To ensure the required performance characteristics of metalware, various types of 3D and surface process treatment methods are used in the industry. In order to ensure the required durability of parts under a high-load operation, various protective coatings are widely used in practice. However, most of these have significant disadvantages, manifested, for example, in the complexity of the technological process, high porosity of the coating, low mechanical properties, which restrict the scope of their application. The paper presents the results of the analysis of existing production methods for applying of metal coatings. Their advantages, disadvantages and influence on the performance characteristics of metal structures are provided herein. The most popular way to protect ferrous metals against atmospheric, soil and water corrosion is galvanizing. At the same time, regardless of their effect on the endurance of smooth samples, the endurance limit of the samples with stress concentrators increases. The corrosion resistance of steels is increased by many types of diffusion saturation (chrome plating, galvanizing, etc.); however, there are no data on the optimal values of the coating thickness. Limited theoretical and experimental data make it difficult to predict the physical and mechanical characteristics of coated metals and alloys. In addition, as a rule, there is no systematic comparative analysis of the negative impact of metal coating technologies on the environment quality in the literature.

One of the most important objectives of the modern car production development is to improve the quality of metal products and parts made from it, increase their efficiency, reliability, service life, bringing these indicators to the level of the world standards, ensuring the competitiveness of domestic products at the foreign market. The structural safety of motor vehicles is largely determined by the operational reliability of the constituent elements. Car fasteners made of high-carbon and alloy wire, including hardware items, are among the critical and widely used parts in mechanical engineering. The most common and progressive method of their manufacture is the cold upsetting from rolled bar material. The bar material surface condition has a significant impact on its quality. Hot rolled products from metallurgical plants are typically delivered to the processing facilities covered with scale and rust. To improve the surface quality of semifinished metallurgical products for rerolling at the stage of wire preparation for drawing, it is subjected to continuous mechanical or chemical cleaning. Traditionally, the technology of surface scale removing by etching is used in production. This method of scale removal provides a high level of cleaning, but there are problems with the disposal of spent acid solutions, reducing the steel ductility. Mechanical methods of scale removal have been widely introduced recently, although the use of mechanical scale removal devices also does not completely solve the problem. The paper considers the possibility of using advanced electron plasma treatment technologies for these purposes and the influence of traditional methods and this scale removing method from the rolled steel surface on the quality of metal preparation for upsetting.

In all industry sectors and in the automotive industry, in particular, structural materials that undergo various treatment methods are widely used. Various types of plastic deformation are widely used in the manufacture of products and structural elements made of low-carbon sheet steels. The authors studied the effect of the degree of technological deformation on the fatigue process parameters of flat low-carbon steels. It has been established that the preliminary deformation within the uniform limits causes an increase in fatigue resistance. The kinetic diagrams of the fatigue failure are used to estimate the change in durability from the rate of accumulation of fatigue damage at the cyclic deformation stage until the moment of origination and propagation of the fatigue crack. The ratio of the duration of fatigue failure stages of some sheet automotive steels depending on the degree of preliminary strain by stretching at a given amplitude stress of the cycle is revealed.