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The efficient and economical use of natural resources is a big issue. Machine elements with a rolling contact are highly relevant because of their wide application in technical systems and a large production quantity. Innovative hard machining can reduce the friction and increase the fatigue strength of rolling element bearings. The purpose of this study is to focus on the surface properties of such parts.

A new model to predict bearing fatigue life is presented which takes compressive residual stresses in the bearing subsurface area into consideration. The investigated bearings were machined by the processes of hard turning, hard turning with subsequent deep rolling and a combination of hard turning and deep rolling (turn-rolling) in one process step. Changes in the residual stress state during bearing fatigue tests were investigated and the influence of residual stresses on the bearings fatigue life was researched.

Both combinations including the deep rolling process decrease the surface roughness and induce compressive residual stresses. As a result, the L₁₀ fatigue life of roller bearings was increased by the factor of 2.5. Owing to the developed models, this effect can be considered within the design process.

In the context of the research program “Resource efficient Machine Elements (SPP1551),” machining processes of bearings were investigated regarding the bearing fatigue life. By inducing beneficial residual stresses on the bearings’ subsurface area, the fatigue life could be increased. Thus higher resource efficiency was achieved. To increase the productivity, a combination of hard turning and deep rolling was evaluated.

Elastomer seals are used in many applications. They are exposed to lubricants and additives at elevated temperatures, as well as mechanical stresses. They can only provide good sealing function when they have resistance to those factors. There are many elastomer-lubricant compatibility tests based on DIN ISO 1817 in industry. However, they are insufficient and costly. Correlations between the tests and the applications are inadequate. The purpose of this study is investigating lubricant compatibility of fluoroelastomers (FKM) seals in polyethylene-glycol (PG)- and polyalphaolefin (PAO)- based synthetic oils and developing a methodology to predict seal service life.

A new compatibility test which is more sufficient in terms of time and cost was developed and compared with a standard test, currently used in industry. Compatibility of FKM radial lip seals with PG- and PAO-based synthetic oils with different additives was investigated chemically and dynamically. Failure mechanisms were examined.

The new method and the Freudenberg Flender Test FB 73 11 008 showed similar results concerning damages and similar tendencies regarding wear. The additive imidazole derivative was the most critical. Static tests give indications of possible chemically active additives, but alone they are insufficient to simulate the dynamic applications.

The paper describes a new method to investigate elastomer-lubricant compatibility and gives first results with a variety of lubricants.

The structure and chemical composition of boundary layers built under tribological stress affect the friction and wear of solid-state surfaces in a major way. Therefore, information about the chemical composition of the outermost surface and boundary layer are of great importance. Preliminary time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) investigations have shown that metal surfaces that have been immersed at high temperatures in phosphonium phosphate-containing oils contain at least some characteristic signals for phosphate containing anti-wear layers. The purpose of this work is to investigate the influence of additive concentration and oil temperature on the formation of phosphate containing layers.

To investigate the formation of phosphate containing layers as a function of temperature, samples of rolling bearing steel 100Cr6 were first heated in a furnace to selected temperatures of 200, 300, 400 and 500 °C, respectively. Then, they were immersed in a model fluid containing ionic liquids as additive in PAO-2 and analysed by ToF-SIMS.

100Cr6 surfaces immersed in trihexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphate additive oil show characteristic signals of phosphate-like layers at temperatures of 400-500 °C. In addition, characteristic surface signals show a decrease in these ionic liquids at these temperatures.

Ionic liquids could be an alternative to zinc dialkyldithiophosphates as an oil additive. Targeted investigations under friction load could provide information on whether wear-reducing layers are formed.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-10-2019-0436

The past ten to fifteen years have been a turbulent period for the Swedish military. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which was the primary potential enemy, the end of the Cold War, the establishment of the independent Baltic States and Swedish membership in the European Union all combined to render the Swedish defence forces hopelessly outdated. However, although the need for change has been obvious for many years, now many think the progress has been very slow. Some say we should have changed the defence forces dramatically back in the early 1990s. Instead, we chose to implement a series of reorganisations, closing down piece after piece of the old invasion-oriented defence force, while trying to retain as much as possible. What we have today is an eroded conscription system, where military service has become more a question of choice. Despite all this, the public is still quite supportive, thinking that we might need a defence “just in case”, especially as new threats arise. A new trend is that quite many, according to public opinion polls, now think that those who actually do serve as conscripts should get extra compensated with money for this service to society.

Security and defense policy is not a topic that traditionally attracts as much public attention as does domestic policy. Also, public opinion can be influenced by singular events such as terrorist attacks or acute humanitarian catastrophes, which create flash-like peaks in the public attention. However, it is well known that the more persistent patterns of public opinion are rather formed by long-term traits and globally affecting developments. The international mission in Afghanistan following the collapse of the Taliban regime seems to have the potential to be such a global event.

