Effect of Post Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Microhardness of Friction Stir Processed NiAl Bronze (NAB) Alloy
NiAl bronze (NAB) alloy is prepared by using friction stir processing (FSP) technique at a tool rotation rate of 1200 rpm and a traverse speed of 150 mm/min. A post heat treatment is performed at the temperature of 675 °C. The effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and microhardness is studied. The results show that the microstructure of the FSP NAB alloy consists of high density dislocations, retained β phase (β′ phase) and recrystallized grains. When annealed at 675 °C, discontinuous static recrystallization (DSRX) takes place. The content of β′ phase gradually decreases and fine κ phase is precipitated. After annealing for 2 h, both the microhardness of the FSP sample in the stir zone (SZ) and the difference in hardness between the SZ and base metal decrease due to the reduction of the dislocation density and β′ phase, accompanying recrystallized grain coarsening. With further increasing of the annealing time to 4 h, the aforementioned difference in hardness nearly disappears.
Electrochemical Monitoring of Selective Phase Corrosion of Nickel Aluminum Bronze in Seawater
Abstract Components made from cast nickel aluminum bronze have been used extensively in some seawater systems because of their generally good toughness. However, this alloy can be susceptible to selective phase corrosion. This has led to requirements for removal of components on a fixed timetable to test for the presence of this corrosion. Significant savings in cost and labor could be achieved if components were only removed when significant corrosion damage had actually occurred. In an effort to find a useful method for online corrosion monitoring, several electrochemical techniques were assessed to determine if they could detect the onset of selective phase corrosion in specimens exposed to clean, flowing seawater that was subject to occasional injections of sulfides liberated from decaying marine organisms. Prior to immersion in the seawater, individual specimens were subjected to different heat treatments intended to either enhance or reduce susceptibility to selective phase corrosion. At the conclus...
Traceability strategy for gear-pitch-measuring instruments: development and calibration of a multiball artifact
There is a strong demand to ensure the traceability of gear-measuring instruments (GMIs). We propose a multiball artifact (MBA) for the evaluation of pitch-measuring accuracy. The aim of the MBA is to transfer the minimum uncertainty from a calibrated value at the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) to a measured value of GMIs at a shop floor. The MBA is composed of equally spaced high-accuracy balls around an axis. The pitch-measuring accuracy of GMIs is evaluated by measuring the angular pitch deviation of the balls instead of the angular pitch deviation of a gear. We calibrated the angular pitch deviation using a coordinate measuring instrument (CMM) at the NMIJ and adapting a multiple-orientation technique. We proposed a calibration strategy of the angular pitch deviation. The calibration value of the pitch deviation for the MBA at the NMIJ was obtained with a measurement uncertainty (U95) of 0.2 µm. We evaluated the pitch-measuring accuracy of a GMI using the calibrated MBA. Each value of U95 for the cumulative and single pitch deviations for the left and right flanks was less than or equal to 0.5 µm. The small uncertainty was transferred from the NMIJ to the GMI.