Quenching
In materials science, quenching, a type of heat treating, is the rapid cooling of a workpiece to obtain certain material properties. It prevents low-temperature processes, such as phase transformations, from occurring by only providing a narrow window of time in which the reaction is both thermodynamically favorable and kinetically accessible. For instance, it can reduce crystallinity and thereby increase the hardness of both alloys and plastics (produced through polymerization).
In metallurgy, it is most commonly used to harden steel by introducing martensite, in which case the steel must be rapidly cooled through its eutectoid point, the temperature at which austenite becomes unstable. In steel alloyed with metals such as nickel and manganese, the eutectoid temperature becomes much lower, but the kinetic barriers to phase transformation remain the same. This allows quenching to start at a lower temperature, making the process much easier. High speed steel also has added tungsten, which serves to raise kinetic barriers and give the illusion that the material has been cooled more rapidly than it really has. Even cooling such alloys slowly in air has most of the desired effects of quenching.
Quench (company)
Quench USA Inc is a water technology company that rents and services filtered water coolers. According to the site, over half of the Fortune 500 are customers. Zenith International lists Quench as a leading distributor in the point-of-use (POU) market along with Macke Water Systems and Nestle Waters. Quench is an independent operating company of AquaVenture Holdings™. Quench is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Quench was named an Online Marketing Success Story in Google's 2011 Economic Impact Report. In 2008, Quench was named a top 25 most successful startup by Businessweek.
Products Description
Filtered water systems are plumbed into a building's water supply and purified at the last possible point before consumption. Filter water coolers and ice dispensers typically use carbon filtration, UV water disinfection and/or reverse osmosis to purify drinking water.
Acquisitions
In March 2012, Quench purchased Aqua Perfect of Arizona LLC. In July of 2105 Quench acquired Region-X LLC a Massachuetts company that provides services related to high purity water systems
Quench (album)
Quench released in the UK on 17 October 1998 is The Beautiful South's sixth original album. Including the compilation Carry On Up The Charts it was the band's third album in a row to reach the top of the charts.
The cover depicts a boxer by Scottish painter Peter Howson. Commissioned for the album, the original painting can be seen in the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. After the band cropped the image and used it in merchandise and promotional material, Howson took legal action against the band, receiving around £30,000 in damages. Whilst the first two singles from the album also have artwork by Howson, "How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?" and "The Table" do not.
Singles
Track listing
Octane
Octane is a hydrocarbon and an alkane with the chemical formula C8H18, and the condensed structural formula CH3(CH2)6CH3. Octane has many structural isomers that differ by the amount and location of branching in the carbon chain. One of these isomers, 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (isooctane) is used as one of the standard values in the octane rating scale.
Octane is a component of gasoline (petrol). As with all low molecular weight hydrocarbons, octane is volatile and very flammable.
Use of the term in gasoline
"Octane" is colloquially used as a short form of "octane rating" (an index of a fuel's ability to resist engine knock at high compression ratios, which is a characteristic of octane's branched-chain isomers, especially isooctane), particularly in the expression "high octane." However, components of gasoline other than isomers of octane can also contribute to a high octane rating, while some isomers of octane can lower it, and n-octane itself has a negative octane rating.
Metaphorical use
Browser speed test
A browser speed test is a computer benchmark that scores the performance of a web browser, by measuring the browser's efficiency in completing a predefined list of tasks. In general the testing software is available online, located on a website, where different algorithms are loaded and performed in the browser client. Typical test tasks are rendering and animation, DOM transformations, string operations, mathematical calculations, sorting algorithms, graphic performance tests and memory instructions. Browser speed tests have been used during browser wars to prove superiority of specific web browsers. The popular Acid3 test is no particular speed test but checks browser conformity to web standards (though it checks whether a general performance goal is met or not).
General tests
Peacekeeper
Online speed test by Futuremark, mainly using rendering, mathematical and memory operations. Takes approx. 5 minutes for execution and tells results of other browsers with different CPUs. Does not respect operating system.
Octane (album)
Octane is the eighth studio album by American progressive rock band Spock's Beard, released on 25 January 2005. The first seven tracks form a complete piece of work, "A Flash Before My Eyes", that tells the story of a man involved in a car accident who relives his memories in the moments following the crash.
A special edition release contained a second disc which contained five new tracks, outtakes from "A Flash Before My Eyes" and a video documenting the making of the album.
Reception
Octane has received generally average reviews since its release.
Track listing
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Personnel
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