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The paper is dedicated to the life prolongation of the tools designed for deep-hole drilling. Among available methods, an ion implantation process was used to improve the durability of tungsten carbide (WC)-Co guide pads. Nitrogen fluencies of 3 × 1017 cm−2, 4 × 1017 cm−2 and 5 × 1017 cm−2 were applied, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) measurements were performed for both nonimplanted and implanted tools. The durability tests of nonimplanted and the modified tools were performed in industrial conditions. The durability of implanted guide pads was above 2.5 times greater than nonimplanted ones in the best case, presumably due to the presence of a carbon-rich layer and extremely hard tungsten nitrides. The achieved effect may be attributed to the dissociation of tungsten carbide phase and to the lubrication effect. The latter was due to the presence of pure carbon layer with a thickness of a few dozen nanometers. Notably, this layer was formed at a temperature of 200 °C, much smaller than in previously reported research, which makes the findings even more valuable from economic and environmental perspectives.

Negative Poisson’s ratio materials (called auxetics) reshape our centuries-long understanding of the elastic properties of materials. Their vast set of potential applications drives us to search for auxetic properties in real systems and to create new materials with those properties. One of the ways to achieve the latter is to modify the elastic properties of existing materials. Studying the impact of inclusions in a crystalline lattice on macroscopic elastic properties is one of such possibilities. This article presents computer studies of elastic properties of f.c.c. hard sphere crystals with structural modifications. The studies were performed with numerical methods, using Monte Carlo simulations. Inclusions take the form of periodic arrays of nanochannels filled by hard spheres of another diameter. The resulting system is made up of two types of particles that differ in size. Two different layouts of mutually orthogonal nanochannels are considered. It is shown that with careful choice of inclusions, not only can one impact elastic properties by eliminating auxetic properties while maintaining the effective cubic symmetry, but also one can control the anisotropy of the cubic system.

This paper addresses the issue of metrological accuracy of instantaneous in-cylinder pressure measurement in a diesel engine test bed. In studies, the central unit has been the single-cylinder AVL 5402 engine. The pressure measurement was performed with a sensor designed for thermodynamic analysis, and the results were related to the crank angle, where two rotations corresponding to the four-stroke working cycle were denoted as angles between −360° and +360°. The novelty of this paper is the proposition of how to perform a type A uncertainty estimation of the in-cylinder pressure measurement and to assess its repeatability. It was demonstrated that repeatability of the measurement during the ignition process was difficult to estimate because of the phenomena that cannot ensure the repeatability conditions. To solve the problem, two methods were proposed. In one method, the pressure was measured in the subsequent cycles immediately after the ignition was turned off, and in another method, the engine was driven by a starter. The latter method provided maximal pressure values much lower than during usual tests. The obtained repeatability of measured pressure was %EV = 0.4%, which proved high capability of the evaluated measurement system.

In the article, analysis of the work conditions and the metrological characteristics of the air gauges dedicated for the roundness assessment is described. To reach the required accuracy of the acquired data, the phenomena of gas dynamics had to be analyzed in the whole flow through elements of the air gauge. A model based on the second critical parameters was used, because it reflects the true processes of the air flow. As a result, fast and accurate simulations provided series of the characteristics to be considered. Nevertheless, the chosen air gauge configuration underwent the experimental verification of its metrological characteristics. Finally, the entire measurement system Geoform with the gauge head based on the chosen air gauges underwent the accuracy test in order to make sure of its overall measurement quality.