Globalisierung und das deutsche Modell der Industrieproduktion

Globalization is transforming the German manufacturing production model. German manufacturing MNCs are shifting from servicing global demand via exports to a strategy of 'produce where you sell' FDI expansion in emerging global markets. This strategy is generating recursive dynamics that are transforming the demographic and role composition of German home country production locations. This, in turn, poses challenges for the German systems of industrial relations and for industrial policy that are only beginning to be addressed. Overall, the article's take home conceptual message is that contemporary manufacturing globalization processes are recursive: i.e.: actions taken outside of Germany, on all levels, have consequences for -- and involve change in -- organizations and practices within Germany

Alloy composition and dendrite arm spacing in Al-Si-Cu-Mg-Fe alloys

Six Al-Si-Cu-Mg-(Fe/Mn) alloys with two levels of each of Cu, Si, and Fe/Mn were cast in the form of quasi-directionally solidified plates. The secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) was measured as a function of the distance from the chill end for each composition and related to the local cooling rate as determined by thermocouples embedded in one of the cast plates. For a given cooling rate, Si has a strong, consistently refining effect on the SDAS per unit of solute content. Cu showed its strongest refining effect at low-Si and high-Fe contents. It is argued that the scale of the SDAS is determined by a combination of five main factors: constitutional undercooling; the fraction of Al-Si eutectic; and the amount, morphology, and distribution of the various intermetallic phases. The first two factors affect the early stages of the dendrite structure and SDAS formation, whereas the ones involving intermetallics affect the dendrite-coarsening mechanisms in the post-eutectic stage. The latter ones are more sensitive to cooling rate than the ones involving solute in solution. The scales of both, SDAS and intermetallics, can be predetermined to a measurable extent through the solute content to best suit particular casting conditions. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 201