HARDNESS OF NITRIDED LAYERS TREATED BY PLASMA NITRIDING

Stainless steels, particularly the austenitic stainless grades are widely used in many industries due to good corrosion resistance, but very poor mechanical properties as surface hardness and wear resistance limit its possible use. Plasma nitriding is one of the few ways to increase the surface hardness of these steels, even though this will affect its corrosion resistance. This paper focuses on the description of the mechanical properties of nitrided layers in the two most widespread austenitic stainless steels AISI 304 and AISI 316L. The microstructure and properties of nitrided layers were evaluated by metallography and microhardness measurement. Surface properties of nitrided steels were characterized by Martens hardness. The results show that plasma nitriding created very hard nitrided layers with thickness about 40 μm and microhardness about 1300 HV0.05. Surface hardness measurements have shown that the maximum values for both steels are about 8.5 GPa, but have different behaviour under higher loads, when the AISI 316L nitrided layer began to crack on the surface and sink

Influence of the shape of the filling on the mechanical properties of samples made by 3D printing

In this work, the influence of material type and sample fill density was evaluated. One PLA material was tested. Test specimens having different fill structure and density were printed from this material. Full honeycomb and gyroid shapes were used for the fill structure. The specimens had four different fill percentages for each structure: 10%, 25%, 50% and 75%. These bodies were compared to samples that were printed with 100% fill. Tensile test was performed on printed test pieces. The Zwick / Roell Z100 was used for testing and the surface hardness of the test specimens was measured by the Shore D method on a DIGI-Test II hardness tester. Fracture surfaces were evaluated on an Olympus DSX 500 optodigital microscope. The results showed that the shape of the fill did not signifi-cantly affect the values obtained by the tensile test. The hardness measurement results showed a different hardness on the bottom surface that was in contact with the printing pad and the top printing surface. Fractographic analysis revealed different types of fracture surfaces related to the printed fill structure. © 2021 Manufacturing Technology. All rights reserved

Application of Carbon–Flax Hybrid Composite in High Performance Electric Personal Watercraft

Within the herein presented research, we studied the applicability of flax fabrics for composite parts in personal watercrafts in order to enhance damping of vibrations from the engine and noise reduction (which is relatively high for contemporary carbon constructions). Since the composite parts are intended to be exposed to humid environments requiring high levels of mechanical properties, a carbon–flax composite was selected. Samples of carbon, fiberglass, flax, and hybrid carbon–flax twill and biax fabrics were subjected to tensile and three-point bending tests. The mechanical properties were also tested after exposure of the samples to a humid environment. Damping was assessed by vibration and noise measurements directly on the complete float for samples as well as real parts. The hybrid carbon–flax material exhibited lower values of tensile strength than the carbon material (760 MPa compared to 463 MPa), but, at the same time, significantly higher than the other tested materials, or flax itself (115 MPa for a twill fabric). A similar trend in the results was observed for the three-point bending tests. Vibration tests and noise measurements showed reductions in vibration amplitude and frequency when using the carbon–flax hybrid material; the frequency response function for the watercraft part assembled from the hybrid material was 50% lower than for that made of carbon. Testing of samples located in a humid environment showed the necessity of surface treatment to prevent moisture absorption (mechanical properties were reduced at minimum by 28%). The tests confirmed that the hybrid material is satisfactory in terms of strength and its contribution to noise and vibration damping

Survival analysis of factors influencing cyclic fatigue of nickel-titanium endodontic instruments

Objective. The aim of this study was to validate a survival analysis assessing the effect of type of rotary system, canal curvature, and instrument size on cyclic resistance. Materials and Methods. Cyclic fatigue testing was carried out in stainless steel artificial canals with radii of curvature of 3 or 5 mm and the angle of curvature of 60 degrees. All the instruments were new and 25 mm in working length, and ISO colour coding indicated the instrument size (yellow for size 20; red for size 25). Wizard Navigator instruments, Mtwo instruments, ProTaper instruments, and Revo-S instruments were passively rotated at 250 rotations per minute, and the time fracture was being recorded. Subsequently, fractographic analysis of broken tips was performed by scanning electron microscope. The data were then analysed by the Kaplan-Meier estimator of the survival function, the Cox proportional hazards model, the Wald test for regression covariates, and the Wald test for significance of regression model. Conclusion. The lifespan registered for the tested instruments was Mtwo > Wizard Navigator > Revo-S > ProTaper; 5 mm radius > 3 mm radius; and yellow > red in ISO colour coding system.Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic [CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0170, CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0041

Determination of mechanical properties of plastic components made by 3D printing

The presented article deals with the determination of selected mechanical properties of additive materials used for 3D printing (PETG, PLA, ABS, ABS +, PLA ESD, ASA, PC / ABS). Due to the fact that 3D printing has exploded over recent years and additive manufacturing has become popular in some industries, the quality of input materials and their mechanical properties is extremely important. We used 3D printer Original Prusa MK3 to prepare samples for testing. Individual samples printed from all above mentioned materials were analyzed using selected mechanical tests (static tensile test, hardness tests). In the static tensile test, selected parameters (tensile strength limit, tensile modulus, elongation) were determined for all additive samples, which were statistically processed. The parameters for two methods of measuring hardness were also statistically evaluated, namely Shore and ball indentation. All tested additive materials were compared with the aim of obtaining the final ranking (point evaluation of tested materials with quantification of price costs). The best properties after the performed tests were achieved by the additive material PLA Filament Plasty Mladec.Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve ZlíněDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Defence in Brno [SV20-216]; Project for the Development of the Organization "DZRO VAROPS"; Tomas Bata University in Zlin [VaV-IP-RO/2022/01

