Flexible Furnace Concepts for Vacuum Heat Treatment Combined with High-pressure Gas Quenching

IN the past five years the process combination of vacuum hardening, respectively vacuum carburizing with high-pressure gas quenching was successfully introduced to the market, especially in the manufacture of gears. In the meantime furnace concepts for various applications are available to the industry. In the following report three plant varieties are introduced, which differ in process flexibility and throughput. This report also explains criteria for the selection of a furnace in view of the existing application requirements. Besides this a short introduction is given into the vacuum carburizing process and the high-pressure gas quenching technology.     

纳米尺度下钯元素的催化效应及气敏机理

在研究了贵金属Pd和离子Pd2+催化剂对纳米结构厚膜材料气敏特性的影响之后,提出了纳米催化效应的见解。认为将微量Pd2+的水溶液加入到纳米晶SnO2-x粉体中,可使Pd2+离子均匀地分布。所形成的PdO1-x纳米晶,能更均匀地存在于纳米结构厚膜材料载体中,有望对可燃性气体起到最有效的纳米催化作用。实验结果表明当Pd2+离子最佳的引入量为1.04mol%时,对3000×10-6甲烷的灵敏度可达9～11。     

On the gas dynamics of HVOF thermal sprays

An experimental study of the gas-dynamic aspects of the high-velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) thermal spray process has been performed using commercially available HVOF equipment (Hobart-Tafa JP-5000, Ho-bart-Tafa Technologies, Inc., Concord, NH). Optical diagnostic techniques, including microsecond-expo-sure schlieren and shadowgraph imaging, were applied to visualize the hot supersonic jet produced by this equipment without particle injection. Rapid turbulent mixing of the jet with the surrounding atmos-phere was observed, which is an issue of concern in coating quality due to the possibility of oxidation of sprayed particles. This mixing appears to be a function of the ratio of densities of the hot jet and the cold atmosphere as well as a function of the velocity of the jet, rather than one of combustion-chamber pres-sure or barrel length. The supersonic core of the HVOF jet dissipates rapidly due to the mixing, so that the jet is no longer supersonic when it impinges on the target surface being sprayed. Secondary issues also observed in this study include strong jet-noise radiation from the HVOF plume and the entrainment and induced bulk motion of the surrounding air.     

气体氮碳共渗钢板表面粗糙度和形貌的研究

研究了抛光冷轧钢板气体氮碳共渗时氨流量对共渗层表面粗糙度和形貌的影响。用扫描电镜和表面粗糙度仪对氮碳共渗层的表面形貌进行观察和测定。结果表明，随氨流量的增大，氮碳共渗层表面的粗糙度减小，表面组织细小致密。当氨流量小于1．0m^3／h时，表面粗糙度随共渗时间的延长逐步增大。钢板表面粗糙度与工件在炉中的位置和排布方式以及氨分解率有关。     

Dry and clean age hardening of aluminum alloys by high-pressure gas quenching

When precipitation-hardenable aluminum parts are water quenched, distortion occurs due to thermal stresses. Thereby, a costly reworking is necessary, and for this reason polymer quenchants are often used to reduce distortion, with the disadvantage that the quenched parts have to be cleaned after quenching. In opposition to liquid quenchants, gas quenching may decrease distortion due to the better temperature uniformity during quenching. Furthermore, cleaning of the quenched parts can be avoided because it is a dry process. For this purpose, a heat-treating process was evaluated that included a high-pressure gasquenching step. Gas quenching was applied to different aluminum alloys (i.e., 2024, 6013, 7075, and A357.0), and tensile tests have been carried out to determine the mechanical properties after solution annealing, gas quenching, and aging. Besides high-pressure gas quenching, alloy 2024 was quenched at ambient pressure in a gas nozzle field. The high velocity at the gas outlet leads to an accelerated cooling of the aluminum alloy in this case. Aluminum castings and forgings can be classified as an interesting field of application of these quenching methods due to their near-net shape before the heat treatment. Cost savings would be possible due to the reduced distortion, and therefore, less reworking after the precipitation hardening.     

