Joseph Simon & Sons was the successful bidder for three out of five first-quarter 2007 scrap lots offered by Boeing’s Washington facilities. This offering was described by a Boeing spokeswoman as a more “local” offering than the larger 11-lot quarterly scrap sale.

The winning bidders and their bids were as follows: Schnitzer Steel bid $135.90/gross ton for 500 GT of light iron at various Puget Sound locations; Joseph Simon & Sons bid $0.6329/lb for 125,000 lb of irony aluminium (aluminium scrap contaminated with no more than 30% iron) at various Puget Sound locations and $0.6311/lb for 200,000 lb of clean aluminium chips at Kent, Washington; South Sound Steel & Recycling bid $0.901/lb for 320,000 lb of mixed aluminium solids up to 50-feet long at Auburn and Fredrickson, Washington; and Joseph Simon & Sons bid $0.6311/lb for an undetermined amount of loose aluminium borings at Auburn and Fredrickson.

Metal processor Worthington Industries Inc. said Thursday fiscal second-quarter profit fell 31 percent as demand for steel processing and metal framing weakened.

Net income in the three months ended Nov. 30 fell to $26.9 million, or 31 cents per share, from $39 million, or 44 cents per share, in the year-ago period. The year-ago period included a tax gain of 4 cents per share.

The latest quarter’s result fell short of expectations on Wall Street, where analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for 39 cents per share.

Sales rose 4 percent to $729.3 million from $699.5 million, but were lower than the Street’s estimate of $782.5 million. Steel processing sales rose 3 percent because of an acquisition, but operating income fell as volume sales dropped 14 percent.

The company said the steel processing and metal frame units will “likely generate losses early in the third quarter due to a combination of higher priced inventory and lower volumes.”

Multi-Cure[R] 605 Series, suited for glass and glass-to-metal assembly, produces invisible bonds and exhibits resistance to moisture and thermal cycling. Capable of forming acceptable bonds on irregular surfaces, adhesives can fill irregularities in bonded joints and cure through thickness of 1/4 in. within seconds when exposed to 365 nm UV light. Multi-Cure[R] feature enables material to be cured with heat or DYMAX activators in areas that light cannot reach.


A new line of adhesives from DYMAX[R] Corporation, called Multi-Cure[R] 605 Series, for glass, and glass to metal assembly, exhibits a wide range of high performance properties including excellent tensile shear, high clarity, and exceptional peel and impact strength.

Multi-Cure 605 glass bonders are ideal for automotive glass and fixture assembly, and for bonding trophies, glass furniture, lighting, stemware, crystal figurines, architectural glass, glass art and novelties. Key characteristics that make the 605 Series adhesives suitable for these applications include invisible bonds, high adhesion, toughness and durability, as well as resistance to moisture and thermal cycling. Though most applications require the joining of mating surfaces, the 605 Series forms acceptable bonds where irregular surfaces cause less than perfect fit. The adhesives can fill irregularities in bonded joints and cure through a thickness of 1/4" in seconds, to create stronger bonds and better seals.

Besides delivering the highest levels of strength, durability and appearance, DYMAX adhesives are formulated to cure in only a few seconds upon exposure to moderate intensity 365 nm wavelength UV light. Fast cures provide optimized productivity in automated and hand assembly processes. Additionally, DYMAX 605 Series glass bonders do not cure until exposed to light to allow for precise positioning prior to bonding. Even under intensities as low as 10 mW/cm[sup.2] many of the adhesives are capable of full cures in as little as 30 seconds and may even be cured using "black light". Their Multi-Cure[R] feature means they can also be cured with heat or DYMAX activators in areas that light cannot reach.

Multi-Cure 605 Series adhesives are available in several viscosities, from very low viscosity to non-flowing gels for easy dispensing. They are 100% solvent-free and worker friendly.

DYMAX Corporation is a technology-based company specializing in the formulation, manufacture and service of advanced assembly adhesives and light curing systems.

