Thanks to their interesting mechanical properties, recyclability and low production costs, plant fiber-reinforced composites, derived from agricultural residues, are of particular interest to both manufacturers and scientists looking to incorporate new environmentally-friendly and biodegradable materials to replace synthetic fibers, particularly glass fibers. The growing use of these composites in fields such as the automotive, construction and building industries, and soon in aeronautics, raises concerns about the reliability of the structures with which they are manufactured. This reliability must be guaranteed at the design stage, by a good knowledge of the properties of the material used. In this case, for composites, it is necessary to know the mechanical properties of their constituents, fibers and matrix, etc. In this context, this paper focuses firstly on the economic and industrial recovery of Kenaf (K) and Date Palm (DP) fibers, and secondly on their incorporation as a reinforcing element in cementitious matrix composites, for subsequent use in non-structural applications. This research highlights the development of cementitious matrix bio-composites reinforced with this type of fiber, based on Taguchi's statistical methodology, in order to minimize the cost and number of tests. The bio-composites developed are then mechanically characterized under static loading in compression and 3-point bending after a 30-day drying period.

In the current study, the eight-bar planar mechanism is balanced by reducing variations in shaking force and moments using Minitab and a genetic algorithm. The objective function and constraint equations are taken into consideration, the mathematical model was developed to optimize the balancing of the planar eight-bar mechanism.A set of weighting factors were taken into consideration in order to determine the ideal values for the design parameters based on the contributions of the X and Y components of the shaking force and the shaking moment. A genetic algorithm was used to find the best design parameters. The results showed that the shaking force and moments decreased by 34.5 and 61% from the initial values, respectively.

In pressworking, large forces cut or deform a material, and specific shearing processes include blanking and piercing of metals, including aluminum. The force requirement is directly proportional to the ultimate shear strength, USS, of the sheared material. Nevertheless, shear strengths are not readily found in engineering references, especially for the multitude of aluminum grades and tempers. Thus, USS is often estimated from some percentage of the ultimate tensile strength. However, analyses for these estimates are lacking, and it is not clear how accurately the USS is predicted. In this review of 197 aluminum alloy data, it is shown that 60% of the ultimate tensile strength provides a satisfactory estimation for USS as the predicted shear strength is, on average, within 5.5% of the actual value. USS of weaker grades, as well as for all annealed material, tends to be underestimated while the strongest grades are overestimated. The availability of reliable aluminum shear strength data makes for more efficient pressworking.

Paper is widely used in packaging applications and is biodegradable and therefore perfectly safe as green packaging wrap for the environment. The hydrophilic nature of cellulose fibrils limits the water vapour and oxygen barrier properties of paper. To mitigate these limitations, paper is often associated with other materials, such as plastics, wax and aluminum, for achieving their good barrier properties. However, these materials suffer from serious environmental issues, as difficult and inefficient to recycle. Recently, cellulose nanofibre (CNF) based materials has been considered as an alternative to produce eco-friendly barrier materials. Existing techniques to prepare cellulose nanofibre films/sheets/composites/ laminates on the paper substrates are commercially not feasible and expensive. Therefore, other cost effective and readily implementable methodologies are required to achieve cellulose nanofibre barrier layers. In the present report, a novel approach is developed using spray coating technique to produce CNF materials with excellent barrier properties. Among many coating techniques, the spray coating has many advantages such as the production of even coating surface on the base sheet and contactless coating with the substrate. A laboratory scale spray coating of cellulose nanofibre suspension on a paper substrate was developed. When the cellulose nanofibre suspension concentration was varied from 0.5 to 1.5 wt. %, coat weight is increased from 2.9±0.7 to 29.3±6.9 g/m². As a result, the air permeability of composite was decreased 0.78±0.17 to <0.0030 µm/Pa.s. Scanning electron microscopy studies of spray coated CNF laminates on the paper confirms that the surface pores in the paper substrates are filled with sprayed cellulose nanofibre and forms a continuous film on the surface of the substrate. These are the probable reasons for the reduction of air permeability of composites. A rapid preparation technique to prepare free standing cellulose nanofibre films/sheets was also developed using a bench scale spray coating system. Cellulose nanofibre suspension with concentration ranging from 1 to 2 wt% was sprayed onto a stainless steel plate, which is moving on a conveyor at a velocity of 0.32 cm/sec and then air dried. The basis weight of produced cellulose nanofibre films is varied from 52.8±7.4 to 193.1±3.4 g/m². Processing time taken to prepare films was approximately 1.0 min, which is much less than processing times reported in the previous literature. Thus, the significant reduction in preparation time for producing the cellulose nanofibre sheet recommends that this spray coating technique can be utilized for the development of a scalable process for the fabrication of various cellulose based nanocomposite. Therefore, the laboratory scale spray coating confirms that the spraying could provide a platform for development of films/sheets/nanocomposite and also a CNF barrier layer on the base sheet. The future work is the development of a continuous spray coating of cellulose nanofibre on the base sheet and evaluation of mechanical and barrier properties spray coated barrier layers on the base sheet.

High levels of occupational noise and vibration remain a problem in all regions of the world. In Nigeria, 12−15% of the workforce are exposed to these hazards by WHO, 2001. This research intends to achieve the following objectives; To assess the noise emitted during the moulding of various types of blocks, to determine the level of vibration induced to workers of block moulders during activities and to determine the effect of noise and vibration on workers. The following materials and equipment were used; QT40B manual block moulding machine, LM2-45 Mobile Block moulding Machine, Lister powered block moulding machine, QTJ4-40 block moulding machine using 9 and 6 inches Plates, Vibrometer and Noise monitor. The workers were exposed to noise levels above 75dB and vibration levels above 5ms-2 set as upper limit values in the Directive 44/EC from 2002 – on the Minimum Health and safety Requirements Regarding to Exposure of Workers to the Risk Arising from Physical Agents Vibration.