Products made of clad sheets are a cost-effective alternative to products made entirely of cladding material. The cladding process aims to enhance functional properties, such as corrosion resistance and tribological properties, or modify mechanical properties and conductivity. This publication analyzes the influence of the rolling method on the cold forming ability of explosive welded Ti/steel sheets. Special attention was paid to the quality of the connection between the sheets, as it significantly impacts clad sheet formability. The drawability of these clad sheets was assessed based on the mechanical and technological properties, as well as through microstructural analyses. Experimental analyses revealed that hot rolling of the clad leads to the disappearance of the wave character of the interface and formation in its area of the Frenkel plane and interface layer, which significantly affect the mechanical and technological properties of the analyzed clad. Better cold forming ability, especially in reverse bend test, were obtained for asymmetrically rolled clad, which exhibits greater uniformity of structure.

This study presents the results of research into the influence of the time of the plasma nitriding process on the microstructure of the coatings obtained. Cold-work tool steels (60WCrV8, 90MnCrV8, 145Cr6), hot-work tool steel (X37CrMoV5-1) and high-speed tool steel (HS6-5-2) were selected as substrate material. The processes were carried out under industrial conditions using an Ionit device from Oerlikon Metaplas with variable process times of 2, 4 and 6 hours. According to literature data, a nitriding mixture consisting of 5% nitrogen and 95% hydrogen was chosen, which allowed the expected diffusion layer to be obtained without a white layer (composed of iron nitrides). Analysis of elemental mapping indicates that the presence and content of nitride-forming elements influences the formation of alloy additive nitrides in the microstructure of the diffusion layer. It was also found that an increase in the duration of plasma nitriding, results in an increase in the depth of the nitrided layers formed on the substrate of high-alloy steels: X37CrMoV5-1 and HS6-5-2. Nitrides of alloying additives, present in the diffusion layer, are formed in the high-alloyed the hot-work steel X37CrMoV5-1, indicating that these steels are the most suitable for plasma nitriding of the entire tool steels analysed.

The goal of this article is to application of non-silica sands based on alumininosilicates as an alternative of traditionally used chromite sand for alloyed steel and iron castings. Basic parameters as bulk density, pH value of water suspension, refractoriness, grain shape of the testing sands were evaluated. Also mechanical properties of furan no-bake moulding mixtures with testing sand were determined. Finally, the influence of non-silica sand on casting quality was evaluated via semi-scale under normal casting production for sand characterization Optimization of production process and production costs were described.

This study investigates the effect of nano-SiO₂ on the mechanical properties and fracture surface morphology of cement composites. The focus was on fracture toughness (K_Ic^S) and compressive strength. Composites with nano-SiO₂ showed up to 63% higher fracture toughness and 68% higher compressive strength than unmodified ones. The influence of nano-SiO₂ content (0.09–2.91% by binder mass) and water-to-binder ratio (0.43–0.57) was examined using a Central Composite Design. Properties improved with higher nano-SiO₂ content and lower w/b ratio. Fractographic analysis using laser profilometry revealed a clear correlation between the fractal dimension (D) of fracture surfaces and K_Ic^S and fcm. Lower D values indicated smoother fracture surfaces and denser microstructures. The results clearly show that changes in the composition—particularly the nano-SiO₂ content and the water-to-binder ratio—determine the development of the microstructure, which in turn governs the mechanical properties of the material. Consequently, the study establishes a coherent, quantitative relationship between mixture composition, fracture microstructure, and the macroscopic properties of the composite.