SnO2纳米粉体制备及其气敏性能研究

采用溶胶-凝胶法制备出尺寸小于100nm的SnO2纳米粉体，并采用XRD，TEM等手段对其进行表征，进而将粉体制成旁热式气敏元件测试其气敏性能。结果表明，粉体的尺寸随热处理温度的变化较大，所制气敏元件具有优良的气敏特性，响应恢复时间可以保证其正常使用，但功耗较大，灵敏度较高，尤其对甲烷有较高的灵敏度。     

Characterization of YSZ solid oxide fuel cells electrolyte deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying and low pressure plasma spraying

Yttria doped zirconia has been widely used as electrolyte materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). Plasma spraying is a cost-effective process to deposit YSZ electrolyte. In this study, the 8 mol% Y₂O₃ stabilized ZrO₂ (YSZ) layer was deposited by low pressure plasma spraying (LPPS) and atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) with fused-crushed and agglomerated powders to examine the effect of spray method and particle size on the electrical conductivity and gas permeability of YSZ coating. The microstructure of YSZ coating was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction analysis. The results showed that the gas permeability was significantly influenced by powder structure. The gas permeability of YSZ coating deposited by fused-crushed powder is one order lower in magnitude than that by agglomerated powder. Moreover, the gas permeability of YSZ deposited by LPPS is lower than that of APS YSZ. The electrical conductivity of the deposits through thickness direction was measured by potentiostat/galvanostat based on three-electrode assembly approach. The electrical conductivity of YSZ coating deposited by low pressure plasma spraying with fused-crushed powder of small particle size was 0.043 S cm⁻¹ at 100 °C, which is about 20% higher than that of atmospheric plasma spraying YSZ with the same powder. This article was originally published inBuilding on 100 Years of Success, Proceedings of the 2006 International Thermal Spray Conference (Seattle, WA), May 15–18, 2006, B.R. Marple, M.M. Hyland, Y.-Ch. Lau, R.S. Lima, and J. Voyer, Ed., ASM International, Materials Park, OH, 2006.     

Effects of current waveform parameters during droplet transfer on spatter in high speed waveform controlled Short-circuiting GMAW

Aim at improving the stability of the Short-circuiting Gas Metal Arc Welding （GMAW-S） process for the enhanced speed usage, effects of current waveform parameters during short-term on the welding stability have been investigated by experimental method. The welding power source used for the research is an inverter with a special current waveform control. It is shown that the spatter decreases at first then increases with each increase of the low current period, current increase rate and the maximum current limit. The test results are provided for welding of 1 mm and 3 mm mild steel at speed of 1.2 m/min. The stable GMA W-S process under high speed welding condition has been achieved by optimizing the parameters.     

Comparative wear performance of titanium based coatings for automotive applications using exhaust gas recirculation

This paper reports tribological characterization of titanium based coatings ion bonded on steel balls for automotive applications using exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). It is well known that lubricating oil drawn from EGR operated engine is contaminated with soot and higher amounts of wear debris compared to non-EGR operated engine. In this study, steel balls coated with TiN, TiAlN and TiCN are investigated in both fresh lubricating oil and EGR stressed oil for a comparative assessment of their wear characteristics in two mediums. Normal load was applied on the samples, tested against a rotating cast iron disk, simulating ring-liner interaction. In each experiment, about one quarter of disk was dipped in the oil (a) to ensure the presence of a thin oil film on the disk-ball interface during the experiment, and (b) to avoid exposure of the worn surface to atmospheric air. The results reveal that the wear rates of the coatings based on the change in the scar diameters of the samples, tested in EGR oil was 2-4 times higher than that of fresh lubricating oil. It was found that despite lowest hardness, TiN coated samples showed smaller scar diameters than TiAlN and TiCN coated samples in both lubricating oil environments. A simple geometric model was used to calculate the thickness of the coating removed as a function of the test duration. Results show that TiN coatings last for 120 min in fresh oil as compared to 30 min in the EGR oil under normal loading, whereas TiAlN and TiCN coating last for 60 and 30 min respectively in fresh oil and wear out in 15 min in EGR oil.     

THEORY DEPOSITION MODEL AND INFLUENCING FACTORS DURING PROCESS OF PREPARING MICRO-LAYER LAMINATE BY EBPVD

This paper briefly introduces the characteristics of electron beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) technique and the whole process of preparing micro-layer composite laminate. And several major influencing factors are presented and discussed. It was found that residual gas pressure should be low enough to guarantee the unobstructed transportation of vapor steam and electron beam; the evaporation method and evaporation speed are up to the different vapor pressure deficit of compositions of raw materials; and the substrate temperature could have great influence on the microstructure of the micro-layer laminates.