The surface Rockwell hardness of tinplate could reflect the tinplate hardness of its surface. This feature is very important for the processing and application of tinplate. Therefore, the surface Rockwell hardness measurement is an important step in the inspection process of tinplate. The method for measuring the surface Rockwell hardness is similar to the ordinary Rockwell hardness, but the applied load is different. HR 30T and HR 15T steel balls were used as indenter, and the head diameter was Φ1.587 5 mm. Under the conditions of total load composed of initial test force and main test force, the steel balls were pressed onto the sample surface. The pressure was maintained in the specified time. Then the main test force was removed, while the initial load was still maintained. The indentation residual depth caused by main test force was measured to calculate the surface Rockwell hardness value.

The rating spectrum classification, inclusion classification, and evaluation methods of German standard DIN 50602-1985 of High magnification metallographic examination of nonmetallic inclusions in special steels were analyzed. Moreover, it was compared with GB/T 10561-2023 and ASTM E45-2018a which were widely used in China at present. K method in DIN 50602-1985 was more comprehensive and accurate in reflecting the level of inclusions compared with GB/T 10561 and ASTM E45 due to its more classifications of rating spectra and the use of comprehensive indices to reflect the overall hazard level of inclusions. The analysis of standard was helpful to inspectors for correct rating.

The technologies for defect assessment of additive manufacturing were investigated. The comprehensive analysis was conducted from the aspects of additive manufacturing process principles, typical defect types, defect detection, and defect assessment progress. The causes of defects and the current main non-destructive detection methods were emphatically discussed. The main defect assessment methods and research status at home and abroad were summarized and sorted out. The existing problems of additive manufacturing defect assessment technology were proposed, which could provide the reference for the assessment research of additive manufacturing defects.

The banded structure is one of the internal defects of materials. It is mainly manifested as the banded single phase or polyphase structure in metal materials, which is roughly parallel and alternately arranged along the direction of thermal deformation. The banded structure has great influence on mechanical property and service performance, so the evaluation of banded structure is relatively important in product acceptance. The methods of China standard and American standard are different in the band rating. Therefore, it has a significant impact on the band rating result when different standards is chosen. In this study, various evaluation standards for the banded structure were compared, and the rating process of standards was demonstrated using examples. The inspection standards of banded structure in steel at home and abroad were analyzed and discussed.

With the development of computer processing technology, the application of software in testing and analysis has become common, and the relevant standards such as API Q1 and ISO/IEC 17025-2017 also put forward requirements for software confirmation. Therefore, how to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of test software is particularly important. In this study, the room temperature electronic stretcher was taken as an example, and the tensile software was confirmed according to the control points in appendix C of GB/T 228.1-2021. The automatic calculation of sampling frequency, yield strength, tensile strength and tensile rate of data acquisition and analysis software was verified. The verification principle, implementation method and steps were described in detail. After verification, the parameters automatically collected by the software could meet the requirements of standard, which indicated that the verification method was reliable.

Total focusing method (TFM) of ultrasonic phased array is a non-destructive testing method which combines phased array probe and total focus imaging technology. As a new non-destructive testing technology, it has attracted much attention in recent years. Total focusing method of ultrasonic phased array is based on the full matrix data acquisition (FMC) technology to obtain the detection data for signal processing. Compared with conventional ultrasonic phased array detection, full focusing method has higher imaging resolution and more accurate defect location. In this paper, the principle, characteristics and function of total focusing method of ultrasonic phased array are described in detail, and the conventional phased array detection and full focusing detection technology are compared and analyzed by using standard test blocks, which has certain significance for further understanding and popularization of total focusing method of ultrasonic phased array.

The corrosion behavior of Q235B carbon steel for tank in acidic sulfolane solution at two typical temperatures, i.e., 30 ℃ and 50 ℃, was investigated and analyzed by static coupon method,electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization curve method. The results showed that the corrosion rate was fast at 50 ℃, which was nearly three times of that at 30 ℃. The electrochemical experiments indicated that Nyquist curve showed incomplete capacitive arc in the high-frequency region, and the radius of capacitive arc in the high-frequency region was small at 50 ℃. Due to the greater activation degree of sulfolane degradation at high temperature, the resistance of ions in the solution became smaller, leading to the aggravated corrosion, which was consistent with the result of static coupon method. With the extension of immersion time, the corrosion products of Q235B carbon steel during the immersion in acidic sulfolane solution had no protecting effect on the matrix. The self-corrosion potential shifted negatively, the polarization resistance decreased, and the corrosion resistance gradually decreased.

