424 Ventil 19 /2013/ 6 DOGODKI - POROČILA - VESTI Doc. dr. Davorin Kramar, univ. dipl. inž., doc. dr. Joško Valen- tinčič, univ. dipl. inž., Marko Jerman, univ. dipl. inž., dr. Izi- dor Sabotin, univ. dipl. inž., Teja Juvan, dipl. eur. štud.,; vsi Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za strojništvo Mednarodna konferenca Management of Innovative Technologies & Sustain- able Life in Manufacturing 2013 ■ 1 Uvod Mednarodna konferenca na temo inovativnosti in trajnostnega razvo- ja tehnologij je zadnji teden v sep- tembru potekala na slovenski obali, natančneje v Fiesi (http://lab.fs.uni- -lj.si/lat/uploads/mit-slim2013). V ta namen sta bili združeni dve konfe- renci, in sicer 12. mednarodna kon- ferenca z naslovom Management of Inovative Technologies in 4. medna- rodna konferenca z naslovom Susta- inable Life in Manufacturing. Glede na položaj svetovnega gospodar- stva je sklop obeh tematik skrajno posrečen, saj lahko le inovativnost pri reševanju aktualnih problematik da nove paradigme za zagotavljanje trajnostnega razvoja celotne družbe. Prejšnja konferenca MIT&SLIM2011 je bila v znamenju aktualnega ekonom- skega dogajanja v svetu, ki ga lahko povzamemo s (pre)veliko gospodar- sko rastjo in posledičnim kolapsom. Vodilne tematike preteklih konferenc so se dotikale raziskovanja tehnolo- ških inovacij in menedžmenta tehno- logij z multidisciplinarne perspektive. Predvsem poudarek na multidiscipli- narnosti predstavlja edinstven do- prinos preteklih enajstih konferenc – združevanje akademske sfere in strokovnjakov z različnih področij z namenom izmenjave idej, znanj in iz- kušenj, ki lahko pomembno vplivajo na potek interdisciplinarnih raziskav in spodbujajo inovacije v praksi. Tematike človeškega dejavnika, »tehnozofije« (modre uporabe tehnologije) in trajnostnega vidika predstavljajo poglavitna interesna področja večine udeležencev kon- ference. V času nadaljevanja gospo- darske recesije, finančnih in okolj- skih izzivov so omenjene tematike konference MIT&SLIM še posebej pomembne in aktualne. S čudovito kuliso slovenske obale, bližnjima mejama s Hrvaško in Ita- lijo ter znotraj z avtom dostopnih razdalj do drugih evropskih držav predstavlja domovanje konference stično točko, kjer se srečajo različne kulture. Podobno kulturni raznoli- kosti udeležencev program konfe- rence zaobjema področja različnih disciplin, interesov in perspektiv. Cilj konference je ustvariti ideje in smer- Davorin KRAMAR, Joško VALENTINČIČ, Marko JERMAN, Izidor SABOTIN, Teja JUVAN Slika 1. Tematski govornik Paul Levy na konferenci MIT&SLIM 2013 (foto: N. Matjaž) 425 Ventil 19 /2013/ 6 DOGODKI - POROČILA - VESTI nice, ki lahko pripomorejo k izhodu iz ekonomske krize v industrijskem in ekonomskem sektorju ter lokalni in širši skupnosti nasploh. Glavne teme konference so bile: • kreativno razmišljanje, inovativ- nost, optimizacija, menedžment in marketing, • trajnostna proizvodnja, • mikrotehnologije. Konferenca je bila organizirana pod znanstvenim pokroviteljstvom prof. dr. Mihaela Junkarja (LAT – Labora- torij za alternativne tehnologije) in prof. dr. Janeza Kopača (LABOD – La- boratorij za odrezavanje) s Fakultete za strojništvo Univerze v Ljubljani, Paula Levyja z Univerze v Brightonu in doc. dr. Oguza Çolaka z Univerze Suleyman Demirel iz Turčije. Znan- stveniki, raziskovalci, menedžerji in gospodarstveniki so na konferenci predstavili svoje poglede in dogna- nja na zgoraj navedenih področjih. Na konferenci se je zbralo okrog 100 znanstvenikov, raziskovalcev, ljudi iz industrije, menedžmenta in gospo- darstvenikov. Udeleženci so prišli iz 12 držav, pretežno iz Evrope, s šte- vilčno zasedbo tudi iz Japonske. Od znanstvenih področij je bilo najbolj množično zastopano strojništvo, ki je zaradi multidisciplinarnega zna- čaja konference razširjeno na druga področja, kot sta na primer mene- džment in kemijsko inženirstvo. ■ 2 Tematski govorniki Temeljne smernice konference so postavili štirje tematski govorniki, in sicer Paul Levy, Elvis Halilović, Frie- drich Bleicher in Joel Rech. Paul Levy je govoril o pomemb- nosti upoštevanja časovnega kon- tinuuma »preteklost, sedanjost in prihodnost« kot enega temeljnih konceptov za nastanek in uvelja- vitev inovacije na trgu. Pri tem se pogosto zanemarja aspekt prete- klosti pri odločitvah za prihodnost. To velikokrat povzroči tipične napa- ke in pomanjkljivosti, s katerimi se soočimo šele v prihodnosti, vendar bi se jim lahko izognili z doslednim poznavanjem preteklosti, ki nas je navsezadnje motivirala za inovaci- jo. Glavni razlog je prezaposlenost vodilnih akterjev in menedžerjev, ki vodi do zanemarjanja preteklosti in posledično do večje verjetnosti ob- čutenja napak v prihodnosti. V