This research was carried out with the aim of obtaining appropriate principles for describing the influence of working parameters and the aggressive action of an acidic medium on the wear and corrosion resistance of martensitic stainless steels. Tribological tests were performed on induction-hardened surfaces of stainless steels X20Cr13 and X17CrNi16-2 under combined wear conditions at a load of 100 to 300 N and a rotation speed of 382 to 754 min⁻¹. The wear test was carried out on a tribometer with the use of an aggressive medium in the chamber. After each wear cycle on the tribometer, the samples were exposed to corrosion action in a corrosion test bath. Analysis of variance revealed a significant influence of rotation speed and load due to wear on the tribometer. Testing the difference in the mass loss values of the samples due to corrosion using the Mann–Whitney U test did not show a significant effect of corrosion. Steel X20Cr13 showed greater resistance to combined wear, which had a 27% lower wear intensity compared to steel X17CrNi16-2. The increase in wear resistance of X20Cr13 steel can be attributed to the higher surface hardness achieved and the effective depth of hardening. The mentioned resistance is the result of the creation of a martensitic surface layer with dispersed carbides, which increases the resistance to abrasion, dynamic durability, and fatigue of the surface of the protective layer.

Reliable measurement of surface roughness (Ra) is extremely important for quality control of production processes. The cost of the equipment and the duration of the measurement process are very high. The aim of this work is to develop a device for non-destructive measurement of specific roughness levels on stainless steel using computer vision. The device should be structurally simple, affordable, accurate, and safe for practical use. The purpose of the device is to effectively detect the level of roughness of the treated surface obtained by the water jet cutting process. On the basis of the obtained results, it is possible to adjust the parameters during the cutting process. The principle of operation of the device is based on measuring the intensity of the visible spectrum of the light reflected from the surface of the sample to be measured and correlating these values with the values of the measured roughness. After testing several variants of the device, the so-called vertical measurement variant was developed using the following equipment: violet light LED, optical filter and light splitter, USB 2.0 web camera, Arduino microcontroller, personal computer, and LabView programming interface.

In metallurgical processes, metal sheet cutting is usually a basic technological operation that needs to be performed. All other technological operations follow the procedure of metal sheet cutting, with the final aim of manufacturing a final product. Machines used for that basic metal cutting operation shall be reliable, efficient, fast, and relatively easy to work with. While working with a laser, the authors noticed the inefficiency of cutting with nitrogen. Nitrogen bottles got empty too quickly, which caused additional costs. Inefficient, i.e., excessive nitrogen consumption requires a more frequent supply of nitrogen. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nitrogen was not always available, as suppliers shifted to manufacture oxygen bottles for medical needs. Therefore, the authors engaged in finding solutions to reduce the consumption of nitrogen at cutting. The mentioned problem was studied within the experiment that focused on the optimization of nitrogen use during fiber laser cutting, the procedure, and results of which are described in this paper. Specimens of different cutting parameters were prepared and cut to measure their roughness and burr height. The collected data were used to create a mathematical model with an ANOVA table. The experiment resulted in the determination of optimal cutting parameters achieved by the lowest possible cutting gas pressure.

The paper presents the results of theoretical analysis and experimental details of shaping the edges of thick steel plate using conventional technology. The aim was to determine the influence of holes laser cutting on the shape and...