Service Parts Inventory Control with Lateral Transshipment that Takes Time

In equipment-intensive industries such as truck manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, photo copiers, and airliners, service parts are often slow moving items for which, in some cases, the transshipment time is not negligible. However, this aspect is hardly considered in the existing spare parts literature. We assess the effect of non-negligible lateral transshipment time on various aspects of spare parts inventory control. Furthermore, we introduce customer-oriented service levels by taking the uncommitted pipeline stocks into account. A case study in the dredging industry shows that lateral transshipment may lead to lower system performance, which supports the results from some recent studies. Furthermore, we find that considerable savings can be obtained when we include the uncommitted pipeline stocks in both base stock allocation and lateral transshipment decisions.inventory control;METRIC;customer-oriented service level;lateral transshipment

Direct Extrusion Freeforming of Ceramic Pastes

Microextrusion freeforming of ceramic lattices from high solids ceramic pastes provides multi-scale hierarchical void structures with the advantages of low shrinkage stress and high sintered density. Alumina lattices were directly fabricated using 80-500 Pm diameter filaments. We report here on the implementation of design and fabrication of these scaffolds for band gap materials and micro fluidic devices.Mechanical Engineerin

Diffusion and electron emission properties of duplex refractory metal thermionic emitters

Diffusion and electron emission properties of duplex refractory metal thermionic emitter

Fuel and fission product transport through chemically vapor-deposited fluoride tungsten

Fuel and fission product transport through chemically vapor-deposited fluoride tungste

Development of chemically vapor deposited rhenium emitters of (0001) preferred crystal orientation

Rhenium thermionic emitters were prepared by the pyrolysis of rhenium chlorides formed by the chlorination of rhenium pellets. The impurity contents, microstructures, degrees of (0001) preferred crystal orientation, and vacuum electron work functions of these emitters were determined as a function of deposition parameters, such as substrate temperature, rhenium pellet temperature and chlorine flow rate. A correlation between vacuum electron work function and degree of (0001) preferred crystal orientation was established. Conditions for depositing porosity-free rhenium emitters of high vacuum electron work functions were defined. Finally, three cylindrical rhenium emitters were prepared under the optimum deposition conditions

The puzzles in B→ππB\to \pi\pi and πK \pi K decays: possible implications for R-parity violating supersymmetry

Recent experiments suggest that certain data of $B \to \pi\pi,\pi K$ decays are inconsistent with the standard model expectations. We try to explain the discrepancies with R-parity violating suppersymmetry. By employing the QCD factorization approach, we study these decays in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with R-parity violation. We show that R-parity violation can resolve the discrepancies in both $B \to \pi\pi$ and $B \to \pi K$ decays, and find that in some regions of parameter spaces all these requirements, including the CP averaged branching ratios and the direct CP asymmetries, can be satisfied. Furthermore, we have derived stringent bounds on relevant R-parity violating couplings from the latest experimental data, and some of these constraints are stronger than the existing bounds.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures and 5 tables. Text revised. Final version to appear in PR

Antiferromagnetic Alignment and Relaxation Rate of Gd Spins in the High Temperature Superconductor GdBa_2Cu_3O_(7-delta)

The complex surface impedance of a number of GdBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ single crystals has been measured at 10, 15 and 21 GHz using a cavity perturbation technique. At low temperatures a marked increase in the effective penetration depth and surface resistance is observed associated with the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic alignment of the Gd spins. The effective penetration depth has a sharp change in slope at the N\'eel temperature, $T_N$, and the surface resistance peaks at a frequency dependent temperature below 3K. The observed temperature and frequency dependence can be described by a model which assumes a negligibly small interaction between the Gd spins and the electrons in the superconducting state, with a frequency dependent magnetic susceptibility and a Gd spin relaxation time $\tau_s$ being a strong function of temperature. Above $T_N$, $\tau_s$ has a component varying as $1 / (T - T_N)$, while below $T_N$ it increases $\sim T^{-5}$.Comment: 4 Pages, 4 Figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Computer Generation of Metal Components by Simultaneous Deposition of Mould, Cores and Part

A new solid freeforming method based on co-delivery of mould powder materials and part powder materials using vibration-controlled, dry powder valves is presented in this paper. Thin layers of stainless steel powder are delivered to the forming area according to the cross-section of the CAD file to produce the component. Mould powder which has low sinterability is delivered to the non-forming areas of the same layer. All powders are delivered by computer-controlled, acoustic powder valves. The flow rate and switching of the valves provides the composition and shape control during fabrication. The stacked layers of loose powder are then sintered in a conventional furnace. The mould materials are removed after sintering. This method avoids the high thermal stress problem in selective laser sintering, avoids high capitalisation, makes use of conventional furnaces and allows for the incorporation of three dimensional function gradients. Test pieces including step wedge and Spierpinski’s cube were fabricated. Advantages, limitations and problems are discussed.Mechanical Engineerin