Honed by billions of years of evolution, many microbial enzymes are champions at stripping electrons from hydrogen molecules and shunting the charged particles into biochemical reactions. Now, a team of scientists in England and Germany has tapped that molecular machinery to create a new type of fuel cell.

Like most fuel cells, this one steals electrons from hydrogen molecules and bestows them on oxygen atoms and hydrogen ions to yield water and an electric current (SN: 6/11/05, p. 374). Yet it makes that transfer in an atypical manner that could lead to a new class of fuel cells, says Fraser A. Armstrong of the University of Oxford in England, a coleader of the team that created a prototype cell.

He and his colleagues describe their patented prototype in an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In oxygen-depleted mud, some microbes tap hydrogen in their vicinity for energy. Wielding enzymes called hydrogenases, the organisms split hydrogen molecules and commandeer their electrons.
That hydrogen-processing task, known as hydrogen oxidation, is usually carried out in fuel cells by platinum or other rare, expensive metals. But cells' hydrogenases contain metals no more exotic than common iron and nickel, comments chemist Marcetta Y. Darensbourg of Texas A&M University in College Station.

Although hydrogenases might seem like promising components for fuel cells, they are typically plagued by a fatal flaw: Oxygen usually disables the molecules, rendering them useless for most fuel cells, which have to work in ordinary air.

Yet not every microbe with a hydrogenase lives completely cut off from the atmosphere. The soil bacterium Ralstonia eutropha is one of them, so its hydrogenase is more tolerant of oxygen than is that of other microbes. With colleagues at the Technical University of Berlin and Humboldt University, also in Berlin, Armstrong and his group investigated the unusual hydrogenase's potential use in fuel cells.

The team genetically engineered R. eutropha to mass-produce the substance. After harvesting the molecules, the scientists coated a graphite electrode with them and used the electrode to build a fuel cell.

Despite being exposed to air, the apparatus produced electricity, albeit a modest amount, the researchers report. On the other hand, the power output was 25 times as great as it was when the researchers equipped the fuel cell with a different electrode coated with a bacterial hydrogenase known to have a more typical vulnerability to oxygen.

Pointing out other attractions of a hydrogenase-based fuel cell, Armstrong notes that the device dispenses with an expensive and often troublesome membrane usually needed in fuel cells and that it is unhindered by the carbon monoxide contamination that plagues most fuel cell designs.

Even so, he says that the R. eutropha enzyme isn't likely to be the ultimate choice of fuel cell makers.

Darensbourg says that the new findings could provide design dues to researchers striving to develop fuel cells and hydrogen-generation devices based on cheap and abundant metals rather than on rare and precious ones.

If that's a sneak preview, brace for another long, humbling, possibly humiliating season.

The Oakland Raiders made their 2006 debut Monday night under their old offensive line Hall of Fame coach and promptly saw their lines blown up and blown away in a 27-0 smackdown by the San Diego Chargers at McAfee Coliseum, only the second home shutout in Raiders history.

It was genuinely awful, too, not to mention sobering. If you can't play in the trenches in the NFL, you might as well mail it in. You're toast. And sadly, the mismatches up front were all too obvious in this most ominous opener. The Raiders were gashed repeatedly before a hopeful home crowd that quickly turned morose as LaDainian Tomlinson and Shawne Merriman took turns terrorizing Oakland's faulty fronts.

The only matter for debate is which line played worse, but you'd probably have to go with the overwhelmed wretches on the offensive side. Aaron Brooks spent much of his first official start with the Raiders either getting buried or running for his life. Holes for LaMont Jordan, meanwhile, were pretty much nonexistent.

Admittedly, the Chargers have built themselves a pretty formidable defense over the past few years, and it looked darned good in this prime-time performance with nine sacks and a road goose egg. But wasn't one of Shell's first dictates that the Raiders would set a bullish tone, start running downhill and then be able to protect the quarterback as a result?

Not in this game. Not even close. Not even in the neighborhood. The Raiders had no blocking answers for Merriman and his cohorts as they poured in en masse into the Oakland backfield throughout the evening. Forget throwing downfield to Randy Moss. Brooks barely had time to throw sideline routes to the team's most potent offensive weapon.

