Strain Ageing of Steel: Part Two

Strain ageing can have a serious detrimental effect on low carbon structural steels and so two material examples are examined to see how different pre-strain and ageing conditions affect material mechanical properties.
A carbon steel (40% martensite) and a microalloyed steel (20% martensite) were both treated under the same parameters and then the UTS and stress strain curves were evaluated to gain some valuable conclusions.

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Spring Steels

The term yield strength refers to a material’s ability to endure significant bending or twisting and return to its original shape without deforming.
Spring steel alloys feature the unique characteristic of being able to withstand considerable twisting or bending forces without any distortion. Products made from these steel alloys can be bent, compressed, extended, or twisted continuously, and they will return to their original shape without suffering any deformation.

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Fatigue behavior of Al-Si-Mg alloys: Part One

The engine block works under mechanical and thermal cyclic stresses in relative motion with other engine parts. High fatigue strength and good wear resistance are critical properties to engine block life.
Each specimen was tested under uniaxial cyclic loading using Instron 8032 system. To investigate the fatigue behavior of Al-Si-Mg alloy, specimens were exposed to different stress amplitudes from 115 to 185 MPa.

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Solder Alloys

Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a relatively low melting point.
A solder is a fusible metal alloy with a melting point or melting range of 90 to 450°C, used in a process called soldering where it is melted to join metallic surfaces. It is especially useful in electronics and plumbing.

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