Week 4 Blog Entry

Reflection

COWS method is an important decision matrix used in the material selection process to evaluate and eventually select the best material that fits the design requirements, environmental considerations, availability, manufacturing process and most importantly, cost. COWS method consists of criteria, options, weightage and score. 

The criteria chosen are translation of product requirements into material properties (eg high thermal conductivity for a cooking pan), service requirements, economic requirements and fabrication requirements. A rating scale of 1-3 or 1-5 is usually used during scoring where 1 is the poorest and 3 or 5 is the best.

Although we have learnt this before last year, it was good to refresh and recap the things we have learnt in MFD to apply and understand its fundamentals in this module again for designing a chemical product.

Group Assignment

Our group was tasked with selecting a suitable material for the inner wall of a thermoflask that will be in contact with the hot fluid and the cover lid of the thermoflask. 

    i. Inner wall of thermoflask







 

ii. Cover of thermoflask






Through our thorough analysis and research using the COWS method to rank the materials, we have chosen the materials for the inner wall to be 304 Stainless Steel and Polypropylene for the cover.


References:

1. Acplasticsinc.com. (2020). FDA Approved Plastics for Food Contact — Which Plastics Make the Cut? | A&C Plastics. [online] Available at: https://www.acplasticsinc.com/informationcenter/r/fda-approved-plastics-for-food-contact [Accessed 9 May 2021].

2. Coleparmer.com. (2019). Chemical Compatibility Database from Cole-Parmer. [online] Available at: https://www.coleparmer.com/Chemical-Resistance [Accessed from 9 May 2021].

3. ecobud. (2019). What is borosilicate glass and why it is better? [online] Available at: https://www.ecobud.com.au/our-story/news-blog/healthy-living/what-is-borosilicate-glass [Accessed 9 May 2021].

4. EurekAlert! (n.d.). Graphene cracks the glass corrosion problem. [online] Available at: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/ifbs-gct101816.php [Accessed 9 May 2021].

5. Fastmarkets MB (2013). Leading provider of global metal & steel prices | Metal Bulletin. [online] Metalbulletin.com. Available at: https://www.metalbulletin.com/ [Accessed 9 May 2020].

6. Matweb.com. (2019). Online Materials Information Resource - MatWeb. [online] Available at: http://www.matweb.com/index.aspx [Accessed from 9 May 2021].

7. OMICO Plastics, Inc. (2019). Food Grade Plastic: What’s Safe & What’s Not. [online] Available at: https://omicoplastics.com/blog/food-grade-plastic-whats-safe-whats-not/ [Accessed 9 May 2021].

8. Parr Instrument Company. (n.d.). Corrosion Information. [online] Available at: https://www.parrinst.com/support/downloads/corrosion-information/ [Accessed 9 May 2021].

9. Steel, M. (n.d.). The Best Food-Safe Metals for Food Manufacturing Applications. [online] www.marlinwire.com. Available at: https://www.marlinwire.com/blog/food-safe-metals-for-sheet-metal-wire-forms [Accessed 9 May 2021].

10. www.goodfellow.com. (n.d.). Polypropylene - online catalogue source - supplier of research materials in small quantities - Goodfellow. [online] Available at: http://www.goodfellow.com/E/Polypropylene.html [Accessed 9 May 2021].

11. www.skolnik.com. (n.d.). What makes “Food Grade” stainless steel safe? - Drum It Up! [online] Available at: https://www.skolnik.com/blog/what-makes-food-grade-stainless-steel-safe/ [Accessed 9 May 2021].

Comments

  1. Chua Poh HuiJune 20, 2021 at 6:53 PM

    You did a good identification of the evaluation criteria. Great!

    ReplyDelete

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