Empirical evaluation of spin-on-glass-layers on steel surfaces by wear tests

Dies and moulds with high precision surfaces are being used in various branches, e.g. in the plastic industry where the surface finish are conventionally performed by manual polishers. With ever increasing demands of shorter lead times and reduced costs, efforts have been made to automate this finishing process. This paper presents an empirical study performed to test durability properties of SOG (spin-on-glass)-layers on steel surfaces. The results showed that the thin coating last longer than the thicker ones, and that the harder coatings withstood wear significantly better than the steel reference samples thus motivating further investigations

Chapter X: The Tour de France: a success story in spite of competitive imbalance and doping

International audienceThe chapter goes as follows. In the first section it is demonstrated how the Tour de France is a high quality product. This is a result from its accurate design, its management, its economic model and its finance structure, both in comparison to other mega-sporting events and with reference to tournament theory. It is not easy to assess the competitive balance in the Tour de France since, as was demonstrated in chapter 10, it is at the same time an individual and a team sport contest. After reviewing some results published in literature so far, a new metrics for evaluating competitive balanced in the Tour de France is presented in section 2. Finally, the Tour de France cannot ignore doping as a potential threat to fan attendance and TV viewing. We therefore discuss the issue of doping and a new procedure to deal with doping in section 3

Polished injection moulds' and surface defects' influence on the quality of plastic components

Abstract The quality of injection mould surfaces is important as it has a major influence on tool performance. In the specific field of plastic moulding, many products require nearly defect free, glossy, and very smooth mould surfaces [1] (roughness parameters in the nm-range) to achieve a satisfactory surface appearance. The surface quality is also crucial for the mould to function properly in the actual tooling application; too rough surfaces might disturb the flow of the polymer melt and increase wear, while too smooth surfaces give rise to sticking problems. However, there is still a lack of knowledge concerning how different defect structures on mould surfaces affect final plastic components, and how tool steel surfaces can be measured and analysed in convenient ways. This paper summarises a study based on a non-contact 3D-surface texture analysis, where tool steel moulds and injection moulded plastic components are characterised in terms of surface quality (se

Disuguaglianze sociali oggi : territori, lavoro, societ\ue0

After an Introduction by the editors, the volume offers a selection of the best papers presented at the annual conference of the economic section of the Italian Sociological Association, held in Naples in 2007. The general theme of the conference regarded the current characteristics of social inequalities. The contributions collected approached the general theme focusing on diverse topics from a wide range of different perspectives

Modeling Performances and Competitive Balance in Professional Road Cycling

In the economics of professional team sports leagues, the concept of competitive balance is well documented. It postulates the necessity of equilibrium between the teams in a league in order to guarantee uncertainty of outcome and thus generate public demand. By contrast, performances and competitive balance are not easy to define in road cycling. This is because cycling can be seen as a team sport but the global team performance usually is of minor importance or even not taken into account at all. A large proportion of cyclists are in support of another rider, meaning that they do not care about their personal result but instead try to help their team leader(s). Moreover, a team leader generally has one specific objective amongst a range of possible ones. This chapter deals with the complex issue of modeling performances and competitive balance in professional road cycling. After a brief review of the literature on modeling performances and competitive balance in cycling, an innovative measure is introduced: competitive intensity in cycling. We illustrate this measure with two stages of the 2013 and 2014 Tour de France, and we discuss its implications