Ion sulphuration-an effective surface engineering technique for reducing friction and wear of rubbing-pairs

The low temperature ion sulphuration-an effective surface engineering technique for reducing friction and wear of rubbing-pairs was introduced. It involves the principle of ion sulphuration process, microstructure of FeS film on 1045 steel, tribological properties of FeS film on steels, microstructions and tribological properties of MoS2 and nano-FeS/MoS2 multi-layered films, as well as their applications.

Electrochemical corrosion behavior of arc sprayed Zn-Al coatings

Cored wires and high velocity arc spraying (HVAS) technique were applied to produce high Al content Zn-Al alloy coatings on low carbon steel substrates. The electrochemical corrosion behaviors of Zn, Al and Zn-Al coatings were studied with potentiodynamic measurement in 5 % NaCl solution. Compared with pure Zn, pure Al and Zn-15Al coatings, Zn-26Al coatings show a higher corrosion resistance in salt solution. The potentiodynamic polarization tests show that the corrosion resistance of Zn-Al coatings increases as Al content is raised. Pure Al coating exhibits different electrochemical behaviors with other coatings. The corrosion initiated at the micro-pores of the coating and the underlying corrosion mechanism is very similar to that of the pitting corrosion.

Tribology properties of composite layer of CrMoCu alloy cast iron by combined treatment of ion nitrocarburizing and sulphurizing

Composite layer with nitrocarbonide and sulfide was made on the surface of CrMoCu alloy cast iron by combined treatment of ion nitrocarburizing and sulphurizing. The composite layer is composed of sulfide layer, nitrocarbonide hypo-surface layer and its diffusing layer, the size of sulfide globular grains distributing equably on the surface is in nano-micron-scale, and the phase structure of the composite layer is composed of FeS, FeS1-x, Fe2C and Fe3N. Under oil lubrication, sulphurized surface shows good scuffing-resistance only under low velocity, and nitrocarburized and sulphurized surface greatly improves the scuffing-resistance and wear-resistance of CrMoCu alloy cast iron, its integrated friction and wear properties are better than those of the plain and sulphurized surfaces under all the velocities.

Nano surface engineering and remanufacture engineering

Nano surface engineering and remanufacture engineering are introduced, and the relationship between them is set forth. It points out the superiority of nano surface engineering to the traditional one, and reveals the advantages of remanufacture engineering. Taking some nano surface techniques as samples, such as nano-materials brush electroplating, nano-materials thermal spraying and nano-materials self-repairing antifriction additive technology, it shows the applications of nano surface engineering technology to remanufacturing mechanical parts.

Eigenstructure assignment in a class of second-order dynamic systems

Eigenstructure assignment using the proportional-plus-derivative feedback controller in a class of secondorder dynamic system is investigated. Simple, general, complete parametric expressions for both the closed-loop eigenvector matrix and the feedback gains are established based on two simple Smith form reductions. The approach utilizes directly the original system data and involves manipulations only on n-dimensional matrices. Furthermore, it reveals all the degrees of freedom which can be further utilized to achieve additional system specifications. An example shows the effect of the proposed approach.

Wear behavior of high velocity arc sprayed 3Cr13 steel coating in oil containing sand

To improve the wear resistance of the machine components serving in desert areas, the 3Cr13 stainless steel coating was produced by the high velocity arc spraying technique. The microstructure and phase constitute of the coating were analyzed by SEM and XRD. The effects of sand content on the friction and wear behaviors of the coating under the lubrication of oil containing sand were investigated on a ball-on-disk tester. SEM was used to reveal the wear mechanisms of the coating. The results show that the wear volume increases with increasing the sand content in the oil, and the sprayed coating exhibits better triobological properties compared with the 1045 steel. The predominant wear mechanisms of the sprayed coating are micro-cutting, brittle fracture and delamination.

