Understanding why individuals behave unethically is an important topic for both theory and practice, especially in the current environment where people experience much more stressful events. The current research aims to examine the relationship between peoples’ experienced stress and their attitude towards unethical consumption behavior, as well as the underlying mechanism. Empirical findings from a survey of 451 participants suggest perceived stress serves as an important indicator of people’s tolerance of unethical activities, and that this relationship is mediated by chronic construal level and materialism value. Specifically, stressed individuals tend to develop low-construal mindsets and more materialism values, both of which further increase their tolerance of ethically questionable behaviors. The present research highlights the importance of stress on consumer ethics and contributes to prior literature in three ways. Firstly, the current study adds to the literature on consumer ethics by examining a new predictor of consumers’ ethical beliefs, which enriches the understanding of why some consumers act more ethically than others do. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, little prior literature has examined the effect stress on ethical beliefs. The current research for the first time examines the effect and the mechanism and reveals the mediating roles of construal level and materialism value. Thirdly, the present research finds that stress increases low-level construal, leading to unethical beliefs. This finding broadens the scope in construal level theory by suggesting that chronic construal level predicts individual ethical judgments.

Warm compaction powder metallurgy was used to produce a Ti3SiC2 particulate reinforced Cu matrix composite. Fabrication parameters and warm compaction behaviors of Cu powder were studied. Based on the optimized fabrication parameters a Cu-based electrical contact material was prepared. Results showed that in expend of some electrical conductivity, addition of Ti3SiC2 particulate increased the hardness, wear resistivity and anti-friction ability of the sintered Cu-base material.

The introduction of ceramic particulate into metallic powder will unavoidably lower the compressibility and formability of the mixed powder. In this study, warm compaction, which is a simple and low cost technique to produce high density PM parts, was introduced in preparing composite. The aim of this paper is to prepare the warm compacted NbC particulate reinforced Fe-based composite, then study its tribological behavior and application in the valve-guide cup. A 15 wt.% NbC reinforced iron-based composite was prepared. It possesses a relative density of 98%, a tensile strength of 515 MPa, a hardness of HRC 58 and a remarkable tribological behavior.

A new process of pulsed electric current sintering was developed. It combines compaction with activated sintering effectively and can manufacture bulky nano-crystalline materials very quickly. A nano-structured steel is obtained with high relative density and hardness by this process. The average grain size of iron matrix is 58nm and the carbide particulate size is less than 100 nm. The densification temperature of ball-milled powders is approximately lower than that of blended powders. When the sintering temperature increases, the density of as-sintered specimen increases but the hardness of as-sintered specimen first increases and then decreases.

An apparatus measuring changes of various forces directly and continuously was developed by a way of direct touch between powders and transmitting force component, which can be used to study forces state of powders during warm compaction. Using the apparatus, warm compaction processes of iron-based powder materials containing different lubricants at different temperatures were studied. Results show that densification of the iron-based powder materials can be divided into four stages, in which powder movement changes from robustness to weakness, while its degree of plastic deformation changes from weakness to robustness.

Based on theoretical analysis, a new general equation of mean particle size applicable to both conventional atomization methods and new atomization processes is presented. In gas atomization, it is equivalent with and can be changed into Lubanska Equation. In centrifugal atomization, it can be changed into the equations that are currently the most widely used. In water atomization, it is similar to the equation proposed by Grandzol and Tallmadge. According to the universal equation, new correlations for mean particle size in novel atomization processes such as Hybrid Atomization and Multistage Atomization were proposed and agreed with our experimental data well.