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Transmission electron diffraction microscopy is used to analyze strain hardening of steel with a bainitic structure. Contributions to strengthening are considered for lattice friction, interphase boundaries, dislocation substructure, carbide phases, alloying element atoms, and remote stress fields. It is established that substructural and solid solution strengthening make the greatest contributions. The reason for steel loss of strength with large degrees of deformation is connected with activation of deformation microtwinning.

Optical and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods are used for layer by layer comparative analysis of low-temperature reliability rails with increased wear resistance and contact-fatigue strength of the highest quality after bulk quenching and differential hardening by different regimes. Quantitative relationships are established for changes in structural parameters, phase composition, and dislocation substructure over the central axis and fillet at different distances from the running surface. The degree of structure and phase composition inhomogeneity and defective substructure is revealed. It is shown that with respect to structural component content and interlamellar distance the structure after bulk hardening compared with differential hardening is more uniform in a layer 2 mm thick and less uniform at a distance of 10 mm from the running surface. With respect to stress concentration density, the rail structure after bulk hardening (compared with differential hardening) is less uniform in a layer 2 mm thick and more uniform in a layer at a distance of 10 mm from the running surface.

A new microprocessor-based system for monitoring rolling forces has been designed and built, the system making it possible to measure and record changes in the load on the rolls along sheet that is in the process of being rolled. Introduction of the monitoring system was the second stage in the modernization of the two high 150×235 mill in the laboratory of the Metal-Shaping Machines and Technologies Department at MAMI. The mill was then used to perform an experiment that made it possible to evaluate the effect of the draft and the contact-friction conditions on the deformational and force parameters in the rolling of copper sheet. The experimental results also confirmed the utility of the force-monitoring system that was developed.

Modification of a titanium surface layer with yttrium is performed by a combined method providing electroexplosive alloying and subsequent treatment by a high-intensity electron beam. Alloyed layer elemental and phase composition, defect substructure, mechanical and tribological properties are determined. Saturation of a titanium surface layer with atoms of yttrium, oxygen, and carbon is revealed, which leads to the formation of a cermet layer strengthened with titanium and yttrium oxides and carbides and facilitates a multi-fold increase in microhardness and a reduction in modified layer friction coefficient and wear rate.

Wire has traditionally been made from wire rod. Scale is removed from the surface of the wire rod before it is drawn through die plates (draw plates). Performing the drawing operation without the use of a die plate makes it possible to deform the wire rod without removing the scale, i.e., it creates a new process that combines descaling and drawing. The authors created an experimental unit with a kinematically determined amount of elongation in order to study the process of drawing without a die plate. They studied different parameters of the process of drawing wire rod without a die plate and compared it to traditional drawing.

Light microscopy, x-ray phase analysis, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to study the structural-phase states of the regions created by the electro-explosive boriding of nickel and the boron carbiding of iron and nickel. Alloying of the surface of tool steel Kh12 with gadolinium and boron was also examined. It was found that several layers with distinctive features are formed, these layers being arranged in a regular pattern through the depth of the alloying zone: a near-surface nano-composite layer composed of synthesized phases; an intermediate layer characterized by cellular crystallization; a boundary layer with a granular structure; a fine nanocrystalline sublayer at the interface between the alloying zone and the base; a heat-affected zone with a high dislocation density. The properties of the surface of steel Kh12 after treatment were studied by measuring microhardness, wear resistance, and resistance to high-temperature oxidation in atmospheric air. An analysis was made of the convective processes that are responsible for mass transfer of the alloying elements in the surface layers during the treatment.

Oxygen-gas burners have become a standard component of modern electric-arc steelmaking furnaces worldwide as a means of increasing productivity and reducing electric power consumption. The use of such burners in these furnaces is expedient from both an economic and an energy standpoint. On the average, the use of 1 m3 of natural gas to heat the scrap in the furnace charge saves 0.6–0.8 m3 of natural gas for the refining operation. The amount of heat obtained from the combustion of natural gas can be increased significantly by equipping arc steelmaking furnaces with high-capacity rotary oxygen-gas burners that allow changes to be made to the direction of the flame.