Configuration optimization of high velocity arc spraying gun

In order to improve the in-flight characteristics of the atomizing droplets during high velocity wire arc spraying (HVAS), some changes have been operated on the original design of the HVAS gun configuration. A comparative study was carried out to investigate the microstructure and properties of the coatings produced by the original design spraying gun and the modified one, using 3Cr13 wires of 3 mm in diameter. The characteristics of their jets were examined during spraying. The results indicate that, the included angle between the two wires and the distance from the nozzle to the meeting point of the two vires may have a strong influence on the characteristics of the in-flight droplets and then the coatings. The jet divergence is found to be lower than that of the original one (about 12° against 25°). By modified gun, the adhesion strength, the microhardness and porosity of the coating deposited by modified gun are increased by 39% and 9% respectively. And the porosity of the coatings is decreased by 57%.

Influence of oxides on high velocity arc sprayed Fe-Al/Cr_3C_2 composite coatings

Fe-Al/Cr3C2 coatings were sprayed on low steel by high velocity arc spraying（HVAS） technology. The influences of oxides on erosion, corrosion and wear behavior for high velocity arc sprayed Fe-Al/Cr3C2 coatings were studied. The results show that HVAS-sprayed Fe-Al/Cr3C2 coatings have good erosion, heat corrosion and wear resistance. The erosion resistance improves with the increase of the temperature. On one hand, the ferrous oxides are incompact, so they peel off the surface of the coatings easily during the high temperature erosion. On the other hand, compact Al2O3 films on the surface can protect the coatings.

Influence of cross correlation step length on the surface stress of thin laser cladding Fe314 alloy coatings

To measure the surface stress of thin laser cladding coatings with Rayleigh waves based on the cross correlation function, this pa- per introduced the influence of cross correlation step length on the stress measurement. Flat-shaped specimens made of laser cladding Fe314 alloy coatings were performed by static tensile tests, and Rayleigh wave signals were collected during the test process with an ultrasonic pulser and receiver instrument combined with two Rayleigh wave transducers. The difference in time of flight between two signals was de- termined based on the cross correlation function. The microstructure was observed by scanning electronic microscopy. The influence of the stress on the propagation velocity of Rayleigh waves and the relationship between the difference in time of flight and tensile stress under dif- ferent cross correlation step lengths were analyzed. The inhomogeneous deformation of the coatings affects the relationship between the dif- ference in time of flight and tensile stress; the stress measurement of the coatings is nearly constant with the increase of cross correlation step length when it attains one cycle.

Sliding wear behavior of high velocity arc sprayed Fe-Al coating

The friction and wear behavior of Fe Al intermetallics based coating produced by high velocity arc spraying technique under dry sliding at room temperature were investigated using a ball on disc tribotester. The effect of sliding speed on friction coefficient and wear of the coating was studied. The worn surface of the coating was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) to explore sliding friction and wear mechanism. The results show that the variations of friction coefficient can be divided into three distinct steps during the trail. Both the friction coefficient and the wear of the coating increase with increased sliding speed due to accelerated crack propagation rate and lamellar structure with poor ductility of the coating. The coating surface is subjected to alternately tensile stress and compression stress during sliding wear process, and the predominant wear mechanism of the coatings appears to be brittle fracture and delamination.

Failure behavior of protective organic coatings under corrosive conditions

Recent research activities on the formation of micro-defects and porosity in organic coatings were reviewed. The mechanisms of aggressive ionic conduction through organic coatings were analyzed. The micro-mechanisms for the failure behavior of coatings under corrosive environments were discussed in detail. These mechanisms included blistering (i. e. osmotic blistering, anodic blistering and cathodic blistering) in the coating, wet-adhesion loss at the substrate/coating interface, cathodic delamination of coating from the substrate. Based on these researches, it was found that the failure behavior of organic coatings is closely related to the micro-defects in coatings, regardless of the failure mode. Additionally, the general failure mode of a coating system was proposed to interpret the failure behavior of organic in corrosion environments. The topics discussed can provide some insights into the development of a methodology for designing fail-safe coating systems.

