Electronic Business-to-Business Marketplace Transformation in the Chemical Industry: Will the Second Wave Succeed Where the First has Failed?

The global chemical sales are expected to be worth over €6,000 bn by 2030 and this offers a very significant market size for businesses to be transacted electronically. It is generally believed that the first wave of the electronic business-to-business marketplace featured very strongly into the chemical industry sometime in the late 1990’s, but in just over a few years many of these electronic marketplaces started to close down or being merged with others, and later on they too disappeared from the chemical industry. Many of them had failed to sustain themselves in the marketplace and survived. From 2005 onwards, it became apparent that the second wave of electronic marketplaces started to enter the chemical industry again. Electronic marketplaces were being set up by chemical manufacturers and distributors, with many of them even setting up multiple web storefronts, to promote their products. This research will look into the chemical distribution market size, supply chain activities, as well as the various electronic marketplaces present in the chemical industry. The Author will investigate into the reasons why the first wave of chemical electronic marketplaces did not manage to sustain themselves in the market and the possible reasons for their failure. The types of electronic marketplaces during the second wave were investigated in great detail. What are the differences in the types of electronic platforms in the second wave and will they stand a chance to survive this time round, when many of them have failed in the first wave? This research will attempt to investigate the possible strategies through the digital marketplace, by both chemical manufacturers and distributors, in their effort to capture greater market share.

Asia’s Chemical Distribution Market: The final Frontier for Mergers and Acquisitions!

The chemical distribution business had undergone huge transformational changes globally, through mergers and acquisitions, by both strategic buyers and private equity firms. The industry consolidation process in Europe and North America which started many years ago is now being shifted to Asia. There is very little research being done on Asia’s chemical distribution market size and the major chemical distributors. Asia’s chemical industry enjoyed tremendously high growth in the past years, and coupled with the highly fragmented chemical marketplace, it offers huge scope for consolidation. The lack of information and clarity in Asia’s chemical distribution sector has somewhat impeded the pace of the consolidation process. A clearer knowledge of the chemical distribution market size, and the key players in the market, itself would help potential investors enormously in their decision making to expedite the mergers and acquisitions process. The research findings can serve as a compass for potential investors to navigate through Asia when searching out for potential targets and would offer investors a much-needed informational tool to know where to look to invest in. Literature review on existing publications, chemical industry trade publications, and chemical distribution associations will provide the background information for this research.

Influence of Processing Route on the Surface Reactivity of Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni6Sn2Si1 Metallic Glass

Recently, laser additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have emerged as a promising alternative for the synthesis of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with massively increased freedom in part size and geometry, thus extending their economic applicability of this material class. Nevertheless, porosity, compositional inhomogeneity, and crystallization display themselves to be the emerging challenges for this processing route. The impact of these “defects” on the surface reactivity and susceptibility to corrosion was seldom investigated but is critical for the further development of 3D-printed BMGs. This work compares the surface reactivity of cast and additively manufactured (via laser powder bed fusion—LPBF) Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni6Sn2Si1 metallic glass after 21 days of immersion in a corrosive HCl solution. The cast material presents lower oxygen content, homogeneous chemical distribution of the main elements, and the surface remains unaffected after the corrosion experimentation based on vertical scanning interferometry (VSI) investigation. On the contrary, the LPBF material presents a considerably higher reactivity seen through crack propagations on the surface. It exhibits higher oxygen content, heterogeneous chemical distribution, and presence of defects (porosity and cracks) generated during the manufacturing process.