tem kontekstu je zanimiva primerjava tega koncepta z metalcem kopja. Ta za uspešen izmet kopja v zastavlje- ni cilj prihodnosti najprej seže nazaj (v svojo preteklost), zamahne čez glavo (v svojo sedanjost), kjer kopje (utelešenje svoje inovativne ideje) izvrže v želeni cilj prihodnosti. Elvis Halilović je mlad nadobuden industrijski oblikovalec, ki je svo- jo podjetniško idejo (lesena ka- mera obskura) predstavil na zna- nem spletnem portalu Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projec- ts/ondu-/ondu-pinhole-cameras). Pričakovani znesek za ustanovitev podjetja in začetek proizvodnje je bil 10.000 evrov. V enem mesecu je za svoj proizvod uspel navduši- ti preko 1000 ljudi po vsem svetu in zbrati preko 100.000 evrov. Na konferenci je na kratko predstavil projekt in pri tem poudaril pomen časovnega kontinuuma, ki je obro- dil obilne sadove v prihodnosti, v kateri smo sedaj. Friedrich Bleicher je profesor na Tehniški univerzi na Dunaju (TUW) in vodja Instituta za proizvodno in- ženirstvo in lasersko tehnologijo. V svojem govoru je predstavil de- javnosti instituta in implementacijo novih tehnologij v praksi. Glavna tema njegove predstavitve je bila novo razvita tehnologija izboljšanja obstojnosti orodij za preoblikova- nje pločevine s t. i. strojnim tolče- njem s kladivom (machine hammer peening). Tehnologija omogoča iz- boljšanje lastnosti orodja predvsem površinskega sloja, ki je med pre- oblikovanjem najbolj obremenjen. Med drugim omogoča vnos tlačnih napetosti in povečanje trdote povr- šine orodja in izboljšanje triboloških lastnosti z zmanjšanjem hrapavosti površine orodja do zrcalne kakovosti. Poleg tega je s to tehnologijo mogo- če v površinski sloj vnesti karbidne delce, ki še dodatno izboljšajo tribo- loške razmere in obstojnost orodja. Joel Rech prihaja z univerze v Lyo- nu. Predstavil je učinkovito sodelo- Slika 2. Skupinska fotografija udeležencev konference pri piranski cerkvi (foto: N. Matjaž) 426 Ventil 19 /2013/ 6 DOGODKI - POROČILA - VESTI Slika 3. Slike iz zanimivega prispevka prof. Fujii-ja iz Gifu University, Japonska z naslovom: Tehnologija, ki jo potre- buje 5 miliard ljudi; kaj inženirji lahko storimo za ohranitev naše Sfere?; t.i. low-tech izdelki: a) enostaven sežigalnik, b) ‘sončni’ kuhalnik, c) naprava za destilacijo vode vanje znanstvenih inštitucij s prakso na primeru avtomobilske industrije z glavnim ciljem zmanjšanja vpliva kovinsko-predelovalne industrije na okolje. Študija, predstavlja na konfe- renci predstavljena študija je temeljila na raziskavah vpliva uporabe minimal- ne količine hladilno-mazalnih sredstev na koeficient trenja in adhezijo mate- riala na orodje pri mehanski obdelavi aluminijastih zlitin z različnimi orodji. Vse našteto vodi k bolj 'zeleni' proi- zvodnji. Hladilno-mazalna sredstva so glavni onesnaževalec okolja, koeficient trenja in adhezija pa odločilno vplivata na porabo energije in obrabo orodij. ■ 3 Zaključek Interdisciplinarno druženje različnih profilov ljudi vedno poteka v spro- ščenem, prijetnem in prijateljskem vzdušju in tako je bilo tudi tokrat. Večina udeležencev se vsaki dve leti vrača na konferenco in vedno z ve- seljem priloži svoj kamenček v na- stajajoči mozaik. 2.1 Incinerator Even now already, the people in slums are living among litters and garbage in many countries. If you live being buried by wastes and garbage, you will lose your pride and, soon or later, your moral code will be collapsed. This is the problem. Poverty itself is not a big matter. Many people in many countries have experienced it. But, in the present slums, there is no hope because it is made so as a part of the social structure. That is why the problem becomes serious. In most developing countries, cities and towns have no budget for having the garage collectors or no budget to operate them. Even if the collection is done somehow, they often throw the garbage to a big throwing area and pile them up. There is no technical and social solution to deal with those mountains of garbage. One of what people need under this condition is a simple incinerator. If each family could burn out flammable items and garbage together, they can keep their surrounding tidy. A sophisticated electric incinerator is not needed. The authors like to propose to produce two parts shown in Figure 4 and deliver them to the people. The ones who receive them are requested to construct a square wall of 80cm both in width and depth and 1.2m in height. A grid to hold the material to be burnt is placed inside the structure and the structure is covered with a lid with chimney on it. The structure may be made by rocks, concrete blocks, clay or anything else inflammable. People can dig a hole with a