Technological innovation for digital supply chains within small and medium size manufacturing enterprises

The rapidly growing world of digitalisation opens the doorway for the new era of automation that plays a crucial role within the industry. Furthermore, technological innovations that are emerging every day are disrupting traditional business processes especially within small and medium size manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). The current industrial revolution pioneer for profit maximisation with cost reduction shows a significant refinement in improving sustainability that drives forward digitalisation. Evidence shows that industries have identified digitalisation as a priority in the upcoming years as the global supply chain is equipping itself with the digital world in the current industrial revolution. Economic growth is dependent on SMEs around the world where small and medium size Manufacturing Enterprises (SMMEs) play a vital role in the current competitive world while they are not able to manage their supply chains effectively and efficiently due to a lack of optimisation of digitalisation. They identify that technological innovation is evident for transforming themselves with digital supply chain, while global market leading organisations are positioning themselves with the world of digitalisation to their end consumers in their supply chain utilising technological innovation virtually driving towards a new era of a digital ecosystem. This research aims to investigate the impact of technological innovation to foster and promote digital supply chain within SMMEs. Due to the exploratory nature, this study adopted a case study approach where the data is collected using a semi-structured interview across 4 cases from three various countries. The findings indicate a lack of framework for the digitalisation of supply chains within SMMEs, in addition to a lack of technological innovation and financial constraints that served as limiting factors for digitalisation of supply chain within organisations. Further, a framework has been developed consisting of five elements that have been identified from empirical data as being critical for Digital Supply Chain (DSC) transformation. The theoretical contributions of this research are the identification of problems faced, limitations of technological innovation, and an improved understanding of how digital supply chain transformation can be initiated and achieved in the context of SMMEs. The practical contribution of this study is imbedded in the developed framework in the form of recommended strategies for SMMEs for digitalisation of supply chain

An overview of Smart manufacturing for competitive and digital global supply chains

This research study aims to examine and review the key advantages of smart manufacturing to achieve and improve performance within global supply chain environments. In recent years supply chain has been arisen as one of the major areas to gain a competitive edge in manufacturing industries. The current business methodologies of short product life cycle, increased outsourcing, expanding product variety, improved customer focus and improved technologies has led supply chain to be some challenging and complex tasks. Smart Manufacturing has been considered as a successful advancement in industrial revolution featuring resource efficiency, adaptability, agitability with wide application of internet and other innovative engineering technologies integrating of customers and business value processes creating a better manufacturing environment. The research is at its preliminary stages and will aim to examine and evaluate existing literature within the areas of smart and digital manufacturing and compare examples of best practices and methods towards creating a detailed comprehensive and systematic finding of the key research studies. This paper is a literature review which aims to review the benefits of smart manufacturing and its influence to achieve an improved performance in supply chain

Role of pre-ordered liquid in the selection mechanism of crystal polymorphs during nucleation

We investigate the atomistic mechanism of homogeneous nucleation during solidification in molybdenum employing transition path sampling. The mechanism is characterized by the formation of a pre-structured region of high bond-orientational order in the supercooled liquid followed by the emergence of the crystalline bulk phase within the center of the growing solid cluster. This precursor plays a crucial role in the process as it provides a diffusive interface between the liquid and crystalline core, which lowers the interfacial free energy and facilitates the formation of the bulk phase. Furthermore, the structural features of the pre-ordered regions are distinct from the liquid and solid phases and preselect the specific polymorph that nucleates. The similarity in the nucleation mechanism of Mo with that of metals that exhibit different crystalline bulk phases indicates that the formation of a precursor is a general feature observed in these materials. The strong influence of the structural characteristics of the precursors on the final crystalline bulk phase demonstrates that for the investigated system, polymorph selection takes place in the very early stages of nucleation

Automated free-energy calculation from atomistic simulations

We devise automated workflows for the calculation of Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies and their temperature and pressure dependence and provide the corresponding computational tools. We employ nonequilibrium thermodynamics for evaluating the free energy of solid and liquid phases at a given temperature and reversible scaling for computing free energies over a wide range of temperatures, including the direct integration of P−T coexistence lines. By changing the chemistry and the interatomic potential, alchemical and upscaling free energy calculations are possible. Several examples illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of our implementation

Surface engineering of corrosion, environmental fracture, cavitation & impingement resistant materials

There is a need for materials that are highly resistant to corrosion, environmental fracture, cavitation, and liquid droplet impingement, especially within the Navy. Several novel approaches to enhancing the cavitation and impingement resistance of ship and aircraft components are discussed. These approaches include: (1) new ultra-hard amorphous-metal coatings, applied with a hydrogen-fueled HVOF process; (2) coatings with extreme interfacial bond strength, produced with LLNL’s new laser-based HVLAD process; (3) nickel aluminide coatings with nano-diamond strengthening and hardening, applied with a combination of cold spray and post- deposition heat treatment with intense diode sources; (4) diode-assisted friction stir processing for the elimination of surface defects in large cast propellars; and (5) laser peening for the elimination of residual tensile stresses, and the associated fatigue and environmental cracking. This paper discusses several novel approaches to the development of such materials, through surface engineering, and the benefits that will be enjoyed if such a developmental effort is successful.Department of Energy (DOE)Contract DE-AC52-07NA2734

