multi-material micro and nanotechnologies. The main aims of this project
were to investigate further the hot embossing of microfluidic devices made from high temperature semicrystalline polymers and to carry out a
feasibility study on a possible reduction of hot embossing cycle time using an induction heating. He carried out experiments at Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology (KIT) and at Aalen University in Germany for one week in July and in December 2011 respectively. The results are that micro hot embossing using an induction heating is feasible and the cycle time could be reduced over 90%, but the process and quality of the embossed micro
fluidic devices need to be improved. However, due to the significant reduction of the cycle time, the micro hot embossing using an inductive
heating has high potential for rapid manufacturing of micro components.
Research on Design Support for Micro Fabrication
This research by Mr Luke Said which is supervised by Dr Ing. Philip J. Farrugia and Ing. Pierre Vella, is concerned with
providing design support in the micro domain. The demand for micro parts and products has increased rapidly recently. Some of the applications for such parts are micro sensors, micro surgery and drug delivery systems. Processes such
as micro injection moulding, micro EDM, micro hot embossing and laser ablation are used to fabricate such parts. A
micro part may require more than one of these processes. For example a micro injection moulded part shall require a
mould insert which must be carried out using micro EDM, which in turn requires electrodes manufactured via micro
milling. Hence when taking a decision regarding a geometrical feature of the plastic part to be moulded, the capabilities of all the processes must be considered. The research goal is to generate a set of guidelines to design and fabricate micro parts. This research is funded through STEPS.
Luke Said
Miguel Camilleri (second from left) at Aalen University
Research on Hybrid Manufacturing Process Involving Electron Beam Melting & Electric Discharge Machining
Christian Spiteri
Rapid manufacturing technologies have the ability to produce parts of any shape and complexity. Electron Beam Melting
(EBM) is one of the latest additions to this family of technologies; however, it still requires improvement with regards to
surface finish and dimensional tolerance of parts. Hence, a manufacturing chain is being investigated during this project,
supervised by Dr Ing. Arif Rochman and Ing. Pierre Vella, where parts are first produced with EBM and then finished with
the more established process of Electric Discharge Machining (EDM), the aim being that of obtaining a process that is
able to deliver highly-customized parts with unsurpassed qualities. This research being carried out by Mr Christian Spiteri
is funded through STEPS.
Research on Manufacturing Automation and Reconfigurability
On 14 September 2011, Ing. Sandro Azzopardi successfully defended his M.Phil. thesis entitled "A study on manufacturing automation and reconfigurability and its application to the Maltese industry". The work involved the development of a new methodology to facilitate the design of modular, reconfigurable automation systems, and the development, application and evaluation of a new, highly reconfigurable manufacturing automation test bed aimed at developing automation solutions over a wide range of manufacturing sectors. Sandro's work formed part of the AUTOMATE
project, funded under the 2006 national Research and Innovation program through the Malta Council for Science and
Technology. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Ing. Michael A. Saliba.

Due to his background in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg has been invited as an external expert to
help DG Research of the EU Commission with monitoring a project related to the implementation of eight European pilot projects exploiting RFID technology in SMEs across six European countries.

In September 2011, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg represented the Malta Council for Science & Technology in a partners meeting of the NMP
Team project held in Warsaw, Poland.
Participation in Research Related Events
Sandro Azzopardi
Research on Interdisciplinary Requirements Support for Designers
Products are becoming complex, reflecting customers’ demands and wishes for products that are smaller in size, and
which perform multiple functions. Product designers need to translate the Product Design Specification (PDS) document
into a design solution that matches these interdisciplinary requirements. The design reality is that there is missing linkage between the PDS and the feasible solution space in a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) system. Hence designers are
not pro-actively guided about which design elements such as materials, manufacturing processes, form features, dimensions and tolerances are feasible or not.
Alexia Grech
Micro specimens manufactured
For his final year project entitled “Design and Manufacture of Micro Inserts for Injection Moulding of Micro Testing Specimens” supervised by Dr
Ing. Arif Rochman, Mr Miguel Camilleri had visited Aalen University to test the mould inserts using micro injection moulding. The aims of the project were to design and manufacture three micro mould inserts with different surface roughness and to investigate the influence of this surface
roughness on the performance of micro products. During this visit, Mr Camilleri had successfully moulded micro specimens with different surface
roughness and characterised their mechanical properties which are adversely affected by higher surface roughness. Further investigations e.g. on
morphological structure of the moulded micro specimens will be carried out by Mr Waldemar Wittmer (left), a German student at Aalen University who did an internship at DIME from August 2011 to February 2012.

In November 2011, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg delivered a presentation on ‘Amplifying Innovation in Manufacturing’ in a national conference on Amplifying The Competitiveness on Manufacturing in Malta, organized by MCST as part of an ERDF project.

In March 2012, Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg was invited to provide input in a workshop organized by MCST concerning a ‘’Digital Growth
strategy for Malta’’.

On the 23rd April 2012, three postgraduate students, Mr Lawrence Farrugia, Mr Luke Said and Mr Christian Spiteri, who are currently reading for their M.Sc. by research studies at our department, participated in a research seminar held at the MCST premises in Kalkara.
In October 2011, Ing. Alexia Grech a Ph.D candidate supervised by Prof. Ing. Jonathan C. Borg defended her doctoral
thesis aimed at addressing this research gap. The Ph.D. research work concerned the development of a computational
filtering approach framework for a CAD tool that maps the specification commitments to the feasible solution space.
The algorithms behind this framework have been patented.
DIME researchers at the Seminar organized by the Faculty of Engineering
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
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DIME Newsletter 2012
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
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DIME Newsletter 2012