In order to find out the causes of fine line-like defects at the edges of 20MnB hot rolled fine-blanking steel and propose the effective improvement measures, the micro-cracks were formed by pre-crack and fatigue vibration based on the microstructure analysis of detects in hot rolled plate. The sample with micro-cracks was used for high-temperature oxidation simulation experiments. The oxidation and decarbonization laws of microstructure near the micro-cracks were investigated. The results showed that the depth of oxidation dots was strongly correlated with heating temperature, which was the main basis for judging the formation temperature of defects. The microscopic characteristics in high-temperature oxidation simulation experiments were compared with the defects in hot rolled plate. It was considered that the edge defects in the hot rolled plates occurred in the rough rolling region. The typical microscopic characteristic was that there was an oxidation dot zone with a depth of less than 5 μm near the crack, as well as the slight grain growth and decarbonization or not in metallographic structure. According to the above conclusion, the equipment in rough rolling region was checked up, and it was found that the vertical roller surface was rough and there were adhesive steels on it, which were the main reasons to cause fine line-like defects. The lubrication process and working period of the vertical roller were adjusted. The percentage of the rolled oil was increased from 3‰ to 5‰. Finally, the fine line defects at the edges were significantly reduced.

The display and control of original austenitic grain size has important significance for regulating the austenitizing temperature during the solution treatment process of stainless steel. In metallographic test, chemical etching method is commonly used to display the austenitic grain size of carbon steel and alloy steel. Due to the high difficulty of chemically etching stainless steel, it has become a challenge to display the original austenitic grain size in stainless steel. Based on this, a electrolytic polishing device was self-made, and a method for displaying the original austenitic grain size in martensitic stainless steel and martensitic precipitation-hardening stainless steel was proposed by electrolytic etching method with composite electrolyte. The test equipment consisted of direct-current (DC) power supply, 250 mL beaker, stainless steel sample holder made of 420 steel, and 304 stainless steel plate (cathode). The electrolyte was mainly composed of 30%-50%(V/V) deionized water, 50%-70%(V/V) nitric acid, and a small amount of phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid. The area of cathode immersed in the electrolyte was about 2,000 mm² (front and back). Two kinds of steel materials were selected for the optimization of electrolytic etching conditions, i.e., 07Cr16Ni6 steel and 0Cr17Ni4Cu4Nb steel. The results showed that the original austenitic grain size of 07Cr16Ni6 steel could be clearly displayed under the following experimental conditions: the electrolysis voltage was 4.5 V, the electrolysis time was 15 s, and the electrolyte was composed of 100 mL of water, 100 mL of nitric acid, 6 mL of phosphoric acid and 3 mL of sulfuric acid. The original austenitic grain size of 0Cr17Ni4Cu4Nb steel could be clearly displayed under the following experimental conditions: the electrolysis voltage was 0.5 V, the electrolysis time was 40 s, and the electrolyte was composed of 100 mL of water, 100 mL of nitric acid, 8 mL of phosphoric acid and 3 mL of sulfuric acid. The method proposed provided a reference for displaying the austenitic grain size in other stainless steels with matrix of martensite.

By comparing specimen microstructure of the processed surfaces obtained by the three different sample preparation processes,i.e.,wire cutting,punching processing,and laser cutting, as well as the stability of elongation after fracture,the most suitable sample preparation process for ultra-high strength steel was screened out. According to standard requirements, the influences of three different transition arc radii on the detection stability of elongation after fracture for ultra-high strength steel were analyzed. Moreover, the influences of three different rate switching point parameter settings on the stability were also investigated. At the same time, the stabilities of measured elongation after fracture for ultra-high strength steel by laser extensometer and mechanical extensometer were compared. Based on the above research, the suggestions for detection of the elongation after fracture of ultra-high strength steel in the laboratory were put forward: laser cutting was recommended for sample preparation; the transition arc radius was selected as 35 mm; when the rate switching point parameter was set to 0.10 or 0.15, the data were most stable;if the elongation after fracture of ultra-high strength steel was automatically measured, the data obtained by laser extensometer were more stable than those obtained by mechanical extensometer.

To provide numerical solutions for optimizing thermal deformation process parameters, and break through the efficiency bottleneck of traditional trial-and-error method in high temperature plastic forming quality control, thermal simulation testing machine was used to conduct thermal simulation compression tests on 316L austenitic steel at different strain rates. The local mechanical response of grains under different thermal deformation conditions was investigated by nanoindentation test, and the recrystallization process of thermal deformation was analyzed by DEFORM finite element simulation software. A genetic algorithm(GA) back propagation (BP) artificial neural network (ANN) with nonlinear mapping capability was used to predict the mechanical properties of austenitic steel. The results showed that the dynamic recrystallization was the dominant mechanism of microstructure evolution in thermal compression deformation process of 316L austenitic steel, and its progress was significantly affected by strain rate. The tests indicated that the recrystallization nucleation and grain reconstruction could be effectively promoted by high strain rate via accelerating dislocation multiplication and energy accumulation. The numerical simulation study further demonstrated that the dynamic recrystallization volume fraction of materials showed positive growth with the increase of deformation amount, which was accompanied by remarkable grain refinement effect. The high temperature rheological behavior of the material was predicted. The hybrid intelligent algorithm model based on genetic algorithm optimization was proposed. The stability of accuracy of stress prediction was greatly improved by modifying the initial parameter sensitivity of BP neural network, which provided reliable calculation method for numerical simulation of complex thermal deformation process.