On the microstructure and properties of Nb-12Ti-18Si-6Ta-5Al-5Cr-2.5W-1Hf (at.%) silicide-based alloys with Ge and Sn additions

The microstructures and properties of the alloys JZ3 (Nb-12.4Ti-17.7Si-6Ta-2.7W-3.7Sn-4.8Ge-1Hf-4.7Al-5.2Cr) and JZ3+(Nb-12.4Ti-19.7Si-5.7Ta-2.3W-5.7Sn-4.9Ge-0.8Hf-4.6Al-5.2Cr) were studied. The densities of both alloys were lower than the densities of Ni-based superalloys and many of the refractory metal complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs) studied to date. Both alloys had Si macrosegregation and the same phases in their as cast and heat treated microstructures, namely βNb5Si3, αNb5Si3, A15-Nb3X (X = Al, Ge, Si, Sn), C14-Cr2Nb and solid solution. W-rich solid solutions were stable in both alloys. At 800 °C only the alloy JZ3 did not show pest oxidation, and at 1200 °C a thin and well adhering scale formed only on JZ3+. The alloy JZ3+ followed parabolic oxidation with rate constant one order of magnitude higher than the single crystal Ni-superalloy CMSX-4 for the first 14 h of oxidation. The oxidation of both alloys was superior to that of RCCAs. Both alloys were predicted to have better creep at the creep goal condition compared with the superalloy CMSX-4. Calculated Si macrosegregation, solid solution volume fractions, chemical compositions of solid solution and Nb5Si3, weight changes in isothermal oxidation at 800 and 1200 °C using the alloy design methodology NICE agreed well with the experimental results

Nitrogen Doped Graphene Generated by Microwave Plasma and Reduction Expansion Synthesis

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1166/nnl.2016.2055This work aimed to produce nitrogen doped graphene from Graphite Oxide (GO) by combining the Expansion Reduction Synthesis (RES) approach, which utilizes urea as doping/reducing agent, with the use of an Atmospheric Plasma torch (Plasma), which provides the high temperature reactor environment known to thermally exfoliate it. The use of this combined strategy (Plasma-RES) was tried in an attempt to increase the surface area of the products. The amount of nitrogen doping was controlled by varying the urea/GO mass ratios in the precursor powders. X-ray diffraction analysis, SEM, TEM, BET surface areas and conductivity measurements of the diverse products are presented. Nitrogen inclusion in the graphene samples was corroborated by the mass spectral signal of the evolved gases generated during thermal programmed oxidation experiments of the products and by EDX analysis. We found that the Plasma-RES method can successfully generate doped graphene in situ as the urea and GO precursors simultaneously decompose and reduce in the discharge zone. When using the same amount of urea in the precursor mixture, samples obtained by Plasma-RES have higher surface area than those generated by RES, however, they contain a smaller nitrogen content

Enhanced cellular preservation by clay minerals in 1 billion-year-old lakes

The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep05841Organic-walled microfossils provide the best insights into the composition and evolution of the biosphere through the first 80 percent of Earth history. The mechanism of microfossil preservation affects the quality of biological information retained and informs understanding of early Earth palaeo-environments. We here show that 1 billion-year-old microfossils from the non-marine Torridon Group are remarkably preserved by a combination of clay minerals and phosphate, with clay minerals providing the highest fidelity of preservation. Fe-rich clay mostly occurs in narrow zones in contact with cellular material and is interpreted as an early microbially-mediated phase enclosing and replacing the most labile biological material. K-rich clay occurs within and exterior to cell envelopes, forming where the supply of Fe had been exhausted. Clay minerals inter-finger with calcium phosphate that co-precipitated with the clays in the sub-oxic zone of the lake sediments. This type of preservation was favoured in sulfate-poor environments where Fe-silicate precipitation could outcompete Fe-sulfide formation. This work shows that clay minerals can provide an exceptionally high fidelity of microfossil preservation and extends the known geological range of this fossilization style by almost 500 Ma. It also suggests that the best-preserved microfossils of this time may be found in low-sulfate environments

Enhanced cellular preservation by clay minerals in 1 billion-year-old lakes

Organic-walled microfossils provide the best insights into the composition and evolution of the biosphere through the first 80 percent of Earth history. The mechanism of microfossil preservation affects the quality of biological information retained and informs understanding of early Earth palaeo-environments. We here show that 1 billion-year-old microfossils from the non-marine Torridon Group are remarkably preserved by a combination of clay minerals and phosphate, with clay minerals providing the highest fidelity of preservation. Fe-rich clay mostly occurs in narrow zones in contact with cellular material and is interpreted as an early microbially-mediated phase enclosing and replacing the most labile biological material. K-rich clay occurs within and exterior to cell envelopes, forming where the supply of Fe had been exhausted. Clay minerals inter-finger with calcium phosphate that co-precipitated with the clays in the sub-oxic zone of the lake sediments. This type of preservation was favoured in sulfate-poor environments where Fe-silicate precipitation could outcompete Fe-sulfide formation. This work shows that clay minerals can provide an exceptionally high fidelity of microfossil preservation and extends the known geological range of this fossilization style by almost 500 Ma. It also suggests that the best-preserved microfossils of this time may be found in low-sulfate environments.David Wacey, Martin Saunders, Malcolm Roberts, Sarath Menon, Leonard Green, Charlie Kong, Timothy Culwick, Paul Strother, Martin D. Brasie