Joining of metal bars by a new process of transformation-diffusion brazing

Within the bonded interface of metal bars joint produced by conventional solid state bonding process （ such as flash welding, resistance butt welding, friction welding and so on）, the inclusions are often present, which degrade the ductility of joint. A new process of transformation-diffusion brazing is proposed, in which an amorphous foil containing melting point depressant is preplaced between the interfaces to be joined, and the assembly is repeatedly heated/cooled without holding time at peak temperature. A low carbon steel bars, BNi-2 amorphous foil and resistance butt welding machine were used. The results show that surfuce contamination can be disrupted by the dissolution of base metal into molten interlayer in comparison with conventional process, and the ductility of joint can be improved by increasing the times of temperature cycles on line. In addition, transformation-diffusion brazing can be done with relatively simple and inexpensive system in comparison with transient liquid phase bonding.

Identification and PID Control for a Class of Delay Fractional-order Systems

In this paper, a new model identification method is developed for a class of delay fractional-order system based on the process step response. Four characteristic functions are defined to characterize the features of the normalized fractional-order model. Based on the time scaling technology, two identification schemes are proposed for parameters U+02BC estimation. The scheme one utilizes three exact points on the step response of the process to calculate model parameters directly. The other scheme employs optimal searching method to adjust the fractional order for the best model identification. The proposed two identification schemes are both applicable to any stable complex process, such as higher-order, under-damped U+002F over-damped, and minimum-phase U+002F nonminimum-phase processes. Furthermore, an optimal PID tuning method is proposed for the delay fractional-order systems. The requirements on the stability margins and the negative feedback are cast as real part constraints U+0028 RPC U+0029 and imaginary part constraints U+0028 IPC U+0029. The constraints are implemented by trigonometric inequalities on the phase variable, and the optimal PID controller is obtained by the minimization of the integral of time absolute error U+0028 ITAE U+0029 index. Identification and control of a Titanium billet heating process is given for the illustration. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.