Change in Dimensions and Surface Roughness of 42CrMo4 Steel after Nitridation in Plasma and Gas

The influence of plasma nitriding and gas nitriding processes on the change of surface roughness and dimensional accuracy of 42CrMo4 steel was investigated in this paper. Both processes almost always led to changes in the surface texture. After plasma nitriding, clusters of nitride ions were formed on the surface of steel, while gas nitriding very often led to the new creation of a formation of a “plate-like” surface texture. In both cases of these processes, a compound layer in specific thickness was formed, although the parameters of the processes were chosen with the aim of suppressing it. After the optimizing of nitriding parameters during nitriding processes, it was found that there were no changes in the surface roughness evaluated using the Ra parameter. However, it turned out that when using a multi-parameter evaluation of roughness (the parameters Rz, Rsk and Rku were used), there were presented some changes in roughness due to nitriding processes, which affect the functional behavior of the components. Roughness changes were also detected by evaluating surface roughness profiles, where nitriding led to changes in peak heights and valley depths. Nitriding processes further led to changes in dimensions in the form of an increase of 0.032 mm on average. However, the magnitude of the change has some context on chemical composition of material. A larger increase in dimensions was found with gas nitriding. The change in the degree of IT accuracy is closely related to the change in dimension. For both processes, there was a change of one degree of IT accuracy compared to the ground part (from IT8 to IT9). On the basis of the achieved dimensional accuracy results, a coefficient of change in the degree of accuracy IT was created, which can be used to predict changes in the dimensional accuracy of ground surfaces after nitriding processes in degrees of accuracy IT3–IT10. In this study, a tool for predicting changes in degrees of accuracy of ground parts after nitriding processes is presented

Effect of boron and vanadium addition on friction-wear properties of the coating AlCrN for special applications

Cutting tools have long been coated with an AlCrN hard coating system that has good mechanical and tribological qualities. Boron (B) and vanadium (V) additions to AlCrN coatings were studied for their mechanical and tribological properties. Cathodic multi-arc evaporation was used to successfully manufacture the AlCrBN and AlCrVN coatings. These multicomponent coatings were applied to the untreated and plasma-nitrided surfaces of HS6-5-2 and H13 steels, respectively. Nanoindentation and Vickers micro-hardness tests were used to assess the mechanical properties of the materials. Ball-on-flat wear tests with WC-Co balls as counterparts were used to assess the friction-wear capabilities. Nanoindentation tests demonstrated that AlCrBN coating has a higher hardness (HIT 40.9 GPa) than AlCrVN coating (39.3 GPa). Steels’ wear resistance was significantly increased by a hybrid treatment that included plasma nitriding and hard coatings. The wear volume was 3% better for the AlCrBN coating than for the AlCrVN coating on H13 nitrided steel, decreasing by 89% compared to the untreated material. For HS6-5-2 steel, the wear volume was almost the same for both coatings but decreased by 77% compared to the untreated material. Boron addition significantly improved the mechanical, tribological, and adhesive capabilities of the AlCrN coating. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Defence in Brno [SV20-216]; Project for the Development of the Organization "DZRO Military autonomous and robotic systems"; Slovak Research and Development AgencySlovak Research and Development Agency [APVV-15-0710]Agentúra na Podporu Výskumu a Vývoja, APVV: APVV-15-071

Cyklická únava zubních NiTi nástrojů po plazmové nitridaci

This study investigated the possibility of nitride NiTi instruments using low-temperature plasma nitriding technology in a standard industrial device. Changes in the properties and fatigue life of used NiTi instruments before and after low-temperature nitriding application were investigated and compared. Nontreated and two series of plasma-nitrided NiTi instruments, designed by Mtwo company with tip sizes of 10/.04 taper, 15/.05 taper, and 20/.06 taper, were experimentally tested in this study. All these instruments were used and discarded from clinical use. The instruments were tested in an artificial canal made of stainless steel with an inner diameter of 1.5 mm, a 60° angle of curvature, and a radius of curvature of 3 mm. A low-temperature plasma nitriding process was used for the surface treatment of dental files using two different processes: 550 °C for 20 h, and 470 °C for 4 h. The results proved that it is possible to nitride dental instruments made of NiTi with a low-temperature plasma nitriding process. Promising results were achieved in trial testing by NiTi instruments nitrided at a higher temperature. Plasma-nitrided files were found to have, in some cases, significantly higher values than nontreated files in terms of fatigue life. The results showed that the nitriding process offers promising possibilities for suitably modified surface properties and quality of surface layer of NiTi instruments. Within the limitations of the present study, the cyclic fatigue life of plasma-nitrided NiTi dental files can be increased using this surface technology.Tato studie zkoumala možnost nitridových NiTi nástrojů využívajících nízkoteplotní plazmovou nitridační technologii ve standardním průmyslovém zařízení. Byly zkoumány a porovnávány změny vlastností a únavové životnosti použitých NiTi nástrojů před a po aplikaci nitridace při nízkých teplotách

A Novel Approach to the Production of Printed Patch Antennas

This paper presents the manufacturing of a patch antenna using an advanced 3D printing technology called lights-out digital additive manufacturing (LDM). This 3D LDM printing technology is mainly used for printing circuit boards (PCBs); however, it has also been used to print a patch antenna from conductive (CI) and dielectric ink (DI). This 3D LDM-printed antenna was compared with antennas on different dielectric substrates (Arlon 25N and FR4). The obtained results are compared and analyzed in this paper