The aluminum shell of lithium-ion battery plays the roles of sealing and protection for the positive and negative electrodes, separator, and electrolyte inside the package. Its defects could affect the safety, sealing property, and energy utilization efficiency of the battery. In this study, 53148115-type 3003-H14 aluminum alloy shells were employed to systematically investigate the effects of wall thickness, defect and corrosive environment on the property of tensile, pressure resistance and corrosion. The results showed that the shells with wall thickness of 1.0 mm could satisfy the strength requirements of lithium-ion battery. The location of defects had an important influence on the sealing property. The arc radius depression at the corners of aluminum shell has almost no effect on the blasting pressure, while large depressions or damages on the surface significantly reduce the pressure resistance strength. The crystal structure had no change after exposure to water and 5 g/L NaCl solution for 24 h. However, the surface roughness increased with the corrosion time. NaOH solutions caused pronounced surface corrosion, and new reaction substances were formed within 0.5 min in 50 g/L NaOH solution, accompanied by pitting and powdering.

In the machining process of sleeve parts by one machine manufacturing shop, it was found that the surface of several steel pipe sleeve parts had linear longitudinally stripe defects and the surface quality was unqualified. After scraping the unqualified sleeve parts, the defects were damaged for analysis. Through metallographic detection, scanning electron microscope(SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy(EDS) analysis, the causes of defects were finally found out. There were some small skin warping defects on the surface of the tube billet before drawing. These small defects were lengthened longitudinally along the deformation direction during the drawing process, and finally became the folding defects distributed longitudinally in the extension pipe.

The quenching crack failure of high-speed and heavy-duty bearing ring is the bottleneck problem limiting the service reliability of machinery equipment. Therefore, it is crucial to clarify its failure mechanism for optimizing heat treatment processes and ensuring the performance of key components. This study focused on the cracking phenomenon of 20CrMnTi steel bearing rings during quenching. Through various methods such as macroscopic and microscopic fracture characterization, metallographic examination, and chemical analysis, the multi-scale mechanism of crack initiation and propagation was revealed. The experimental results showed that the cracks initiated from the position with distance of 2-3 mm to surface, and there were aluminum oxide inclusions with diameter of 81 μm at the center of original cracks. The original cracks extended along the hoop in subsequent heat treatment process, and the fracture showed the characteristics of intergranular-quasi-cleavage hybrid brittle fracture. Moreover, there was no plastic deformation trace in the extension area, which proved that the failure mode was the original crack extension dominated by quenching stress. By combining with finite element multi-field coupling simulation, a temperature field-phase transformation field-stress field interactive model was further established. The dynamic evolution law of I-type stress intensity factor (K_IC) of crack tip was quantitatively reveled: when the length of original crack exceeded 1.84 mm, the quenching tensile stress made K_IC reach the critical value (128 MPa·m^1/2) after 14 s of quenching, and the unstable propagation of cracks occurred. At this time, the temperature of crack tip area and the phase transition degree of martensite were consistent with the observation results in experiments. According to fracture mechanics criterion and engineering conservatism principle, it was suggested that the quenching treatment should be avoided in production for 20CrMnTi pieces with internal cracks (the length more than 1.8 mm).

To optimize the rolling process parameters of ferrite, dilatometric analysis and metallographic method were combined in this study to construct dynamic continuous cooling transformation (CCT) curve of undercooled austenite for the intermediate billet of SPHC3 steel during the transition from austenite to ferrite. The phase transformation law of SPHC3 steel was further analyzed in continuous cooling process, and the phase transformation points were determined. The experimental results indicated that, under constant deformation conditions, the increase of cooling rate would reduce the initial temperature of ferrite transformation (Ar₃) and the austenite-to-pearlite transformation temperature (Ar₁), while the phase transformation temperature range was widened. Thermal simulation experiments with varying deformation temperatures, deformation amount, and strain rates were conducted, supplemented by lever method of dilatometric curves, to explore the effects of process parameters on dynamic transformation points during austenite-to-ferrite transition. The results demonstrated that, when other deformation conditions were fixed, both Ar₃ and Ar₁ lowered with the increasing of deformation temperature; both Ar₃ and Ar₁ increased with the increasing of deformation amount; both Ar₃ and Ar₁ lowered with the increasing of strain rates. In industrial production, the phase transformation temperatures could be increased by lowering deformation temperature, increasing deformation amount, reducing strain rate, and decreasing cooling rate, thereby ensuring that the finish rolling occurred within ferrite region.

