Zoz, H.;Benz, H.U.;Huettebraeucker, K.;Furken, L.;Ren, H.;Reichardt, R.
Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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2000.04a
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pp.9-10
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2000
An important business-field of world-wide steel-industry is the coating of thin metal-sheets with zinc, zinc-aluminum and aluminum based materials. These products mostly go into automotive industry. in particular for the car-body. into building and construction industry as well as household appliances. Due to mass-production, the processing is done in large continuously operating plants where the mostly cold-rolled metal-strip as the substrate is handled in coils up to 40 tons unwind before and rolled up again after passing the processing plant which includes cleaning, annealing, hot-dip galvanizing / aluminizing and chemical treatment. In the liquid Zn, Zn-AI, AI-Zn and AI-Si bathes a combined action of corrosion and wear under high temperature and high stress onto the transfer components (rolls) accounts for major economic losses. Most critical here are the bearing systems of these rolls operating in the liquid system. Rolls in liquid system can not be avoided as they are needed to transfer the steel-strip into and out of the crucible. Since several years, ceramic roller bearings are tested here [1.2], however, in particular due to uncontrollable Slag-impurities within the hot bath [3], slide bearings are still expected to be of a higher potential [4]. The today's state of the art is the application of slide bearings based on Stellite\ulcorneragainst Stellite which is in general a 50-60 wt% Co-matrix with incorporated Cr- and W-carbides and other composites. Indeed Stellite is used as the bearing-material as of it's chemical properties (does not go into solution), the physical properties in particular with poor lubricating properties are not satisfying at all. To increase the Sliding behavior in the bearing system, about 0.15-0.2 wt% of lead has been added into the hot-bath in the past. Due to environmental regulations. this had to be reduced dramatically_ This together with the heavily increasing production rates expressed by increased velocity of the substrate-steel-band up to 200 m/min and increased tractate power up to 10 tons in modern plants. leads to life times of the bearings of a few up to several days only. To improve this situation. the Mechanical Alloying (MA) TeChnique [5.6.7.8] is used to prOduce advanced Stellite-based bearing materials. A lubricating phase is introduced into Stellite-powder-material by MA, the composite-powder-particles are coated by High Energy Milling (HEM) in order to produce bearing-bushes of approximately 12 kg by Sintering, Liquid Phase Sintering (LPS) and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). The chemical and physical behavior of samples as well as the bearing systems in the hot galvanizing / aluminizing plant are discussed. DependenCies like lubricant material and composite, LPS-binder and composite, particle shape and PM-route with respect to achievable density. (temperature--) shock-reSistibility and corrosive-wear behavior will be described. The materials are characterized by particle size analysis (laser diffraction), scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. corrosive-wear behavior is determined using a special cylinder-in-bush apparatus (CIBA) as well as field-test in real production condition. Part I of this work describes the initial testing phase where different sample materials are produced, characterized, consolidated and tested in the CIBA under a common AI-Zn-system. The results are discussed and the material-system for the large components to be produced for the field test in real production condition is decided. Outlook: Part II of this work will describe the field test in a hot-dip-galvanizing/aluminizing plant of the mechanically alloyed bearing bushes under aluminum-rich liquid metal. Alter testing, the bushes will be characterized and obtained results with respect to wear. expected lifetime, surface roughness and infiltration will be discussed. Part III of this project will describe a second initial testing phase where the won results of part 1+11 will be transferred to the AI-Si system. Part IV of this project will describe the field test in a hot-dip-aluminizing plant of the mechanically alloyed bearing bushes under aluminum liquid metal. After testing. the bushes will be characterized and obtained results with respect to wear. expected lifetime, surface roughness and infiltration will be discussed.
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.