Volume 23 (2015): Edition 36 (June 2015)

In order to achieve relevant and exact value in measurement of vibrations, it is necessary to add the corresponding value of deviation to the result of measurement. As the topic of determining the deviation is too complex and the scope of article is limited, we focus on the characteristic features and mathematical description of the basic types of deviations and some partial deviations which should betaken into account in measurement.

With the growing prices of fossil fuels, alternative fuels produced of biomass come to the fore. They are made of waste materials derived from the processing of wood and wood materials. The main objective of this study was to analyse the fire-technical characteristics of wood pellets. The study analysed three dust samples acquired from wood pellets made of various types of wood biomass. Wood pellet dust is produced when manipulating with pellets. During this process a potentially hazardous situations may occur. Biomass is chemically composed mostly of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin. During straining of the biomass by heat flux, combustion initiation occurs. Also, there was a change in the composition of material throughout combustion gases production, and the amount of heat generated by a flame or flameless combustion. Measurement of fire characteristics was conducted according to ISO 5660-1 standard using a cone calorimeter. Two samples of wood pellet dust were tested under the heat flux of 35 kW.m⁻² and 50 kW.m⁻². The process of combustion, the time to ignition, the carbon monoxide concentration and the amount of released heat were observed.

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of 3,5-dichlorophenol removal from wastewater by using alternative low cost adsorbents. Waste from the production and processing of metals (black nickel mud, red mud) and a biosorbent (Lemna minor) were used for this research. Initial concentration of the contaminant was 4 mmol L⁻¹, the contact time of sorbent and waste water was 0 - 48 hrs and the temperature during experiment was 25 ± 0.2 °C. The results show that the highest removal efficiency of 3,5 - dichlorophenol (58.18 %) was reached by the red mud in 48 hours.

Removal of copper from aqueous solution on the natural and modified clinoptilolite was studied under static conditions. Batch adsorptions of copper were performed to investigate the effects of contact time and initial metal ion concentration. The Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms were used to analyse the experimental data. The kinetic analyses of the adsorption processes were performed using the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models.

In the research described in this paper, studied was sorption capacity of natural and ferric modification of zeolite tuff containing mineral clinoptilolite from the Nižný Hrabovec deposit to remove potentially toxic metals (ionic forms of chromium, nickel, copper and aluminium) from their water solutions. We reported that the Fe (III) zeolite has an enhanced ability to sorption of Cu (II), and a slight improvement occurs in the case of Cr (VI) and Ni (II). On the other hand, the deterioration was observed in the case of Al (III) adsorption.

The article deals with the measurement of maximum explosion pressure and the maximum rate of exposure pressure rise of wood dust cloud. The measurements were carried out according to STN EN 14034-1+A1:2011 Determination of explosion characteristics of dust clouds. Part 1: Determination of the maximum explosion pressure p_max of dust clouds and the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise according to STN EN 14034-2+A1:2012 Determination of explosion characteristics of dust clouds - Part 2: Determination of the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise (dp/dt)_max of dust clouds. The wood dust cloud in the chamber is achieved mechanically. The testing of explosions of wood dust clouds showed that the maximum value of the pressure was reached at the concentrations of 450 g / m³ and its value is 7.95 bar. The fastest increase of pressure was observed at the concentrations of 450 g / m³ and its value was 68 bar / s.

Fundamental right of all consumers is the availability of necessary information to protect their own health. Information should be obtained from the marks referred to the product which they come into contact with. Marks are integral parts of everyone's life. We can see various types of marks at home, in stores and everywhere around us. Symbols indicate to the consumer the importance assigned to them in an opinion system (labelling scheme).

An apparatus for measuring biodegradability of metalworking fluids (MWFs) was constructed according to (1), based on the Zahn-Wellens test which enables a continuous determination of CO₂ production by the change in conductivity of absorption solution. Results obtained from the testing of 8 different MWFs by this modified method were compared to those obtained in standardized OECD 302 B. The comparison showed better description of bacterial inoculum activity in tested solution; lag phase was easy to indicate. Tested emulsion achieved the level of primary degradability 39.7 – 40.8 %, and semi-synthetics 19.1 – 43.5%. The samples of synthetics where the degradation level reached 43.9 - 58.6 % were identified as the most degradable metalworking fluids.

The increase in mineralization and biodegradability of MWFs by ozone/ultraviolet in comparison with ozone were investigated. Studied were two similar synthetic fluids pre-treated by the combination of the O₃/UV advanced oxidative method. Expectations that the pre-treatment could enhance biodegradability of the metalworking fluid were not confirmed. The combined oxidation process at the defined conditions resulted in 1-35 % decrease of the achieved primary degradation level. Samples were prepared from real concentrates and diluted to approximately 350 mg/L of TOC.