The development and application of high-strength automotive structural steels is one of key technologies to promote the vehicle lightweighting. However, the problem of cross-sectional cracking was observed for 700 MPa-grade automotive structural steel sheets during shearing, which significantly influenced the processability and use safety of materials. Regarding this issue, the detection methods, such as X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, tensile testing machine, metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope and Vickers hardness tester, were employed to systematically investigate the chemical composition, mechanical properties, microstructure, fracture morphology and microhardness of the material. The results showed that the contents of alloying elements such as Mn, Nb, and V were significantly higher in cracked samples plates compared to the normal sample plate in shearing. The segregation of Mn and synergistic effect of Mo in material induced the formation of hard and brittle martensite segregation bands in the core of steel plate during hot rolling, leading to the severe nonuniformity of cross-sectional structure and performance, which was the key factor to cause degraded processability. Under the action of shearing stress, the microcracks were formed due to the stress concentration caused by the property mismatch between martensite segregation bands and other regions. The propagation of microcracks caused cracking along the segregation bands during subsequent processing.

In order to improve the frequent spalling failure of gearbox bearing in working process of a passenger car, the failure analysis of 42 sets of bearings due to spalling failure was conducted by scanning electron microscope (SEM),energy disperse spectroscopy(EDS) and optical microscope(OM). The results showed that there was no abnormality in SEM morphology for 92.9 % of the bearing spalling products. In addition, the element analysis, microhardness and carbide grade of products could all meet the technical requirements of GB/T 18254-2016 or internal control. The main failure causes for the product were not obviously related to of raw material quality and heat treatment, but were related to product design and lubrication environment. It was necessary to adjust the force design and oil supply mode of gearbox. After improvement according to the analysis results of failure parts, the quantity of bearing failure parts significantly was reduced by about 60%.

The influences of three kinds of coating, i.e., hot-dip galvanizing coating, hot-dip galvanized iron alloy coating and electroplating galvanizing coating, on the tensile properties of cold-rolled plate were analyzed in this paper. The tensile properties of IF-grade cold-rolled plate with different coatings were measured by 0.5 grade tensile tester, and the tensile properties before and after coating removal were compared. The results showed that there was no obvious difference in tensile properties before and after electroplating galvanized coating removal. The yield strength, strain hardening exponent (n value) and plastic strain ratio (r value) were different before and after hot dip galvanized coating removal. The tensile properties before and after hot-dip galvanized iron alloy coating removal were different, and the difference of r value was most significant, which reached 0.35. The surface and fracture were observed by scanning electron microscope(SEM). It was found that the tiny cracks were produced during the fracture of hot-dip galvanized iron alloy coating, which had a great impact on the measurement of r value.

The edge peeling defect on surface of hot-rolled steel strip is a bottleneck problem to restrict the improvement of its surface quality. Aiming at the edge peeling defect in hot-rolled steel strip, the microstructure and chemical composition of the defect areas were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer(EDS). Moreover, the statistical analysis of production data and the rolling test of flame-cleaning slab with prefabricated defect with were conducted in 2 250 mm hot continuous rolling line of Qian'an Iron and Steel Company of Beijing Shougang Co., Ltd., and the causes and evolution process of edge peeling defect in steel strip were clarified. The results showed that the accumulation and residual of slag convergence ridge caused by poor flame cleaning quality of cast slab could not be completely removed after heating in reheating furnace and descaling by descaler. The residual oxide layers from slag convergence ridge were partially embedded into the steel substrate during rough rolling and finish rolling while others remained on the surface of steel strip, ultimately forming edge peeling defect containing numerous oxidized spots with maximum thickness up to 150 μm. An industrial experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of edge convergence ridges removal by flame for slab on the quality of the hot rolled edge. Subsequently, process optimization was carried out and production data were continuously tracked. The results demonstrated that the improvement of flame cleaning quality to reduce the occurrence of intersection edge or the use of narrow-side non-cleaning process could reduce the incidence of edge peeling defect by 87%.

The effects of heating temperature and heating time on the grain size of M50 high-temperature bearing steel were investigated by metallographic microscope. The experimental results were discussed and analyzed. The experimental results showed that, when the heating temperature was not higher than 1 100 ℃, both heating temperature and heating time had little influence on the grain size of M50 steel. When the heating temperature was higher than 1 100 ℃, the increase of heating temperature and prolonging of heating time exhibited a positive correlation with the grain size. In other words, the grain size of M50 steel would grow up by increasing the heating temperature or prolonging the heating time. Therefore, the control of heating temperature and heating time is very critical to the control of grain size in actual production process.

