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Ferrofluid seals are known for their low friction torque and high tightness. However, they have some limitation due to the allowable rotational speed. The work presented here analyzes the performance of newly designed seals which are a combination of a ferrofluid and a centrifugal seal. The new seals can operate at high speeds. The purpose of this study is to theoretically predict the performance of combined seals.

Three seals were designed and selected for analysis. A version of the seals with a nonmagnetic insert is also considered, the purpose of which is to facilitate the installation and return of ferrofluid during low rotational speeds. The analyses were based on combining the results of numerical simulation of magnetic field distribution with mathematical models.

A combination of ferrofluid sealing and centrifugal sealing is possible. Analyses showed that the combined seal could hold a minimum pressure of 190 kPa in the velocity range of 0–100 m/s. The problem with this type of seal is the temperature.

New seal designs are presented. Key parameters that affect the seal operation are discussed. A methodology that can be used in the design of such seals is presented.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-07-2023-0221/.

This paper aims to examine the traditional business communities and family businesses of India, their emergence and sustained growth.

The authors analyze the role of business communities in family businesses of India and identify business communities that have still sustained and marked a global presence.

Business communities such as Marwaris have the knack for business activities and are leaders of family businesses in India today, who have sustained their past success and continue to create new histories. Other traditional business communities such as Parsis, Sindhis, Chettiars and Gujarati banias have not been able to sustain much. Possible reasons were switching to white-collar jobs, taking up diplomacy and other professions, inter caste marriages, international migration in search of business and Indian government policies.

This study provides a useful source of information for academics, policy-makers and economists.

Traditional business communities populate the list of family businesses that have marked their global presence. This paper identifies various factors that are responsible for the growth and sustainability of these business communities.

The study clarifies the role of business communities in domestic economic development.

The paper explored traditional business communities of India and assessed their role in family businesses of India that currently mark a global presence.

Creating visibility in the supply chain (SC) helps in making it resilient. Integrating the SC with Industry 4.0 key enabling technologies creates visibility and sustainability in SCs. It also fosters intelligent decision-making, thereby making a SC smart. However, how Industry 4.0 technologies affect key performance indicators (KPIs) of a resilient SC and may help achieve sustainability is rarely studied.

Sixteen KPIs were identified from the literature review and analyzed using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) using expert opinions. Further, a sensitivity analysis was conducted for the KPIs by varying the weightage of the criteria. Later, KPIs results were analyzed, and (1) how and which Industry 4.0 technology helps improve the KPI? (2) Resilience relationship with sustainability? were discussed.

The analyses show that the time-oriented (TO) is an essential criterion and organizational (OR) is the less important comparatively. Lead time, time to market and risk assessment frequency are the top KPIs that need a focus. Blockchain, Big Data and Cyber-physical systems enhance KPI's value and, in turn, foster economic, environmental and social sustainability of the SC and help in better decision making in terms of smart contracts, better forecasting and enhanced real-time information sharing.

Identification of the KPIs, the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies and the impact on sustainability; this kind of interplay is rarely evident in the literature. Understanding the findings of this research will help managers develop smart systems that may work intelligently to overcome risks associated and enhance sustainability. Academicians can use the findings and conduct future research that can overcome the limitations of this research.

This study seeks insights into the engineering undergraduates’ knowledge of problem-solving process, teamwork characteristics and communication skills.

The data for the study were collected through consecutive sampling technique from 78 engineering undergraduates at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Pilani Campus, India on a five-point Likert scale-based questionnaire.

Exploratory factor analysis results traced three stages of the problem-solving process. However, the results of teamwork characteristics and communication skills validated the literature-based results. An important finding was that all the three skills were correlated. This means that one skill can be used to develop and promote other skills. The paired sample t-test demonstrated that all the three skills were perceived with a difference, which indicates that these skills worked in collaboration without losing their individuality.

This study supports that there is a need to engage learners in an active and collaborative environment to improve the engineering undergraduates’ knowledge of skills.

The conscious effort to make the engineering undergraduates aware would reduce the gap between the graduating engineers skills currently possessed in academia and the required skills at workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) pressures, implementation level of GSCM practices and improvement in performance of the Indian ceramic enterprises. The paper also aims at benchmarking the Indian ceramic enterprises based on enterprise size and market orientation (export activity).

