Due to recent legal enactments regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the car industry is facing higher demands. An effective way of reducing these emissions is to minimize the weight of the vehicle. This thesis constitutes a feasibility study on whether or not it is applicable for the car industry to utilize an inner floor structure comprising composite materials. The principal was the projectSåNätt, in which the main participant was Volvo Cars Corp. In consultation with a reference group, consisting of delegates from the industry and KTH, a specification of requirements was produced.

A persistent problem in the construction industry is its low margins of profit. It is often difficult to earn money due to low efficiency and high costs. Logistics on the construction site answers for a large amount of these costs and it is therefore of interest to find new, more efficient logistic solutions. The purpose of this thesis is to compare two different logistic systems and further to evaluate which one that is the most efficient and profitable. A comparison is made between the traditional logistic systems used for years and a new logistic system developed by an industry association called BEAst.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka om en geografiskt begränsad marknad inom byggbranschen underlättar en implementering av Lean Construction. För att undersöka detta har jag utgått från två forskningsfrågor: vilken inställning de tillfrågade byggföretagen har till Lean Construction och hur de arbetar utifrån ett Lean-perspektiv? Utifrån ett antal grundprinciper från Lean Construction formades en enkät för datainsamling. Resultaten från undersökningen visade att respondenterna som bestod av platschefer/arbetsledare och underentreprenörer överlag tyckte att de områden som tagits upp var viktiga för en lyckad byggprocess och en stor del av respondenterna även arbetade utifrån ett Lean-perspektiv. Enkätundersökningen tog upp nio områden: samarbete, Visible Planning med detaljerade veckoplaner, Just-In-Time, slöseri, standardisering, Kaizen, innovationer, Last Planner med arbetsplanering och Percent Plan Complete från Last Planner konceptet.

An investigation of the heat impact of laser cutting on the material properties when producing tensile and impact test specimens of different steel types of varying thickness has been performed. The purpose of the thesis project was to provide recommendations regarding how much material that needs to be milled from the laser cut edge before tensile and impact tests. The study has been performed partly by investigating the test specimens by heat camera when the specimens were cut in the laser cutting line and partly by performing hardness tests, investigation by microscopy, and tolerance and roughness measurements and tensile tests of the laser cut material and material produced in the traditional multi operation machine. The results show that the heat affected zone in the thicker materials is greater than previously thought of, and that the currently used recommendation has to be adjusted. The study clearly shows that the thicker the material, the greater the heat affected zone, independently of the steel type, since the thicker material takes longer time to cut.

The problems caused by the current engine casing in aluminum for Volvo Buses Corp. are the mainfoundation for this degree project. Lack of maintenance combined with a construction poorlyadjusted for assembly has resulted in the fact that the engine casings rarely get reassembled whenthe service is completed.The degree project has mainly been following ?Olssons. F, Principkonstruktion, Compendium, Lund?and ?Olssons.

This report deals with activities that from a CSR perspective are considered to create a shared value for a medium-sized construction company in Sweden. The CSR definition used in the report is the European Commission?s since it reflects the valuecreating aspects of CSR, in contrast to the traditional philanthropic aspect of CSR.Companies in the building construction industry have difficulties identifying activities that create value in society and in the company. The aim with the project is to, from a CSR perspective, identify and evaluate value creating activities in a building construction company. The activities will be evaluated with respect to competitiveness and how they can be implemented into an organization.

Ground construction has to a large extent been dominated by traditional meth-ods during the last 50 years. Although the construction has been changed meanwhile innovations are not accepted. In collaboration with NCC Ltd Region South, I have examined a modern con-struction methodology that has been developed by NCC for future large pro-jects. The method is divided into two central phases. Phase 1 is? Single Pro-duction? which is a preliminary period for ground constructions to come.

Det här examensarbetet behandlar viktsoptimering och omkonstruktion av en lastcontainer genom att använda höghållfast stål. Arbetet har utförts i Luleå åt LuCoil Steel AB i samarbete med Vikströms Åkeri AB. Vikströms Åkeri AB är ett rikstäckande företag med huvudkontor på Storheden utanför Luleå där det även finns en tillverkningsverkstad för lastbilscontainrar. Man har under de senaste åren i samarbete med LuCoil Steel AB börjat tillverka containrar i höghållfast stål för att kunna använda sig av tunnare material och göra dessa containrar lättare än tidigare. Vikten på containrar har stor betydelse inom transortnäringen.