Production of biofuel from renewable sources is considered to be one of the most sustainable alternatives to petroleum sourced fuels. Biofuels are also viable means of environmental and economic sustainability. Biofuels are divided into four generations, depending on the type of biomass used for biofuels production. At present, microalgae are presented as an ideal third generation biofuel feedstock because of their rapid growth rate. They also do not compete with food or feed crops, and can be produced on non-arable land. Cultivation conditions (temperature, pH, light, nutrient quantity and quality, salinity, aerating) are the major factors that influence photosynthesis activity and behaviour of the microalgae growth rate. In this paper, we present an overview about the effect of cultivation conditions on microalgae growth.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used in this study to identify and determine spectral features of Chromochloris zofingiensis (Dönz) Fucíková et L.A. Lewis (SAG 211-14, Gottingen, Germany), Acutodesmus obliguus (Turpin) Hegewald (SAG 276-1, Gottingen, Germany) and Chlorella sorokiniana (K. Brandt) Pröschold et Darienko (SAG 211-40c, Gottingen, Germany). Polysaccharides and lipids from these three algae species were determined using Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) with ATR accessory with diamante crystal in spectral range from 400 – 4000 cm⁻¹ and resolution 4.

The paper discussed the issue of eutrophication. The most conspicuous effect of eutrophication is the creation of dense blooms of noxious, foul-smelling phytoplankton that reduce water clarity and harm water quality. Nutrient concentration, temperature and pH of the water largely influence the growth rate and composition of duckweed in general, but it can be said that the temperature and solar irradiation are the most important factors. In order to compare the rate of biomass increase of duckweed biomass in natural conditions and in a laboratory grown sample was analysed by spectrophotometric methods in UV/VIS region (Spectrophotometer GENESYS^TM) for the selected nutrients such as ammonium, ammonium nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate.

This article deals with the activation energy of ignition calculation of plastics. Two types of polyamide 6 and one type of polypropylene and polyurethane were selected as samples. The samples were tested under isothermal conditions at several temperatures while times to ignition were observed. From the obtained data, activation energy relating to the moment of ignition was calculated for each plastics. The values for individual plastics were different. The highest activation energies (129.5 kJ.mol⁻¹ and 106.2 kJ.mol⁻¹) were achieved by polyamides 6, while the lowest was determined for a sample of polyurethane.

Environmentally oriented product policy is in general determined by the relationships between its aims – subjects – objects - tools. It is based on the integrated approach to the product life cycle, which anticipates an enormous amount of information. It has to solve the questions of the international trade as well as the rules of the International Trade Organization. New forms of preventive environmental strategies and especially Green Marketing are being introduced helping to solve environmental problems and environmental motivation of producers. Many producers face great attention of the public regarding their approach to the environment. Despite the fact that the customers buy products fairly prudently and their behaviour is markedly affected by prices, a particular part of the population prefers the products that do not burden the environment. This brings about a situation, in which the producers within their mutual competition and in relation to customers are enforced to behave responsibly.

Growing load and deterioration of the environment can be interpreted as a result of some external effects interventions. While the positive externalities influence the positive productional and utilizational functions of other subjects, the negative externalities influence the negative ones. Both types of external effects can act as parcial or global externalities. Linking of environmental issues to economy and finance is an important sphere.

Organizations are becoming more aware of the importance of integrated management systems (IMS). Interest in this subject indicates that IMS are seen as “management systems of the future”. Based on this, the aim of this articles characterizes the possibility of building IMS through the identification of common elements and specific requirements in accordance with the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 professional references. Part of the article is the methodology of building IMS in the organization.

In Western countries, the new visions are applied in quality control for an integrated public transport system. Public transport puts the customer at the centre of our decision making in achieving customer satisfaction with provided service. Sustainable surveys are kept among customers. A lot of companies are collecting huge databases containing over 30,000 voices of customers, which demonstrates the current satisfaction levels across the public transport service. Customer satisfaction with a provided service is a difficult task. In this service, the quality criteria are not clearly defined, and it is therefore difficult to define customer satisfaction. The paper introduces a possibility of CSI index application in conditions of the Slovak Republic transport area.

The Fault Tree process utilizes logic diagrams to portray and analyse potentially hazardous events. Three basic symbols (logic gates) are adequate for diagramming any fault tree. However, additional recently developed symbols can be used to reduce the time and effort required for analysis. A fault tree is a graphical representation of the relationship between certain specific events and the ultimate undesired event (2). This paper deals to method of Fault Tree Analysis basic description and provides a practical view on possibility of application by quality improvement in road freight transport company.

This paper analyses quality of the living flowers and plants transportation. A part of this paper compares the demands for a particular transport mode and a practical demonstration of these transport modes within a specific transport mode. The paper presents a survey of quality of services provided by individual transport modes.

The introductory part of the paper underlines the importance of "Risk-based thinking" in the Quality Management System (QMS) and risk in the supply chain, as a principle part of the QMS. After introducing the key terms, the authors focused on the principle part of the article - explanation of the external and internal supply chain risks and the main factors concerning the supply risks, demand risks and environmental risks (as cardinal types of external supply chain risks) as well as the manufacturing and process risks, network/planning and control risks (as most important types of internal supply chain risks). The authors inform on the selected supply chain risk management tools, especially on those which are linked to the appropriate utilization of quality management tools.

In corporate practice, the term of Integrated Management System means a system the aim of which is to manage an organization regarding the quality, environment, health and safety at work. In the first phase of the VEGA project No. 1/0448/13 “Transformation of ergonomics program into the company management structure through interaction and utilization QMS, EMS, HSMS”, we focused on obtaining information about the way or procedure of implementing the integrated management systems in manufacturing companies in Slovakia. The paper considers characteristics of integrated management system, specifies the possibilities for successive integration of the management systems and also describes the essential aspects of the practical implementation of integrated management systems in companies in Slovakia.