big opening at the bottom, too. Before the people use this kind of incinerators, they have to learn to separate rubbish into burnable and non-burnable items. Glasses and metals should be separated first. These can be recycled, if some collection system is introduced. Garbage can be turned into compost in many ways. The rest can be burned out by any simple incinerator as like as the one shown above as an example. Environment enthusiasts might say that this causes air pollution when every family in a country starts using personal incinerators at the same time. Of course it may happen. But, it is more important for the society that the people wish to live in better surroundings. It will give the governments a good chance to invest to cleaning facilities. 2.2 Cooking stove In the world today, at least 3 billion people have no gas nor electricity for cooking. This number will be doubled in coming 40 years. The people are collecting dropped branches of trees, dried grasses, dungs of animals, woods from broken houses and all kinds of burnable materials. They make fire with them to cook meals and make tea. If they run out of those fuels, they will cut leaves, branches or even trees at the end. Nobody has a right to stop them. It is sad to know that in many parts of the world vast areas of forests are being lost. This is a process continuing for the last thousands of years. King Solomon built a beautiful palace using hundreds of huge Lebanon cedars. Now this area is almost a desert. Deserts in Africa are expanding. In the arid region in Central Asia, the pasture land is shrinking every year. That is why we need to develop an efficient cooking stove from which the people can get the thermal energy from grasses and trees. Such a stove will help adults and children use their time and labour for more creative purposes. In addition to that, we can expect to be able to save a considerable area of forests. Figure 4 Parts for constructing a simple incinerator Figure 3 Estimated population living in slums In these days, many manufacturers of outdoor gears are producing such cooking stoves. A company in Japan sells a stove with which you can get 1 litter of boiling water from a few sheet of A4 papers. Unfortunately, however, these products are either too expensive or too big. They sometimes requires electricity. These are no use for poor people. Technologies required for an efficient combustion have been well established. Theoretical approaches to the efficient combustion are well discussed and checked by experiments and practices. The key to high efficiency is considered to be the design of the second combustion chamber in a limited space. Only obstacle to be overcome is to make them simple and cheap. If it is not possible, governments can buy those efficient cooking stoves and deliver the stoves to the people. In the arid regions, plants is not and will not be collectable in future. Instead, plenty of solar energy is available there. For solar voltaic, solar panels, controllers, inverters and batteries are needed. But, in many countries, the government cannot deliver them to the people in free of charge. And, people cannot buy them. Under this situation, a parabolic thermal collector is a promising equipment. Figure 5 shows an example which is actually used at Mukhtinat (3,900m above the sea level, west of Mount Annapulna,) in Nepal. Considerable amount of water can be kept hot while the sun shines. This type of concentrating solar cooker was first invented by a retired surveyor, John wilfrid Wright [5]. He made it with rattan and Aluminium foil in his kitchen. When an engineer see this, he/she will start thinking what kind of sensor is useful to distinguish the direction of the sun and what kind of mechanism is the best to rotate the collector in order to follow the sun accurately. Don’t think it in that way here, but think how to make it cheaper without lowering the fundamental features. 3 To secure safe water 3.1 Solar water disinfection It is a matter of life or death whether safe water is available or not. It is becoming more and more difficult to obtain safe water in many countries. This situation will be accelerated in near future. WHO (World Health Organization) of the United Nations is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters. WHO recommends a simple, cheap and effective method for solar water disinfection. The method is just to put water in PET bottles and to expose them to the sunlight (ultraviolet). This method is very efficient and has been already applied in numerous developing countries. However, disinfection may not make all kinds of water safe to drink due to non-biological agents such as toxic chemicals or heavy metals. Consequently, additional steps beyond disinfection may be necessary to make water clean enough to drink, in many parts of the world. 