Defining Specifications for Custom Products: A Multi-Attribute Negotiation Approach

Defining product specifications so that customers' needs could be well matched with suppliers' capabilities is a very challenging task in custom product design. This research links technical requirements on product design with product management issues and formulates specification definition as multi-attribute negotiation. Specification negotiation is modeled as an iterative process of give and take in search of a mutually acceptable configuration. A negotiation support system is developed based on a product configuration system to identify among the multiple attributes what to give, what to take, and by how much so as to facilitate specification negotiation operationally.     

含硫氰酸盐、硫化物固体废物中总氰化合物测定方法

实验建立了含硫氰酸盐、硫化物固体废物中总氰化合物的测定方法,采用硝酸银滴定法、异烟酸-吡唑啉酮分光光度法分别测定总氰化合物含量高、低的样品。通过条件实验优化了前处理方式、称样量和干扰去除方法。该方法测定结果的相对标准偏差为0.43%～1.33%,加入标准物质回收率为91.5%～101.5%,精密度和准确度良好,符合测定要求。     

17-4PH沉淀硬化不锈钢氮离子注入及其复合改性的研究

采用N+注入，N-C-O共渗结合N+注入的表面复合改性方法，探索强化17－4PH钢表面的有效途径，该方法赋予基体表面一定深度的改性范围与低摩擦系数，因而强化效果达到最佳。同时还探索了不同时效温度下，基体心部硬度变化的规律。     

Conductivity enhancement in transparetn ZnO films via Al-dopping produced by CW-CO2 laser-induced evaporation

Highly conductive transparent aluminium-doped ZnO (ZnO:A1) films were successfully deposited by CW-CO₂ laser-induced evaporation. Optimisation of evaporation parameters was based on laser power, substrate temperature, O₂ partial pressure in the vacuum chamber and amount of Al in the ZnO source pellet. ZnO:A1 films with an electrical resistivity as low as 6.6 × 10⁻²Ω·cm and an optical transmission of 80% at 500nm were obtained at laser power of 15 W, substrate temperature of about 200°C, O₂ partial pressure of 6—7 × 10⁻⁴ Torr and 5wt.% Al. Conductivity of ZnO films can be increased one order via Al-doping in ZnO films. The films obtained by laser-induced evaporation have compared quite favorably with the high quality films obtained by sputtering.     

Stability of AB5-type hydrogen storage alloys

In this paper, we deduced an empirical equation for predicting the stabilities of the hydrides of AB₅-type compounds with the consideration of the effects of geometrical factor and electric factor. The theoretical curves derived from this equation are in good agreement with the test results of La_1−xCa_xNi₅, Ml_1−xCa_xNi₅ and La_1−xCe_xNi₅ compounds. With this model, we can easily interpret the phenomenon that the initial partial substitution of R by Ca in R_1−xCa_xNi₅ (R is rare earth metal) compounds cause an increase of hydrogen desorption pressure to a maximum value, whereas in the range of larger Ca content x the hydrogen desorption pressure decreases with increasing x.     

Electron Emission from Barium Strontium Titanate Ceramics

This paper focuses on understanding the influence of materials' properties on the ferroelectric electron emission. Ferroelectric ( x =1.0 and 0.8) and paraelectric ( x =0.67 and 0.5) compositions of barium strontium titanate (Ba _x Sr_{(1− x )}TiO₃) system were chosen for study based on their different ferroelectric and dielectric properties. Similar emission current waveforms were obtained from four compositions with negative triggering voltage applied to the rear electrode of the samples. It was difficult to explain the experimental results using the spontaneous polarization-switching model. The mechanism of electron emission from Ba _x Sr_{(1− x )}TiO₃ ceramics was ascertained to surface plasma emission.     

Thermal diffusivity of polymers by the flash method

We have adopted the flash method to the measurement of thermal diffusivity α of polymers in the temperature range 100–400K. The pulsed radiant energy from a flash tube is applied to the ‘front’ side of a suspended sample disc, and α is deduced from the exponential decay time constant of the subsequent transient temperature difference between the ‘front’ and the ‘back’ side, while correction against radiation loss is made by measuring the much longer decay time of the back-side temperature. Calibration runs on polycarbonate (PC) samples of several thicknesses show that the method is quick, precise and fairly accurate, and the results obtained are in reasonable agreement with previous determinations. We have also carried out measurements on polyoxymethylene (POM), poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVF₂) and poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and computed their thermal conductivities. Results on POM and PVF₂, which are semicrystalline, are analysed in the framework of several two-phase models, and the effect of crystallization (produced by annealing) on the glass transition behaviour of PET has also been studied.     

DIRECT OXIDATION OF ETHYLENE TO ACETALDEHYDE IN A HOLLOW FIBER MEMBRANE REACTOR†

A hollow fiber membrane reactor, which resembles a tube-and-shell heat exchanger, was developed for homogeneous catalytic reactions with gas reactants and products. The gas stream flows through the tube side while the reaction takes place in the catalyst solution which fills the shell side. The separation load of product from the catalyst solution can be reduced by using a hollow fiber membrane reactor instead of a conventional bubble column reactor. The reactor operates in a plug-flow pattern with a large mass transfer area per unit volume of catalyst solution

This concept was investigated experimentally using the direct oxidation of ethylene to acetaldehyde reaction in an aqueous solution of palladium (H) chloride-cupric chloride with a silicone rubber membrane reactor and a polypropylene membrane reactor. It was experimentally demonstrated that membrane reactors could achieve higher production rates per unit volume of catalyst than the conventional sparged reactor. The experimental data were in good agreement with the predictions by the mathematical model. The conditions under which the membrane reactor will be more advantageous than the conventional sparged reactors can be readily ascertained with the analytical solution of the simplified membrane reactor model.     

Mechanical relaxations in polybutene-1 and poly-4-methylpentene-1

Dynamic mechanical measurements between — 180°C and 180°C were made on both isotropic and drawn samples of polybutene-1 (PB-1) and poly-4-methylpentene-1 (P4MB1) over a wide frequency range by the use of a torsional pendulum (0.3–3 Hz), a viscoelastic spectrometer (5–90 Hz) and ultrasonic technique (3 MHz). The relaxation peaks were identified and the associated activation energies determined from Arrhenius plots. For PB-1 it was observed that orientation reduces the height and shifts up the temperature of the α_a-peak associated with large scale main-chain motion in the amorphous regions, but has little effect on the β-peak associated with side-group motion. In addition to the α_a and β relaxations a high-temperature crystalline relaxation (α_c) is also observed in P4MP1. For both the α_c and β relaxations the mechanical loss at 45° to the draw direction is much larger than that at 90°, which indicates that shear processes are involved in these relaxations.