Engineering the Smart Factory

The fourth industrial revolution promises to create what has been called the smart factory. The vision is that within such modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralised decisions. This paper provides a view of this initiative from an automation systems perspective. In this context it considers how future automation systems might be effectively configured and supported through their lifecycles and how integration, application modelling, visualisation and reuse of such systems might be best achieved. The paper briefly describes limitations in current engineering methods, and new emerging approaches including the cyber physical systems （CPS） engineering tools being developed by the automation systems group （ASG） at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK.

Arab metallurgy owes much to meteorites iron—A special regard to Damask saber

Ancient Arabs have recognized metallic and mineral ores, including their fluid inclusions which were still considered as a new scientific fields in the 70’s last century. They discovered metallic ores (gold, silver, copper), in inhabited areas and in delta and river crosses, using different techniques for exploration and exploitation. Metallic industry flourished during the Islamic period, silver and gold were used as currency for commercial exchanges. Meteorites were also recognized by Ancient Arabs. They collected them in the deserted areas, and used them for arms manufacturing, as sabers and daggers. The more famous of these arms is the Damask saber steel, known reputedly Jaohar. It has an extraordinary mechanical properties, and exceptional sharp cutting edge. The Jaohar blades were forged directly from fall meteorites, at temperature of 80℃, using a sophistical thermomechanical of forging, annealing to refine the steel, and giving it this exceptional quality and superelastic behavior. Meteorites using by Ancient Arabs come back to 400 years ago, as confirmed by a recent research on two meteorites samples, presented in Aleppo museum, found in Ras Shamra, and Umm El Maraa, in Syria.

Time-seismicity evolution and seismic risk assessment of the Arabian plate

The seismicity of the Arabian plate, which is the aim of this paper, is controlled by the ZagrosTaurus collision zone in the North, the Indian expansion zone and the Arab golf in the South and the East, the Dead Sea Fault, the North continuity of the Red Sea, and the Syrian rift, which links the rigid Arabian plate to the mobile ophiolite belt of Cyprus-Southern Turkey in the West. These major elements with their related fracture system, make the Arabian plate an important seismic centre. To attain our purpose, a variable methodology is used in: measurements of movement rate-displacement in the field, the analysis of historical and recent seismic data, and physical effects on the structures. The movement rate-displacement, calculated in the field by different specialists, varies from 2 to 6 mm/year. This rate increases from 2 - 3 mm/year in the North, to 6 mm in the South. These estimations are confirmed by historical seismic data, the recent seismic recorded by the Arab seismic centers, and physical effects on the building structures in the region. The analysis of historical and recent seismic data recorded in the seismic centre show that the seismicity in this plate, tend to fade out with time. This result is in agreement with recent estimations on the movement rate, and in line with the decrease of major seismic intensity, which has occurred during the last millennium. A conclusion of time-evolution seismicity is traced, and a seismic zoning map, for the Arabian plate, using movement rate, seismic data, and tectono-geodynamic analysis, is proposed.