The research is based on the empirical study of Indian ceramic industry. Propositions are developed to study: the impact of GSCM pressures, implementation level of GSCM practices, improvement in GSCM performance, and the effect of GSCM pressures on implementation of practices, and impact of GSCM practices on GSCM performance. Data are collected from Indian ceramic enterprises of different sizes. Exploratory factor analysis is performed to segregate the pressures, practices and performance variables into constructs. Two-step algorithm, with log-likelihood measures of distance and Bayesian information criterion, is used to decide the optimal number of clusters. These clusters are compared and benchmarked according to the enterprise size and export activity.

This study finds that the implementation level of GSCM practices is higher in large- and medium-size enterprises as compared to small-size enterprises. Large- and medium-size enterprises have high impact of mimetic and informative pressures and small enterprises have high impact of coercive pressure (CP). Although the CP is high on small enterprises but due to the limited resources, these enterprises cannot afford to implement GSCM practices. The implementation of GSCM practices results into the improvement of environmental and operational performance but decrease in economic performance.

The findings of this study will suggest the policy maker to encourage the diffusion mechanism through a collaborative partnership with larger enterprises to enhance the implementation level of GSCM practices in small-size enterprises.

The novelty of the paper are: it analyzes and benchmarks GSCM pressures, practice and performance for Indian ceramic enterprises by considering enterprises size and export activities as control variables, and it finds the effect of GSCM pressures on the implementation level of GSCM practices and improvement in enterprise performance for Indian ceramic enterprises.

We argue that uninformed subscribers to an initial public offering (IPO) of common stocks are exposed to greater ex ante risk of trading against informed traders in the secondary market because the advent of public trading conveys hitherto private information and thereby mitigates adverse selection. The going‐public firm underprices the new issue to compensate uninformed subscribers for this added secondary market adverse selection risk. We test this market liquidity‐based explanation by investigating the ex‐post consequences of ownership structure choice on the initial pricing and the secondary market liquidity of a sample of initial public offerings on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Consistent with our argument, we find that initial underpricing varies directly with the ex post trading costs in the secondary market. Further, initial underpricing is related positively to the concentration of institutional shareholdings and negatively to the proportional equity ownership retained by the founding shareholders. Finally, the secondary market illiquidity of new issues is positively related to institutional ownership concentration and negatively to ownership retention and underwriter reputation. Thus, the evidence based on our NYSE sample supports the view that the entrepreneurs' choice of ownership structure affects both the initial pricing and the subsequent market liquidity of new issues.

The purpose of this paper is to realize an effective hybrid modeling (empirical-geometric) in order to describe the real behavior of the average roughness variation of the workpiece surface in turning with an elementary operation of superfinishing, using different analytic methodologies. The previous works are limited to describe the roughness for the usual elementary operations, citing the roughing and the semi-finishing, while this analysis builds technical rails for the industrialists in order to well conduct the operation of superfinishing in turning, by choosing the cutting parameters from the proposed model.

A statistical analysis of the average roughness measurements capability study, by the statistical process control method SPC and the ANN artificial neuron network, Levenberg–Marquardt's methods modified Monte Carlo SRM response surface.

The objective of this work was to describe the average roughness generated by the penetration of the cutting tool into a part in superfinishing turning. First, the authors used artificial colony analysis to determine optimal cutting conditions in order to have an average roughness lower than 0.8 µm. The cutting conditions selected: (1) the feed rate f ϵ [0.05; 0.2] mm/rev; (2) the pass depth ap ϵ [0.25; 1] mm; (3) the corner radius re = 0.2 mm and (4) cutting speed V_c ϵ [75; 100] m/min.

This work consists to realize an effective hybrid modeling (empirical-geometric) in order to describe the real behavior of the average roughness variation of the workpiece surface in turning with an elementary operation of superfinishing, using different analytic methodologies. The previous works are limited to describe the roughness for the usual elementary operations, citing the roughing and the semi-finishing, while this analysis builds technical rails for the industrialists in order to well conduct the operation of superfinishing in turning, by choosing the cutting parameters from the proposed model.