3.2 Distillation of water There are numerous places where only muddy water, sea water or water contaminated by harmful substances is accessible in the world. Poor people cannot afford the water in PET bottle. For those people, distillation of unhealthy water is only possible solution to survive. Figure 6 shows a proposal of home appliance to distil unhealthy water. A container ○ 5 in the figure holds bad water. It is heated by fire or whatever means available. Vapour goes up through the holes of the strainer ○ 4 . On the other hand, ○ 1 is simply a basket with wood chips, straws, dried leaves, etc. in it. The whole basket is made wet by water and dried. The water kept in the bottle ○ 2 is cooled down by the latent heat of evaporation from the basket Part 1and becomes much cooler than the water in the pot ○ 5 . Consequently, the vapour touched with ○ 2 is condensed and accumulated in the container ○ 3 . The authors wish any company to produce a great number of this set as like as one million sets or more. It will make it possible to sell the set in really cheap price. There are many people who are drinking toxic water. They can drink safe water in this way. There Figure 5 A parabolic solar cooker with segmented reflectors used in Nepal are many fishermen who are dehydrated so often and suffer from kidney disease because of the shortage of safe water. They can drink distilled sea water. A lot of children will be saved by such a simple device. An American man, Mr. Garth Johnson, made a distillation equipment [5]. It is called Bailey's "Photon Bottle Distillation Apparatus.” He made it being inspired by Alchemist's vessels, as well as the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. This is a good try and certainly will work for larger demand of water. 3.3 Regeneration of forest Disinfection and distillation of water as mentioned above are useless unless water is obtainable. One of the causes of shortage of water is deforestation. About 70,000km 2 of forest is being lost from the world. The area of Slovenia is 20,273km 2 . There is no simple way to solve this problem. We must plant trees and raise them for 20 years or longer. Then a forest will start recovering. Politicians and governmental officers in many countries know this. Some of them have tried very hard. A successful result, however, is scarcely reported. The authors like to introduce a successful project [6] carried out by a Japanese medical doctor, Dr. Yasuo Abe. He created an excellent system to raise trees and started planting 25 years ago. His system has been working so well that it is worth explaining the method in this paper, because it is applicable to any part of the world. He is a pediatrician and used to be a dedicated mountain climber. Since 1974, he had worked as a volunteer doctor visiting Nepal several times a year for ten years. He saw so many children dying. They drink contaminated water, suffer from diarrhea and severe dehydration and are infected by all sorts of germs, and consequently die. He was convinced that he could not help those children unless forests are regenerated and fresh water becomes obtainable. He started his project first by studying forestry in Shinshu University in Japan for 2 years. On the other hand, he did an extensive survey and talked with local people in order to decide the types of the trees to be planted. He chose a village, Tupche, which had completely lost their forest many years ago. He began from an activity to make villagers understand how important the forest is, and made a planting plan together with them. The trees chosen are all domestic trees including fruit trees. On May 22 nd in 1990, he went to the village with 5,000 nursery trees that he had ordered in advance and bought from Nepali Institute of Forestry. He and villagers worked together and planted 5000 trees. Everybody knew that a half of the trees just planted would be eaten by their goats, cows and wild animals and that another half would be dried out and die during the dry season of five months period. A Nepali scholar told Dr. Abe that in Nepal only 0.5% of planted tree can survive till the next year. In order to overcome this difficulty, he created a brilliant system. The system was simply a card. The card was named Plantation Card (called Green Card by villagers because the colour of the card was green). On the front side of the card, Name of Card Holder Name of Village Date of Planting Figure 6 Distillation equipment Figure 7 A typical village that lost their forest a) b) c) ■