Preparation and Characterization of Microcapsules for Self-healing Materials

The urea-formaldehyde（UF） capsules filled with a healing agent, a mixture of epoxy resins（epoxy 711 and E-51） as core material, were produced by means of one step in-situ polymerization. The characteristics of these microcapsules were studied via scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, particle size analysis, FTIR and DSC/TGA. The results show that the dispersed and integrated microcapsules of 5 μm in shell thickness were synthesized successfully. The capsules were produced with diameters ranging from 10 to 250 μm via controlling agitation rate. Young＇s modulus of the capsule was a little lower than those of the epoxy resins, but the microcapsules having such a shell thickness were robust enough to survive handling during manufacturing self-healing composites. When damage occurred in the epoxy matrix, the crack could rupture the microcapsule to make the repairing agent release.

Automatic Generation of Optimally Rigid Formations Using Decentralized Methods

In this paper, decentralized methods of optimally rigid graphs generation for formation control are researched. The notion of optimally rigid graph is first defined in this paper to describe a special kind of rigid graphs. The optimally rigid graphs can be used to decrease the topology complexity of graphs while maintaining their shapes. To minimize the communication complexity of formations, we study the theory of optimally rigid formation generation. First, four important propositions are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of using a decentralized method to generate optimally rigid graphs. Then, a formation algorithm for multi-agent systems based on these propositions is proposed. At last, some simulation examples are given to show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

Surface nanostructure formation mechanism of 45 steel induced by supersonic fine particles pombarding

By means of supersonic fine particles bombarding （SFPB）,a nanostructured surface layer up to 15 μm was fabricated on a 45 steel plate with ferrite and pearlite phases. To reveal the grain refinement mechanism of SFPB-treated 45 steel,microstructure features of various sections in the treated surface were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）,scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. Grain size increases with an increase of depth from the treated surface. Plastic deformation and grain refinement processes are accompanied by an increase in strain. Plastic deformation in the proeutectoid ferrite phases has precedence over the pearlite phases. Grain refinement in the ferrite phases involves： the onset of dislocation lines （Dls）,dislocation tangles （DTs） and dense dislocation walls （DDWs） in the original grains; the formation of fine lamellar and roughly equiaxed cells separated by DDWs; by dislocation annihilation and rearrangement,the transformation of DDWS into subboundaries and boundaries and the formation of submicron grains or subgrains; the successive subdivision of grains to finer and finer scale,resulting in the formation of highly misoriented nano-grains. By contrast,eutectoid cementite phase accommodated strain in a sequence as follows： onset of elongated,bended and shear deformation under deformation stress of ferrites,short and thin cementites with a width of about 20-50 nm and discontinuous length were formed. Shorter and thinner cementites were developed into ultra-fine pieces under the action of high density dislocation and strains. At the top surface,some cementites were decomposed under severe plastic deformation. Experimental evidences and analysis indicate that surface nanocrystallization of 45 steel results from dislocation activities,high strains and high strain rate are necessary for the formation of nanocrystallites.

Effect of electromagnetic stirring on the microstructure and wear behavior of iron-based composite coatings

The effect of electromagnetic stirring on the microstructure and wear behavior of coatings has been investigated. A series of iron-based coatings were fabricated by the plasma-transferred arc cladding process by applying different magnetic field currents. The microstructure and wear resistance of the composite coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscope （SEM）, en- ergy dispersive X-ray analysis （EDAX）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, and wet sand rubber wheel abrasion tester. The experimental results showed that the microstructure of the coatings was mainly the γ-Fe matrix and （Cr, Fe）7C3 carbide reinforced phase. The coatings were metallurgically bonded to the substrate. With increasing magnetic field current, the amount of the block-like （Cr, Fe）TC3 carbide reinforced phase increased at first, reached a local maximum, and then decreased sharply. When the magnetic field current reached 3 A, the block-like （Cr, Fe）TC3 carbides with high volume fraction were uniformly distributed in the matrix and the coating displayed a high microhardness and an excellent wear resistance under the wear test condition.