Fatigue life is one of the important indexes for safety assessment of crane, and the existence of average stress is one of important factors to be considered in multi-axial fatigue failure of Q345 steel for metallurgical crane main beam. Uniaxial tension-compression and pure torsion fatigue tests were conducted on the main material Q345 steel for metallurgical crane main beam, and the tensile stress(S)-fatigue life (N) curves and torsional stress S-N curves of the material were obtained. Based on the test results, an appropriate stress was selected as the equivalent stress for multi-axial fatigue loading, and the multi-axial fatigue fatigue tests with different average tensile stresses were carried out under this equivalent stress.The variations of the maximum normal stress and the maximum shear stress under different tensile average stresses and their corresponding planar directions were theoretically deduced. The initiation and propagation of cracks on the surface of fatigue specimen were observed by optical microscope, and the microscopic morphological characteristics of specimen fracture surface were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) to investigate the failure modes of Q345 steel under different tensile average stresses. The research showed that the multi-axial fatigue life of Q345 steel would be significantly reduced with the influence of tensile average stress. With the increase of tensile average stress, the shear stress gradually played a dominant role in the process of fatigue failure.

A exhaust gas recovery compressor fractured during service. The on-site investigation revealed that all twelve connecting bolts on the cylinder body of compressor had fractured. In addition, compressor piston rod was also fractured. In order to determine the failure cause and prevent such incidents from happening again, the analysis of piston rod and bolts on chemical composition, mechanical properties, metallographic structure, and fracture morphology was conducted through experiments. The fracture cause was identified. The results showed that the failure mode of compressor bolts was the fatigue cracking when the alternating loads exceeded the fatigue limit of material. The main cause of early-stage cracking of bolts was the existence of excessive full decarburization layer on the surface of thread. After the fastening bolt fractured, the compressor run in a state of instability, and the piston rod was abnormally stressed and overloaded, which belonged to the late damage.

Monte Carlo method is a distributed propagation method based on random sampling for probability distribution. Monte Carlo method and GUM method were used to evaluate the uncertainty in the determination of elastic modulus of titanium alloy by suspension wire coupled resonance (dynamic method) specified in GB/T 22315-2008 Metallic materials-Determination of modulus of elasticity and Poisson′s ratio. According to the evaluation results of Monte Carlo method, the results of single test could be expressed as (123.6±1.6) GPa with coverage factor of k=2. According to the evaluation results of GUM method, the results of single test could be expressed as (123.6±1.7) GPa,k=2. The deviations of the results, expanded uncertainty, the upper and lower limits of the confidence interval obtained by the above two methods were +0.0, 0.2, +0.2, and 0.1 GPa, respectively. The deviations were less than the numerical tolerance (0.5 GPa). The results of the above two methods were consistent.

The existing high temperature contact angle measuring device could obtain the high temperature wetting behavior by measuring the contact angle. However, the existing devices are only equipped with simple oxide substrates such as aluminum oxide/magnesium oxide, which could not realize the study of high temperature behavior of complex oxides especially the various process problems induced by oxide coalescence behavior in the field of iron and steel metallurgy. A series of interfacial wetting experiments were designed with Al-Si-Ca/Mg-O complex oxides as examples based on the high temperature melt-complex oxides contact angle measuring method which was proposed previously. By obtaining the contact angle of molten steel-Al-Si-Ca/Mg-O complex oxides, their coalescence coefficients were further calculated and their coalescence behaviors were evaluated. The upgrade of equipment function was realized. The results showed that the contact angle between Al-Si-Ca-O oxides and molten steel was the lowest. On the basis of this, the quantitative relationship between the ability of oxide coalescence and molten steel-oxides interface properties was proposed. The coalescence coefficients of various oxides were calculated as below: CaO·2Al₂O₃>Al₂O₃>MgO·Al₂O₃>2CaO·Al₂O₃·SiO₂>CaO·Al₂O₃·2SiO₂. In other words, Al-Si-Ca/Mg-O oxides were difficult to aggregate. This method could be further extended to the study of the coalescence behavior of other oxides. It could help solve the problems of surface and internal defects of steel caused by the agglomeration of oxide inclusions and the formation or coalescence of large-sized inclusions during deoxidation in the field of molten steel metallurgy.

There was abnormal noise for one air conditioning system equipment during commissioning after installation, and it could not continue to run after about 400 h. The dismantling results showed that the threaded part of shaft end of compressor pinion shaft was broken. The pinion shaft was comprehensively analyzed through chemical composition, hardness, mechanical property, microstructure and micromorphology of fracture. The results showed that the carbon content in pinion shaft exceeded the upper limit specified in EN10084-2008. The hardness exceeded the technical requirements of the product. The percentage elongation after fracture and the percentage reduction of area were lower than technical requirements of the product. There was segregation of alloying elements. The cracks were generated at the root of thread in thermal refining. The combined effect of these factors caused the premature failure of pinion shaft.

