Laser Surface Alloying of 316L Stainless Steel with Ru and Ni Mixtures

The surfaces of AISI 316L stainless steel were laser alloyed with ruthenium powder and a mixture of ruthenium and nickel powders using a cw Nd:YAG laser set at fixed operating parameters. The microstructure, elemental composition, and corrosion characteristics of the alloyed zone were analyzed using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and corrosion potential measurements. The depth of alloyed zone was measured using the AxioVision program and found to be approximately 1.8 mm for all the alloyed specimens. Hardness profile measurements through the surface-substrate interface showed a significant increase from 160 HV for the substrate to a maximum of 247 HV for the alloyed layer. The sample laser alloyed with 80 wt% Ni-20 wt% presented the most noble corrosion potential (Ecorr) of −0.18 V and the lowest corrosion current density (icorr)

Problematising race for journalists: critical reflections on the South African Human Rights Commission Inquiry into media racism

How journalists report race and racism was at the centre of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Inquiry into racism in the media. A critical analysis of the conceptual assumptions in the Inquiry's Final Report, however, reveals serious limitations to the enterprise. In particular the flawed conceptualisations, plus the generalised character of the findings are of little help in assisting the momentum of eradicating racism in South African media, and for linking race transformation to issues of class, gender, sexual orientation and xenophobia. This article identifies the problems as race essentialism and a relativism about what constitutes racism. It argues instead that journalists need the concept of racialisation in order to change their reporting. The argument upholds the desired role of the South African media as one that contributes to a non-racial, as opposed to a multi-racial, society

Transforming the media: a cultural approach

The change from an Apartheid state to a liberal democratic one has wrought many changes at all levels of South African society: the economic, social, political, cultural. This paper explores the impacts of these changes on the South African print media industry, with a view to assessing their contribution to the development of a democratic citizenship. While acknowledging the constraining effects of economic structures of ownership, the paper locates these within the broader social and political context of post-apartheid South Africa. It thus attempts to synthesise elements of both a political economy and cultural approach to the analysis of cultural production