Analysis of Micro Cracks and Die Erosion in Die Casting

Die soldering is challenging issue on die life and casting quality in High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) Industry. Itincreases die down time which causes increasing production cost per piece. Die soldering can be tackled by surfaceheat treatment operations like gas nitriding and other PVD coatings. Used and scraped die is selected from the diecasting industry for investigation of die soldering issue. Chemical distribution of elements and surface condition ofaffected die soldering zone is investigated. The study reveals that, there are abundant micro cracks, micro holes andmicro cavities at soldering portion. The radius of micro holes is about 0.25 μm and the radius of macro holes isabout 8μm. The die inserts are made up of H13 die steel and LM24 Aluminum alloy is used for casting operation. Atthe die soldering cross section region, distribution of aluminum and die soldering mechanism and its causes studied.The die soldering mechanism is classified as chemical, physical, mechanical and mixed soldering. The solderingphenomena have been researched based on die temperature and its chemistry, metal temperature and its chemistry,injection pressure and its velocity, and die surface roughness. The spread and formation of die soldering on used andscraped die is also discussed in this article.

MODIFICATION OF THE CAST STRUCTURE OF AN EN AW 2011 ALLOY WITH HOMOGENIZATION

Aluminium alloys of group 2xxx contain copper as the main alloying element. Copper increases the strength and workability of the alloy, but also reduces the corrosion resistance and weldability. During casting, a nonequilibrium solidification occurs. Therefore, the cast alloy needs to be heat treated with a so-called homogenization process. Homogenization allows us to eliminate crystalline segregations and low-melting eutectics, and also causes changes in the morphology of intermetallic phases. The forming ability is in this way increased. In this research the subject of the investigations was the aluminium alloy with designation EN AW 2011 (AlCuBiPb), whereas the comparative analysis before and after homogenization annealing was made. Homogenization was conducted at 520 °C for 6 h. First, slices from two rods before and after homogenization were cut out, where three samples from each slice of the rod, namely in the middle, on D/4 and at the edge of the slice were prepared. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed on all six samples, the results were compared with each other in order to establish the structure homogeneity before and after the homogenization process through the cross-section of the rod. Samples for light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were also prepared, whereas the phase composition and chemical homogeneity were analysed. Using the Thermo-Calc program, the nonequilibrium solidification was simulated and the phase formation during solidification was examined. From the obtained results, it was concluded that the homogenization was carried out successfully, due to a homogeneous chemical distribution in the examined phases and to a fairly homogeneous chemical composition throughout the cross-section of the rod slice.

Remediation of intrinsic preferential flow pathways in water repellent soils' profile using surfactant

<p>Preferential flow pathways and uneven soil water and chemical distribution are intrinsic phenomena in water repellent soils. These uneven water and chemical distribution reduce water uptake by the plant roots on one hand and enhance deep percolation and chemical leaching, on the other hand, thereby enhancing soil and groundwater pollution. The results of attempts to remediate soil water repellency and heterogeneous spatial distribution of soil moisture and chemicals within the root zone by surfactant application will be addressed.  </p><p>This study was conducted in a commercial citrus orchard in central Israel that is irrigated with treated wastewater. Previous studies have revealed that prolonged irrigation using treated wastewater renders the soil water repellent with its associated adverse effects. The soil water distribution within the soil profile was monitored by frequent electrical resistance tomography (ERT) scans. The spatial distribution of different chemicals within the soil profile was obtained by chemical analysis of disturbed soil samples taken manually along a line transects. Two methods of surfactant application were used and compared: 1) on soil surface spraying (area source), 2) via drippers application (point source).</p><p>Surfactant spraying onto the water repellent soil's surface succeeded in turning the soil wettable, diminishing the preferential flow pathways, and renders the soil water and dissolved chemicals uniformly distributed. In contrast, drip applied surfactant exacerbated the incidence of preferential flow pathways and the leaching of solutes from the soil. Moreover, the overall average water content in the 0-40 cm soil layer significantly increased with surfactant spraying than with drip application even though both were higher than the control plots. These results substantiate previous laboratory-scale studies in which surfactant was applied to water repellent soils packed in a transparent flow chamber by these two methods. Additionally, the yield from the on-surface surfactant sprayed plots show a slight continuous increase compared to the untreated plots.</p>