The surface removal amount of impact specimens is specified in ASTM A 370-2022, and it is in contradiction with ASME B31.3-2022 where the overcooling degree should be considered when the notch width of the notched specimens is less than 80% of material thickness. Based on this, an impact sampling method of thin-walled austenitic stainless steel seamless tubes was discussed. Impact tests were compared on austenitic stainless steel seamless tube specimens in original (solution) state and flattened state respectively, and the results showed that the impact absorbed energy in flattened state was significantly greater than that in original state. Hardness comparison tests were conducted at three different positions on the same flattened state specimens, namely the end, 1/4 (width) W and 1/2 W. The results indicated that the hardness at 1/4 W of specimen was the lowest. The ferrite numbers of specimens in original state and flattened state were determined respectively. The results indicated that the ferrite number in flattened state was significantly higher than that in original state. At 1/4 W of specimen, hardness tests were compared in flattened state and original state under both room temperature and -196 ℃ conditions. The results showed that the hardness of specimen in flattened state at both room temperature and -196 ℃ were higher than those in original state. The strain hardening in flattening process played a dominant role at -196 ℃, which was the main reason for the above phenomena. Therefore, it was considered that the surface removal amount specified in ASTM A370 could be neglected for thin-walled austenitic stainless steel seamless pipes, and the results of impact tests were more representative when the specimens were directly sampled in original state. Meanwhile, it could also meet the requirements for the degree of undercooling specified in ASME B31.3-2022.

As one of the most fundamental and widely applied methods for evaluating the mechanical properties of metallic materials, hardness testing plays a critical role in material development, process control, and quality assessment. The Sub-committee on Hardness Testing under Technical Committee on Metal Mechanical Testing of the International Organization for Standardization(ISO/TC164/SC3), as the primary body for international hardness testing standardization, has established a complete standard system covering the hardness testing of Brinell, Vickers, Rockwell, Knoop and Leeb, and instrumented indentation testing, while continuously improving international rules on uncertainty evaluation, traceability of reference blocks, and verification of testing machines. In parallel, Working Group of Hardness established by Quality and Related Quantities Advisory Committee under International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM/CCM-WGH) ensures the global uniformity and mutual recognition of hardness values at the level of metrology through international comparisons and uncertainty specifications. In China, the standardization system in this field is mainly composed of Mechanics and Process Performance Test Methods sub-technical committee under National Steel Standardization Technical Committee of Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China(SAC/TC183/SC4), National Testing Machine Standardization Technical Committee (SAC/TC122), and the National Force Value Hardness Gravity Metrolog Technical Committee (MTC7). It is responsible for the formulation and revision of method standards and equipment standards, as well as undertaking tasks related to metrological traceability and international cooperation. In recent years, Chinese experts have significantly enhanced their voice in international standardization work for hardness tests, leading the formulation and revision of several key ISO standards, making international standards more in line with domestic needs. Overall, the future development trend of hardness test standardization includes further standardization of traditional methods, expansion of new indentation methods, and advancement of extreme environment testing methods, providing a more solid foundation for advanced manufacturing and engineering applications.

The surface defects in automobile stabilizer rod could lead to the performance deterioration of automobile and even cause the breaking of balance rod, which seriously affect the safety of automobile driving. The 55Cr3 wire rod produced in a certain factory was tested in one automobile parts factory, and it was found that there were some deep decarbonization defects on the surface of the rolled high wire rod. The process of controlled rolling and controlled cooling were optimized, the heating temperature of the billet in heating furnace was reduced, and the control temperature center line of soaking section was reduced from the original 1 080 ℃ to 1 020 ℃. The heating furnace atmosphere was adjusted, and the air-fuel ratio was adjusted from the original 0.75% to 0.55%. The spinning temperature of the wire rod and the running speed of the air-cooled roller were reduced, and the speed of the entrance section was increased from 0.12 m/s to 0.13 m/s. The cascade increase of the roller speed in different proportions was implemented, and the cooling speed in the phase change zone was appropriately increased. Finally, the wire rod without decarbonization defect was obtained, which could meet the product performance requirements for customer.

Grass-like wave problem is a common surface wave defect in forged steel cold rolling roller billets. If the traditional tempering and surface hardening processes are adopted, the problem of surface wave defect in the finished rolling roller products cannot be effectively eliminated. The post-forming heat treatment processes such as normalizing and spheroidizing annealing were employed to reduce or eliminate the grass-like wave defects that occured during ultrasonic testing of 70Cr5Mo steel roller billet products. The results showed that a uniform and fine spheroidized pearlite structure could be obtained by adopting a combined pre-treatment process of normalizing with isothermal spheroidizing annealing, effectively improving the microstructure of 70Cr5Mo steel, thereby achieving the goal of reducing or eliminating the grass-like waves.The recommended process was as follows: normalizing (holding at 1 070 ℃ for a certain period and then air cooling) →isothermal spheroidization (holding at 970 ℃)→rapid cooling to 770 ℃ and holding for a certain period→furnace cooling to 500 ℃ and then unloading for air cooling.

