Microstructural Study of Arc Beads in Aluminum Alloy Wires with an Overcurrent Fault

To clarify the understanding and analysis of arc molten marks in electrical faults of aluminum alloy wires, this paper simulates overcurrent faults of aluminum alloy wires at currents of 128 A–224 A and uses thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray energy spectroscopy (EDS) to characterize the effects of current on the microstructure of arc beads. The results show that there are small and large amounts of Al-Si and Al-Fe binary phases in the metallographic structure of the aluminum alloy wires at the rated current, the grains are fine, and there are no significant grain boundaries. After an overcurrent fault occurs in the wires, a high-temperature arc causes the second phase in the aluminum alloy to disappear, a cellular dendritic metallographic structure appears, the grain boundaries become more well-defined, and composition segregation occurs at the grain boundaries. Using the Image-Pro-Plus software to quantify the grain characteristics, the average grain size is found to gradually decrease as the current increases. In addition, by comparing and analyzing the characteristics of arc beads in aluminum wires and aluminum alloy wires under the same conditions, alloying elements are found to have a refining effect on the grain boundaries, and there are coarse precipitates at the grain boundaries in the aluminum wire arc beads.

Increasing the Durability of Trimming Dies Used to Clean Anodes in the Aluminum Industry

Increasing the durability of trimming dies used to clean anodes is a very important goal in order to reduce the costs involved in obtaining aluminum. The research focused both on choosing an optimal material for the execution of trimming dies and on the application of technologies for plating active areas and, at the same time, on optimizing the geometric shape of the active area of the trimming die. In order to choose an optimal material from which to make the trimming dies, it was taken into account that they are usually made of X210Cr12 steel. In the stage of choosing an optimal material for the execution of the trimming dies, five steels were taken into account, namely: K105, K107, K110, K360, and K460. Analyses of the metallographic structure of the passage area were performed between the metal deposited by welding and the base material, demonstrating the fact that hot welding plating allows obtaining a more homogeneous metallographic structure compared to cold welding plating. The choice of new material was not a solution to increase the durability of the trimming die. Change in the trimming die geometry determined a reduction in deformations of about 13.8 times and of the equivalent stresses of about 7 times compared to those obtained in the case of the old trimming die. In addition, the durability of the trimming die with the new construction shape increases approximately three times compared to the trimming die with the old geometric shape. This demonstrates that the solution to increasing the durability of the trimming die is to adopt an optimal geometry of the active part at the expense of choosing an optimal material.

Aluminium-steel plating by press welding

A series of researches related to aluminium-steel plating by press welding are presented in the paper. In this sense, the influence of the roughness of the aluminium and steel test samples was taken into account, but also of the post-welding heat treatment on the characteristics of the joints made. S355 steel specimens and AlMgSi0.7 F27 aluminium specimens were analyzed. The samples were processed and roughness Ra = 2.51-51.09 µm were obtained. Also, after making the joints, a postwelding heat treatment was applied which consisted of a heating at a temperature of 425 °C with a duration of 6.5 hours and a slow cooling to room temperature. Six distinct samples were made in terms of surface roughness in the joint area. After making the joints and applying the heat treatment, the samples were analyzed in terms of metallographic structure, the thickness of the interface layer and the hardness of the material in it. Thus, it was found that both the roughness of the test tube surfaces and the post-weld heat treatment have a substantial influence on the metallographic structure and the hardness of the material in the interface layer. The highest hardness of the material in the interface layer and its lowest thickness were obtained for the samples with the lowest roughness of the joint surfaces.

Failure Analysis and Protection of Oxygen Corrosion of Reheater Tube in a Power plant

The failure analysis of reheater tubes were analyzed by means of alloy composition analysis, metallographic structure analysis, mechanical properties analysis and oxide composition analysis. The results showed: The alloy composition meets the requirements of 12Cr1MoV standard. No abnormality was observed in metallographic structure. Mechanical properties qualified. Oxide components are mainly O and Fe. Comprehensive analysis shows that The main reason of reheater tube failure is oxygen corrosion, which caused thinning of the reheater tube wall, leading to leakage accident. Suggestions for subsequent protection are put forward.

Study on the evaluation of the aging grade for the industrial heat-resistant steel by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Heat-resistant steel is widely used in various industrial pressure-bearing equipment, and the change of metallographic structure and properties of steel is of great importance for the equipment function and safety....

Optimizing the Shape of Welded Constructions Made through the Technique “Temper Bead Welding”

Welded constructions are subject to high stresses during operation. One solution for improving the behavior in exploitation of welded constructions in various cases is to use the welding technique “temper bead welding” (TBW). In the paper, the optimization of the geometry of the welded joints by the TBW technique was performed. Thus, corner welded joints made of S355 steel were analyzed. To make the welded joints, three layers of welding seams were deposited, and the intermediate layers were processed through cutting with various radii. To analyze the influence of the size of these rays on the behavior of welded constructions, a research program based on factorial experiences was designed. The samples were tested in terms of fatigue behavior by applying loads between ±8 kN and ±12 kN. The research also focused on determining the hardness of the materials in the joints welded and on determining the microstructure of the materials in the heat affected zone (HAZ). Research has shown that it is possible to improve the characteristics of joints made by the TBW technique in the sense that it can be achieved an improvement in fatigue stress, a decrease in the hardness of the HAZ material and an improvement in the metallographic structure of the HAZ material, meaning that it has a structure made of ferrite and fine pearlite.