This chapter deals with the development of public opinion in Germany on security and defense issues in the last few years. It strives to investigate long-lasting patterns of security-related public opinion that can be found among the German citizenry. In order to do so, it takes an overview on some selected security and defense issues. In detail, the paper investigates the general attitude toward the armed forces, which have undergone considerable change in recent years, the public approach toward the system of military mobilization and the feeling toward the participation of Germany in international missions. It thereby gives special consideration to the current ISAF mission in Afghanistan, as this mission has created a major political debate among participating NATO-partner countries. The paper describes how the controversy about the German troop contribution within the alliance is echoed in public opinion polls. Furthermore, it tries to explain these patterns in light of the specific historical background and by using the collective self-concept that materializes in Europe and Germany in recent years.

This study uses the concept of standing, or legitimacy, to bridge the disciplinary divide between social movement and communication scholarship on activism. Here, the authors examine whether activist standing in 269 broadcast news stories sampled between 1970 and 2012 across five social movements – Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, Immigrant Rights, Occupy Wall Street, and Tea Party – is undermined by (1) the mix of visuals included in media coverage and (2) activists’ social statuses at the intersection of gender, race, and age. The authors find that broadcast media undercut the standing of activists in some social movements more than others. Occupy activists faced the most challenges to their standing because they were more likely to be shown as angry, young protestors wearing anti-government costumes and engaged in nonnormative protest behavior than activists associated with other movements. In contrast, Tea Party movement activists, who also made anti-government claims during the same relative time frame, were not cast in a similarly negative light. The authors also find that activist standing is diminished and enhanced at the intersection of gender, race, and age. For example, the social movements with the most racial diversity – the immigrant rights and Occupy movements – were also shown as the most deviant and deserving violent repression in coverage. The authors conclude the study with a discussion of the importance of interdisciplinary research and a call for additional research on the movement–media relationship.

The Bulgarian sample of the international civil–military gap project comprised 30 cadets in the National Defence University (I and III course) and 91 students from the University of Sofia (law and political science department), the New Bulgarian University (psychology department), and the University for National and World Economy (economy of defence and security department). According to the gender of the respondents, the sample is divided as follows: cadets – 67% male, 33% females; students – 38% males, 62% females. Data was collected in the period March–June 2004.

In the public debate, companies are confronted with conflicting expectations regarding their responsibility. An inconsistent understanding of the responsibility of corporations may affect the acceptance of corporate actions. The purpose of this study is to take this observation as a starting point and to analyze corporate responsibility assessments of different actors.

In the course of two online surveys conducted by a polling institute at the end of January 2017, 1,003 German citizens were asked about their expectations concerning the responsibility of corporations. One survey was mainly focused on clothing manufacturers, the other one on banks. Moreover, a content analysis of nationwide German quality newspapers aims at showing the media perspective. By using an extensive combination of keywords, 1069 articles were analyzed for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2016. The coding revealed 345 relevant articles containing 717 responsibility-related judgments.

Overall, the systematic comparison of both perspectives show differences between societal perspectives and therefore presents an explanation for conflicting expectations concerning the responsibility of corporations.

The measurement of judgments on responsibility is a complex endeavor. Findings may be limited due to an extensive coding process and a restricted comparability of the two surveys and the content analysis. Moreover, findings are focused on clothing manufacturers and banks only.

A focus on responsibility assessments delivers a deeper understanding of different perspectives concerning the responsibility of corporations in the public debate.

Since more than one decade, the German armed forces are undergoing massive modifications in structure, size and mission, which can be traced back to the transformation of the international security environment and globalisation effects after the end of the Cold War (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, & Perraton, 1999). As the threat scenarios changed from mutual deterrence to a multitude of risks and dangers, including violent internal conflict, international terrorism and global ecological crisis, the threat perceptions within wider society underwent simultaneous changes. Today, ‘security’ and ‘insecurity’ are terms with totally different connotation than only 20 years ago. Clearly, these alterations also initiated a new era of civil–military relations in Germany after 1990. Besides the rather obvious transnational effects described by the changing security context as well as the trend towards globalisation and to new security regimes, perpetual societal changes within West European societies evenly took place during the last thirty years. These societies are therefore becoming ‘post-traditional societies’ (Giddens, 1994)¹ or – as far as the armed forces are concerned – ‘post-military’ societies (Shaw, 2000). This study aims at examining the current state of civil–military relations and deals with the question of the existence of a civil–military gap in Germany. Therefore, empirical data stemming from an international project will be examined. After a sketch of the patterns of civil–military relations in Germany, a brief description of the methodology of the German part within the Civil–Military-Gap-project is given. Afterwards, some key findings of the project data, concerning a set of questions relating to security, war and peace issues, are presented and discussed.