The power supply and communication between instruments were interrupted when a certain drilling adapter fractured, which caused economic loss after drilling. The fracture cause of the adapter was determined by the analysis of macroscopic morphology, microscopic morphology, metallographic structure, chemical composition and hardness testing. The results showed that the adapter belonged to fatigue fracture. The fatigue source was located at the sharp edge defect of the long strip protrusion at the thread root where the cutting groove and thread chamfer were connected. There was a high local stress concentration at this location, and the fatigue cracks initiated and rapidly expanded under the alternating load of drilling work. In addition, the beryllium bronze material under simultaneous action of solid solution and aging treatment was sensitive to notches, weakening the grain boundaries, which was prone to formation of intergranular cracks.

The design life of a certain 18CrNiMo7-6 steel gear shaft was 47.2 months, but it broke after 6 months of service. In order to determine the failure cause and prevent such event from happening again, the test piece were carried out by physical and chemical analysis methods, such as scanning electron microscope (SEM), metallographic analysis, hardness test, and chemical composition test. The results showed that the matrix microstructure was tempered sorbite, and there was segregation martensite at the same time. These two kinds of structures had difference in hardness and were distributed alternately in the material. The segregation area had a higher hardness, making it more prone to forming stress concentration points during service. This led to the initiation and propagation of cracks in the gear shaft over a long service period, ultimately resulting in the fracture of the gear shaft.

The measurement resolution of impact fracture image analyzer is limited by the optical lens, which cannot meet the requirements of metrological characteristics regarding display resolution. In order to improve the display resolution of impact fracture images, the super resolution fracture image analysis was investigated to solve the problem of low resolution of impact fracture images. The original resolution about 0.03 mm was increased to about 0.003 7 mm, which could meet the requirements of relevant standards. In order to meet both the requirements of impact fracture morphology analysis and the display resolution requirements for metrological calibration characteristics, the tower decomposition amplification enhancement method was adopted in this study. Two different types of impact fractures were photographed on the impact fracture image analyzer to obtain the original fracture images, and then the fracture images were subjected to 8 times tower decomposition amplification processing. Through the algorithm evaluation, it was found that the enlarged fracture image maintained good similarity and information content with the original image, which conformed to the measurement principles of geometric quantities. Finally, an uncertainty evaluation was conducted and the results were provided.

The macroscopic observation and microstructure analysis of fracture of 45 steel motor shaft were conducted by metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The fracture reasons were comprehensively analyzed based on the chemical composition, hardness testing and metallographic morphology. The results showed that the chemical composition of the motor shaft met the composition requirements of 45 steel specified in GB/T 699-2015. Based on hardness test results and analysis of macroscopic structure morphology, it could be concluded that the motor shaft has undergone quenching and tempering in some areas. The short-term fracture was due to the presence of numerous granular non-metallic inclusions and holes within the motor shaft material. At the fracture surface, there was a depression with a diameter of approximately 3.4 mm near the edge. During the operation of the motor, it caused stress concentration, forming a crack source, and then the cracks extended towards the edge. Due to the presence of numerous inclusions and holes within the material, which made it overall loose, the cracks spread rapidly, resulting in the short-term fracture of the motor shaft.

The microscopic analysis of materials is mainly carried out by means of destruction, such as optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM). Meanwhile, these destruction methods can only analyze the situation of surface, and the situation in whole volume cannot be reflected. How to select and process the analysis surface will directly affect the analysis results. The application of ordinary ultrasonic testing has a long history, but it cannot meet the requirements of material microscopic analysis when it is applied in millimeter defect detection of materials and parts. Scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) is a kind of C-scanning equipment with high precision scanning institutions and special software. The working frequency is high frequency ultrasound which is 100-1 000 times of ordinary ultrasound. The resolution of X/Y axis is up to 0.1 μm, and the resolution of Z axis is up to 5 μm, which can realize the analysis of micrometer-level defect (or tissue structure). It has multiple scanning modes including A, B, C, D, X, G, P and 3D, which can realize three-dimensional defect positioning, size measurement and area proportion analysis. The abnormal internal structure of materials can be accurately reflected, which can be used as the preliminary positioning and screening method for material analysis, or directly used in material analysis.

The flexible composite pipe has the characteristics of good continuity, high tensile strength, high acid-base corrosion resistance, anti-scaling and waxing. In recent years, it has been rapidly popularized and used in domestic oil and gas fields. Linpan Oilfield Production Factory selected a water injection well to start the downhole test for the first time in October 2013. The test lasted for 8 months. During the test period, all water injection operation indexes were normal. The flexible composite pipe was taken out and its comprehensive performance was evaluated after the downhole test. The results showed that this pipe had a significant anti-scaling effect compared with the traditional metal oil pipes. The bending modulus of its inner and outer spiral armor layers was reduced to 92.66% and 87.14%, respectively. The bending strength was reduced to 84.74% and 69.18%, respectively. The tensile stiffness of the entire pipe was reduced by 9.70%, and the internal pressure stiffness was reduced by 8.39%. However, its overall tensile limit was increased by 2.54%, which could still ensure the safe operation and production of this flexible composite pipe under an internal pressure of 15 MPa and an external pressure of 5 MPa.

