Tlre preserrce oflrarrl corrtarnir~rrrIt.s in lubricated rolling bearing.~ is (I rrrrijor cr1~1.s~ of /~rel~rrrti~re failure, for exarnple by fatigue or I J ~ rrbr(r.sive rt~erlr of rolling el en rent.^, races or cages. However; tlre brtrotluctiorr of rtruclr Irorcler ceranzic (u.sually silicon nitride) balls or r01ler.s rurrrrirrg rlgnirzst steel races, in tlre lzybrid bearing concept, is like...

The electronics and semiconductor industries rely heavily on failure and defect analysis to maximize productivity and minimize expensive downtime. As technology improves, manufactured devices get smaller and the processes used to make them become more intricate. Costly downtime associated with the presence of particulate and chemical contamination becomes more critical to a successful manufactu...

Tarsal adhesive pads are crucial for the ability of insects to traverse their natural environment. Previous studies have demonstrated that for both hairy and smooth adhesive pads, significant reduction in adhesion can occur because of contamination of these pads by wax crystals present on plant surfaces or synthetic microspheres. In this paper, we focus on the smooth adhesive pads of ants and s...

Particulate contamination deposited on silicon wafers is typically the dominant reason for yield loss in VLSI manufacturing. The transformation of contaminating particles into defects and then electrical faults is a very complex process which depends on the defect location, size, material, and the underlying IC topography. An efficient defect macromodeling methodology based on the rigorous two-...

River bottom sediments and soils were collected from the industrialized Thur River basin (north-eastern France) to assess mercury contamination. The regional geochemical background level of total mercury was evaluated to calculate mercury contamination factors (Fc) in soils and river bottom sediments. Our estimate of the mean background mercury levels in river sediments and soils, not affected ...

The final optics for laser-IFE (inertial fusion energy) power plants will be exposed to a variety of damage threats, including high-energy neutrons and gamma rays, x-rays and ions from the target explosion, contamination by condensable gases and particulate, and the laser itself. Experiments and modeling have been performed in order to understand damage mechanisms and possible solutions for tho...

It is clear from this work that thorough controlled and supervised washing by the wet method will not remove more than 50% of the original contaminants in soiled engineers' overalls. Indeed these figures may be on the liberal side as these experiments concerned contamination by clean solid-free oils. In ordinary practice the contaminants will be more tenacious due to the presence of finely divi...

The possible effect of contrails in modifying the weather is reconsidered in the light of information obtained from ground-level contrails in Alaska. It appears likely that inadvertent cloud seeding b y jet aircraft may be of the same order of magnitude as that attained in commercial cloud seeding operations. Further investigation is needed; but in the meantime, the possibility of contrail cont...