Properties and strengthening mechanism of brush plated nanoparticle reinforced composite coatings

Nanoparticle reinforced nickel matrix composite coatings, such as n-Al2O3/Ni, n-SiO2/Ni, n-SiC/Ni and n-TiO2/Ni, were fabricated by brush plating technique. Hardness, wear resistance and contact-fatigue resistance of the composite coatings were determined, and strengthening mechanism of the composite coatings was discussed. Results show that the composite coatings have superior properties to the Ni metal coating. Compared with properties of brush plated Ni metal coating, the composite coatings have hardness over 1.5 times and wear resistance capability of about 2.5 times. The strengthening mechanism of the composite coatings mainly includes fine-crystal grain effect, nanoparticle dispersion effect and dislocation effect.

Design and manufacture of intelligent Cu-based wet friction materials

The friction sheets working process was analyzed. It is found that its characteristic is microregion instantaneous high temperature and the current cooling method, making the sheets cooled by the lubricating oil flowing through the friction surface, is not very efficient. Then, intelligent materials concept was introduced, the component and microstructure of intelligent Cu-based friction materials were designed, and the intelligent Cu-based wet friction materials as well as sheets were manufactured. And the intelligent friction materials working principle, i.e. the materials cooling the friction microregion in real time or the friction sheets cutting the peak value of microregion instantaneous high temperature during friction process, was given depending on the characteristics of the materials’ and friction sheets’ working process. Finally, it is indicated that the intelligent friction sheets excell the currently used friction sheets in properties, including anti-heating property, anti-wearing property as well as friction characteristic.

Microstructure and Wear Behavior of FeBSiNbCr Metallic Glass Coatings

In this paper, FeBSiNbCr metallic glass coatings were prepared onto AISI 1045 steel substrate by using wire arc spraying process. The phase and structure of the coating were characterized by transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, X-ray diffraction （XRD） and scanning election microscopy （SEM） equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis （EDX）. The microstructure of the coating consists of full amorphous phase. The coating has high hardness and low porosity. Full density and little oxides are detected in the coating. The mechanical properties, especially wear resistance, were investigated. The relationship between wear behavior and structure of the coatings were analyzed in detail. The main failure mechanism of the metallic glass coating is brittle breaking and fracture. The results indicate that FeBSiNbCr metallic glass coating has excellent resistance to abrasive wear.

Tribological behaviour of oil-soluble organo-molybdenum compound as lubricating additives

A four-ball machine was employed to investigate the tribological performances and the synergetic function of organo-molybdenum compounds (molybdenum dialkyl-dithiophosphate and molybdenum dithiophosphate, coded as MoDDP and MoDTP, respectively) as additives in liquid paraffin. The morphologies of the worn surfaces and elemental distributions were observed and determined by means of scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry. The chemical states of some typical elements on the worn surface were analyzed on X-ray photoelectron spectroscope. The results show that MoDDP and MoDTP additives in liquid paraffin have excellent antiwear and friction-reduction properties, which are attributed to the reaction film composed of MoS2, FeS and MoO2, and the deposited film composed of phosphate on the worn surface. Moreover, these two additives have synergetic friction-reducing and antiwear effect, which is closely related to the chemical states of S on the worn surface.

PLE spectra analysis of the sub-structure in the absorption spectra of CdSeS quantum dots

The semiconductor CdSeS quantum dots （QDs） embedded in glass are analysed by means of absorption spectra, photoluminescence （PL） spectra and photoluminescence excitation （PLE） spectra. The peaks of absorption spectra shift to lower energies with the size of QD increasing, which obviously shows a quantum-size effect. Using the PLE spectra, the physical origin of the lowest absorption peak is analysed. In PLE spectra, the lowest absorption peak can be deconvoluted into two peaks that stem from the transitions of 1S3/2-1Se and 2S3/2-1Se respectively. The measured energy difference between the two peaks is found to decrease with the size of QD increasing, which agrees well with the theoretical calculation for the two transitions. The luminescence peak of defect states is also analysed by PLE spectra. Two transitions are present in the PLE, which indicates that the transitions of 1S3/2 1Se and 2S3/2 1Se are responsible for the defect states luminescence.