The Raiders only crossed midfield twice in the first 31/2 quarters and both times finished the drive back in their own territory. They never even sniffed the red zone when it mattered. Brooks finally gave way to second-year would-be savior Andrew Walter in the fourth quarter, but he met the same turf-eating fate.

It's not the quarterbacks, folks. It's those guys trying and failing to block for them.

OK, it's just one game. It can't get any worse than this, can it? Well, the Raiders go to Baltimore next week, and the Ravens shut out Tampa Bay 27-0 Sunday. Gulp. Suddenly, 0-2 out of the chute is looking like a real possibility.

But to heck with the record. That's a moot issue if the trench units continue to be this tepid and terrible. Shell, Jackie Slater and Irv Eatman have a ton of work to do with this young offensive line group if this team expects to get anywhere this season. Goodness, it doesn't get any better than Monday night, they might consider suiting up.

Merriman basically took Raiders left tackle Robert Gallery to the woodshed, and perhaps the most disturbing aspect of that is Merriman is just in his second season while Gallery is starting his third. That tends to put a dent in the old Gallery learning-curve notion.

As for the defense, well, all you really need to know is that Tomlinson ran for 101 yards in the first half, including a 58-yard burst that effectively took all the early electricity out of the Coliseum.

Part of it was Tomlinson's typically brilliant running, but the hole created on the long run was a veritable freeway. It got a bit better when the Raiders got Terdell Sands in the game on a regular basis, and Oakland can thank Marty Schottenheimer for making it easier for much of the third quarter when he was content to run it up the gut en route to extending his personal record against the Raiders to 26-7.

Oh, the Chargers did finally get bored with all the straight- ahead and let quarterback Philip Rivers throw a couple of passes downfield. The first was a 38-yard hookup with Eric Parker, the second a 4-yard flip to Antonio Gates. Imagine how bad it might have been if San Diego had really decided to pass a little.

Whatever the Chargers' methodology, this is getting old for the Raider Nation. San Diego has now beaten Oakland six straight times. Last time that happened? The years 1960-62, before Al Davis arrived on the premises. At this point, good bet the Bolts will make it a record seven later in the season if Shell and Co. can't come up with some heavyweight answers.

Making of articles and figures from the brass metal probably dates back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Some of the things that were made with brass are candlesticks, dishes of various sizes, chandeliers

Brass
The most popular surviving form of brassware is probably the domestic candlestick. These were made usually in pairs, and are rarely older than the middle of the seventeenth century. At that time they were on domed circular bases, with a pan to catch drips of wax halfway up the stout central column. Early in the eighteenth century, shaped bases and tall stems with grease-pans at the very top came into fashion. With variations from time to time, this style continued in use until the candle was no longer the principal illuminant in the home.

Metal works
Brass was made into dishes of various sizes, often with embossed designs of Biblical scenes with inscriptions on the borders. These are sometimes still to be seen in use as alms-dishes in churches.

Chandeliers of brass with curved branching arms were made in England and also on the Continent. Many of them date from the seventeenth century, but most have been made more recently in response to continual demand.

Ormolu
This is the French name (literally or moulu, molded gold) for articles and furniture mounts made of bronze and gilded. The piece having been made in bronze was carefully and finely finished by chiseling and polishing and then coated with a mixture of mercury and gold. This amalgam was subjected to heat and the mercury evaporated leaving the gold deposited on the surface. Finally, the gold was burnished where required, or left matt.

The French developed the art of designing and making furniture mounts from ormolu, and were equally proficient at making clock cases, candlesticks, inkstands and other suitable pieces from the same material. Much thought was given to the mounting of porcelain in ormolu, and vases and figures with bases and other enhancements were valued highly for decoration. They fetch high prices today, but only if the mounts are genuinely of the eighteenth century. From 1745 to 1749 a tax was levied on ormolu, and pieces were stamped in a similar manner to silver. The mark is a letter 'c' beneath a crown, but as it was in use apparently for no more than four years specimens bearing it is rare.

