The Feasibility of Reclaiming Shell Material from Investment Casting

This report examines the feasibility of investment shell component reclamation. Shell material components and their compositions are investigated with an industry survey, a study of the available literature, and analysis of specimen shell materials. physical properties and factors related to the reclamation and reuse of shell materials are described. Well known mineral processing methods are capable of producing concentrates of the various shell components. The theory and techniques of some applicable processes are discussed to assist with the development of reclamation operations. The recommended methods are; comminution by roll crushing, component concentration by screening, gravity settling or heavy medium separation. Aluminosilicate stucco (a major component of many investment shells) can be recovered in a form suitable for reuse as backup stucco. Zircon (a minor component in many shell compositions) -can be concentrated in an impure form, and subsequent caustic liberation treatments can remove the intermixed silica phases. Reuse of such zircon in investment casting may be possible but will require careful qualification testing. Fused and crystalline silica (major components of most shell compositions) are not reusable for investment casting. The feasibility of reclamation will be influenced by individual foundry choices of materials, composition and shell practice.HWRIC Project No. RRT-10NTIS PB92-16219

The Appropriate Legal Standard and Sufficient Economic Evidence for Exclusive Dealing under Section 2: the FTC’s \u3ci\u3eMcWane\u3c/i\u3e Case

The FTC recently found McWane, Inc. liable for unlawful monopoly maintenance by a 3-1 majority. The dispute among the FTC Commissioners raises important and interesting issues regarding the law and economics of exclusive dealing and the proper evaluation of the competitive effects of exclusionary conduct. Commissioner Wright’s Dissent proposes and utilizes a new legal standard that requires the plaintiff to show “clear evidence” of harm to competition before shifting the burden to the defendant to show procompetitive efficiency benefits. This burden of proof and production on the plaintiff is much higher than showing “probable effect” based on a preponderance of the evidence standard. Application of this higher burden to interbrand exclusivity restraints by monopolists is not supported either by the case law, economic theory or empirical evidence. In evaluating harm to competition, this legal standard places no weight on certain important factors, including the fact that McWane was a monopolist with the explicit purpose of raising the costs and reducing the distribution of its only competitors. His proposed standard also does not consider whether McWane’s efficiency claims were valid, in the absence of other clear evidence of competitive harm. Commissioner Wright limits his economic analysis to only a single possible mechanism of exclusionary effect, whether the entrant was prevented from reaching minimum efficient scale of production, rather than a broader analysis of whether the entrant’s costs were raised or whether its ability to expand output was so limited by the exclusives that it was unable to prevent the maintenance of McWane’s monopoly pricing. Commissioner Wright also fails to credit the direct evidence of price effects found by the Commission. In our view, this proposed type of legal standard and economic approach is not an “enquiry meet for the case.” It creates a serious risk of leading to false negatives, under-enforcement and under-deterrence

Barriers to industrial energy efficiency: a literature review

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Managing the trade-off implications of global supply

The cost versus response trade-off is a growing logistics issue due to many markets being increasingly characterized by demand uncertainty and shorter product life cycles. This is exacerbated further with supply increasingly moving to low cost global sources. However, the poor response implications of global supply are often not addressed or even acknowledged when undertaking such decisions. Consequently, various practical approaches to minimising, postponing or otherwise managing the impact of the demand uncertainty are often only adopted retrospectively. Even though such generic solutions are documented through case examples we lack effective tools and concepts to support the proactive identification and resolution of such trade-offs. This paper reports on case-based theory building research, involving three cases from the UK and USA used in developing a conceptual model with associated tools, in support of such a process

Pollution Prevention and Business Management. Curricula for Schools of Business and Public Health. Volume 1: Modules 1-3

These instructional modules are based on the premise that sustained economic development is dependent upon sustained protection ofthe environment. They also reflect the fact that preventing waste is far more cost effective than managing the waste once it is generated. Pollution prevention not only offers businesses a competitive opportunity, it is a natural extension of sound management practices. Incorporating pollution prevention into business management and government regulation will enhance longterm economic prosperity.published or submitted for publicatio

Environmental policy instruments and their effects on innovation

The influence of environmental policy on innovative behaviour of companies has so far recieved little attention in scientific discourse. Based on recent literature, the paper analyses the impact of requirements, levies, permits, liability laws, and the EC-eco- audit regulation with respect to the generation of environmentally benign innovations. Most theoretical studies come to the conclusion that direct requirements provide little incentives for dynamic effects and that emission taxes and permits are better instruments to promote innovations. However, the empirical studies show that the dynamic effects of environmental policy instruments in practice partly differ from the ideal instruments analyzed in theoretical studies. --

Selection and Firm Survival: Evidence from the Shipbuilding Industry, 1825-1914

Several theories of firm performance can explain the well-known observation that survival is positively related to age. However, a more mundane explanation – selection bias driven by variations in firm quality – may also underlie the phenomenon. This paper employs a 90-year plant-level panel data set on the US iron and steel shipbuilding industry of the 19th and early 20th centuries to discriminate between the two explanations. The shipbuilding industry exhibits the usual joint dependency of survival on age and size, but this dependency is eliminated after controlling for heterogeneity by using pre-entry experience as a proxy for firm quality. The evidence points to a dominant role for selection bias in creating the age-dependency of survival. At the same time, pre-entry experience is found to have a large and extremely persistent effect on survival, and this finding is inconsistent with standard explanations for the role of pre-entry experience on firm performance.shipbuilding, firm survival, age, selection, unobserved heterogeneity

The cost of quality : elements of lean production in foundries

Inefficiencies in the process chain result in bloated operational costs and ostensibly pass on to the customer. It is essential to streamline process costs and categorise them appropriately as either costs of conformance or cost of non-conformance. In this way, hidden costs due to inefficiencies in the system can be identified. A sustained continuous improvement programme to systematically eliminate waste can be employed to achieve lean manufacturing or “cleaner production”. A number of factors contribute to costs in a foundry from procurement of scrap to the delivery of a casting