In the year 2010 a transition will take place here in Sweden from the present rules how to dimension buildings in to the common rules with have been developed in Europe, the Eurocodes. Eurocode is the term for a collection standard that contains calculation rules in how to dimension constructions and buildings. They are developed by the European standardize committee.The purpose with this examination work is to get an insight of what changes this will contribute to, and how it will affect the dimensioning. Are there going to be any differences in the dimension you finally chose?To investigate these possible differences two constructions will be calculated first in the present Swedish rules, and then in the coming eurocodes.One of these two constructions will be build completely in steel, while the other will be build completely in concrete.

During the 1990?s a large number of building projects were revealed where lack of moistsafety precautions during the construction process had led to extensive moisture damage. Alsoresent implemented studies have shown that the problems with moisture damages have ratherincreased than decreased during the past few years. Moist is considered to be one of the mainfactors to cause unhealth due to deficiencies in the indoor-environment and does also causeunnecessary expenses and a reduction of the confidence in the construction industry.In this Bachelor of Science thesis three projects have been reviewed to examine how moistsafetyhas been observed during the construction process. Main focus has been to identify thebuilding components that are the most exposed to moist, and to examine how they have beentaken into account during the period of design and construction.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att på uppdrag av Volvo Construction Equipment hitta en metod för att hantera och kategorisera idéflödet i deras idéhanteringssystem Interact. Den metod som användes var kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Slutsatsen är att metoden gick att använda för att kategorisera idéflödet men att ett material som sträcker sig över många ämnen tenderar att sänka tillförlitligheten på resultatet. Vidare bedöms materialet som detta arbete har producerat kunna användas för att bättre ta tillvara på idéer, vilket uppskattas av Volvo Construction Equipment..

This thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Burseryds Bruk AB.Burseryds Bruk is a company that manufactures steel strapping. The thesis isabout developing a concept of protection that should be used to protect theoperators from the rotating parts of the machinery lines. The aim of the projectwas to improve work safety for operators working at the machines by producing aconcept for a protective device. The project's first part was based on ergonomic data collection methods tounderstand the operations performed on the machine and the hazard occurringduring the process. The methods used to collect data were, interviews,observations and questionnaires with the operators of the company. This was thenused to make the ergonomic analyzes hierarchical task analysis and link analysis. The data collected from the company's operators was used create 10 conceptswhich were then evaluated.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the method called zero recognition that is used in accounting for construction contracts when the outcome is uncertain. When this is the case it is hard to make the necessary estimates needed for the percentage of completion method to be used. Both the meaning of the method from an accounting perspective and the practical importance and purpose of the method is investigated. The method used for this study is the qualitative one and the deductive model is used to relate the theory with the empirical research. The theoretical background consists of accounting theory and theories about individuals, companies and markets.

Looking at the debate on nuclear power in Sweden, the issue of risk is central to understanding the difficulties in resolving differences between proponents and opponents. I sought to answer the research question: "how is the concept of risk constructed in the nuclear power debate in Sweden?" Four main aspects of risk construction were defined and investigated to identify differences between sides in the debate. Through a qualitative study of the debate and its actors I found clear differences in respect to all four aspects of risk construction. First, the perception of nuclear power as a "normal risk" is common among nuclear opponents in contrast to a largely probabilistic view among proponents.

Safety in the construction industry has become a question of top priority in recent years. Despite a massive investment of time, money and knowledge, the occur-rence of fatal accidents in Sweden alone is around one a month.The purpose of this study is therefore to improve the safety on the construction site. By an examination of the role of the safety agents and their cooperation with the construction workers and supervisors as well as examine how safety agents can improve safety on the construction site, which is the goal of the study.Four questions were formulated based on the purpose and the goal of the study.The methods used to answer the questions were a questionnaire survey, multiple interviews, a literature review and a document analysis.The report describes the safety agent?s role as a complex one with many different tasks. The role of the safety agents is regulated in the health and safety law, but it can sometimes be difficult to interpret and the agents can therefore interpret their role differently.