German ormolu is not dissimilar to French, although seldom as highly finished. In England, the firm of Boulton and Fothergill, of Soho, Birmingham, made good ormolu at the end of the eighteenth century.

Old ormolu is sometimes found with the gilding in good condition, but frequently it is worn away on the surfaces exposed to by wear and tear; its greatest enemy is metal-polish, which should never be used on it. As with Sheffield plate, ormolu can be replated electrically but the appearance of the old cannot be reproduced exactly.

Beside brass ormolu, the French for articles and furniture mounts made of bronze and gilded, developed the French name. They developed the art of designing and making furniture mounts from this ormolu and they were equally proficient at making clock cases, candlesticks, inkstands and other suitable pieces from this material. Then the German and the English followed later on in the eighteenth.

Piping systems are ubiquitous to heavy industrial markets. If there is fluid or gas movement, be it in the petrochemical, electric power supply, paper and pulp or a variety of OEM industries, optimal operation and "up-time" require state-of-the art piping systems to keep your plant competitive, or better, ahead of the curve. You know your business, and you know that in order to be profitable, your system must run at maximum efficiency. Metal Bellows Expansion Joints allow you to control fluid movement and containment in your system under a wide variety of pressures, thermal expansion and contraction, pulsations, vibration, equipment movement and convoluted routing requirements.

Typically, the key component of an expansion joint is the Metal Bellows element. Flexibility is paramount in containing the media and the pressure inherent in the system. Metal Bellows Expansion Joints, thin-walled, corrugated membranes, provide this flexibility.

An excellent solution is the use of punch formed, (expanded mandrel), manufactured Metal Bellows, followed by finish rolling. Rectangular metal sheets are sheared and rolled into a tube, which is then weld-mated using no filler metal. This longitudinal seam weld is then "plannished" to match the parent material thickness. "Bellows," of course, implies convolutions. Once the welding is complete, and testing to tolerance performed, the convolutions are individually punched, drawing material from the top and bottom of the tube, thus creating consistency in the thickness of the Bellows material. Finally, the required "U" shape of the Bellows is implemented through the use of rollers. The Bellows are then trimmed, and ready for installation of attachment ends.

To assure the best performance of Metal Bellows Expansion Joints, the design, quality assurance, and manufacturing practices should be in compliance with EJMA, ASME Section VIII and IX, ANSI B31.1, B31.3 and other major industry standards such as UOP.

The Metal Bellows Expansion Joints may experience one or a combination of axial, angular, lateral, or twisting movement. Depending on system requirements, a variety of unrestrained and/or restrained assemblies, may be utilized. Unrestrained Assemblies include the following:

* Single Joint Assemblies: a single Metal Bellows welded to either a flange or pipe end.
* Universal Expansion Joint Assemblies: the connection of two pipe end or flange bellows with a center spool piece. This provides more flexibility with respect to axial, and angular movement.
* Externally Pressurized Expansion Joints: line pressure acts externally on the bellows component through use of a pressure chamber. More convolutions can be used to control axial movement, and alleviate concerns of bellows instability.

Four extremely effective Restrained Metal Bellows Expansion Joint Assemblies lead the pack:

* Tied Single Bellows Assemblies: a combination of the Single Bellows Assembly with tie rods, increasing system design flexibility.
* Tied Universal Assemblies: like Universal Assemblies, these limit lateral offset and angular movement by utilizing tie rods to absorb pressure thrust.
* Hinged Bellows Assemblies: angular movement is limited to one plane. Two or three Hinged Bellows Assemblies may be employed to handle large amounts of expansion in high pressure piping situations.
* Gimbal Bellows Assemblies: allow angular movement in all planes, while absorbing pressure thrust and twisting movement. When used in conjunction with a Single Hinged unit, these are particularly suited to maximize absorption in multi-planer piping systems.