In corrosion laboratory, the rotameter is usually used to control the constant flow of gas. H₂S bubbling is observed to ensure that H₂S solution is saturated during the whole test. This control method cannot achieve the continuous monitoring of H₂S flow, and may cause test failure. In the digital corrosion test system, the digital mass flowmeter was used to replace the rotameter, which realized the remote real-time monitoring and data traceability of H₂S flow. The digital corrosion test system was used for multiple corrosion tests. H₂S with different constant flow was injected into reaction solution with different volumes to investigate the corresponding relationship between H₂S concentration in the test solution and H₂S flow, so as to ensure the smooth operation of corrosion tests.The test results showed that, in the hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) resistance test, if the reaction vessel is smaller than 25 L, the constant flow of H₂S introduced should be set to no less than 8.0 mL/min to ensure the stable conduct of corrosion test.

The composition of white unknown substance on the surface of brake pad with new formula which was produced in one brake facing enterprise for automobiles was identified and analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope(SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed that the component of white unknown substance on the surface of brake facing was MgO. The phase analysis of white unknown substance was eventually determined based on X-ray diffraction, and its elemental analysis was conducted by scanning electron microscope(SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Then,the composition of the white unknown substance was finally determined. The detection and analysis of unknown substance provided timely and useful information for product innovation, optimization and improvement of production process and quality control, and it had good practical value in the production field.

Bar materials,as important raw materials for key components such as bearings and chains, their quality directly affects the safety performance of the downstream products. For rods with a diameter not exceeding 50 mm, the magnetic flux leakage non-destructive testing technology is commonly used for defect detection, but it has the disadvantages of high loss and high cost. The application of infrared thermal imaging detection technology in detection of surface defects of small-size bars was investigated. This technology heats the surface of small-size bars in motion by controlling a high-frequency eddy current heat source. The surface temperature field information was collected with infrared camera, and analyzed through image processing technology. The characteristic information of surface defects was obtained by the temperature change rate. The test results showed that when the ratio of defect depth to surface roughness of the bars was greater than 3 ∶1, this detection method could accurately distinguish the defect range from the image. When the motion speed was within the range of 0.5 to 1.5 m/s and the depth of the artificial damage grooves was within the range of 0.1 to 1.1 mm, the defect detection rate was greater than 99.5% and the false alarm rate was less than 0.5%. The feature extraction technology could precisely calculate and obtain the geometric shape features (length, width, etc. of key parameters) and spatial position information of defects. The deviation in the length direction was within ±3 mm and the deviation in the angle direction was within ±5°.

Through analogue simulation, metallographic structure analysis, high-temperature thermoplastic test and fracture morphology analysis of edge crack defects in Q460C angle steel, the formation mechanism of these defects was explored. The results showed that there were oxidation material spots, decarburization and ferrite grain growth in the defective parts of edge cracks in angle steel. The edge cracks in angle steel were caused by the inheritance of cracks in the inner arc angles of casting billet. Q460C continuous casting billet had obvious high-temperature plastic zone and low-temperature brittle zone. The high-temperature plastic zone was in range of 975-1 350 ℃, and the low-temperature brittle zone was in range of 600-950 ℃. When the temperature increased from 950 ℃ to 975 ℃, the section shrinkage rate increased from 34% to 85%. On this basis, the process optimization measures, such as improving the purity of molten steel, stabilizing the drawing speed, controlling the superheat of the middle ladle, adjusting the specific water volume of the secondary cooling, and increasing the temperature before straightening of the continuous casting billet, were proposed for the problem of crack defects at the edge of Q460C angle steel. Then the surface quality at angle of casting billet was significantly improved, and the crack defects on the surface of angle steel were fully controlled.

To clarify the high-cycle fatigue behavior of ZL205A aluminum alloy casing of the main reducer of helicopter and the failure mechanism of micro-porosity, the high-cycle fatigue experiments were carried out with a cycle base of 10⁷ of symmetrical cycles (stress ratio of R=-1) by up-down method. The fracture surface and porosity defects were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and optical microscope (OM). The results showed that the median fatigue limit of ZL205A aluminum alloy at room temperature was 81.9 MPa; the fatigue cracks all initiated from the surface micro-porosity, the porosity area percentage (f) increased from 0.14% to 0.32%, the crack propagation life decreased by 52%; the porosity shortened the life through the mechanism of stress concentration-accumulation of plastic strain-rapid propagation. This study provides a key basis for life prediction and process optimization of the casing.