While an in-depth discussion is beyond the scope of this article, a variety of options and accessories are available, and often necessary, to complete the installation of Metal Bellows Expansion Joint Assemblies. Briefly, these include the following:

* Ties rods: attach to an Expansion Joint assembly to mitigate pressure loads, as well as ancillary forces such as dead weight.
* Limit rods: a "fail-safe" addition which addresses the situation of occasional anchor overload or system malfunction which could cause bellows expansion beyond tolerance.
* Liners: internal sleeves used to protect the internal surface of the metal bellows from media which may compromise its integrity.
* Purge Connections: used in tandem with Liners, keep the bellows within high temperature tolerance conditions, such as oil industry applications.
* Covers: are used to protect the Metal Bellows Expansion Joints from any detrimental external elements.
* MAIN ANCHORS: resist the effects of all forces acting upon them, including pressure thrust, bellows spring resistance, frictional resistance of pipe guides, and inertial forces at bends and elbows.
* INTERMEDIATE ANCHORS: used to divide a long pipe run into shorter individual expanding sections.
* DIRECTIONAL ANCHORS: permit movement in one direction only.
* PIPE ALIGNMENT GUIDES: control thermal expansion in the system so that the movement applied to the bellows assembly is axial only.

As an example, if two expansion joints of different pipe diameters are used in the same section of pipe, such as a line containing a reducer, the pressure thrusts are no longer equal. In this case, the anchor dividing the expansion joints must be a main anchor designed to withstand the difference in pressure thrust generated by the different size Metal Bellows Expansion Joints.

Piping your media to the desired destination is essential to the success of your business; control the heat, movement and pressure on your operation with the appropriate use of Metal Bellows Expansion Joints, and you control the heat, movement and pressure on yourself.

Are there any special instructions for caring for metal bar stools? That depends on the stools themselves. To achieve the maximum life span for your favorite metal bar stools you have to give them some tender love and care on a fairly regular basis. What needs to be done and looked after depends a lot on the type of metal the stools are constructed of. Since all metals have different characteristics from one another there are differences in cleaning and maintenance.

Most of the common stools on the market are made from aluminum, pewter, bronze, wrought iron, and stainless steel. There are indeed other types of stools made of more delicate and higher end metals that can be purchased but they aren�t as popular as the ones previously mentioned. We will concentrate on these ones here. One of the important things to remember about caring for metal bar stools is to fix and maintain only the small damages and leave the more major ones to a professional repair person.

Starting with aluminum bar stools. This material is very versatile and strong for its actual weight. One of the best qualities of these stools is their ability not to rust. It makes them one of the most popular on the market wither the style is modern or traditional. This makes caring for aluminum bar stools very easy. All you need is a simple household cleaner. Wipe down the metal on a regular basis to keep it looking forever new. If you notice any scratches you can lightly buff them out with a rough cloth or even some light sand paper before using the cleaner. Any small dents should be lightly taped out with a small hammer. Bigger damage should be left up to a professional to fix.

Pewter, wrought iron and bronze are all similar metals in terms of their strength. They tend to be a little softer and more absorbent than other metals such as stainless, and aluminum. Therefore the cleaners will be more specific to the types of metals themselves. You shouldn�t use just regular household products on these metals as they will only make them look worse. When you purchase stools made of these softer more porous metals be sure to ask what cleaners are needed to make the stools look their best.

The last type of stool you should know about is stainless steel. Like aluminum these great stools are very easy to take care of. The one thing to remember is if the steel has a high gloss finish on it kind of like chrome or a mirror than use a specific cleaner that will help bring out that great shine and shimmer. If they are just regular stainless steel stools without any fancy qualities then a regular cleaner is more than enough to do the trick. The nice thing about stainless stools is how strong the actual metal is, you don�t normally have to worry about nicks or dents.

As we�ve seen above there aren�t many drastic measures involved in caring for metal bar stools. The main things to do are too simple clean them on a regular basis and keep your eye out for unexpected damage that might have taken place. Other than that they are a piece of cake to take care of and should last you a really long time.