COMPETENCES
Research areas of the Department for Materials Engineering include activities in the field of materials (metal and non-metal), heat treatment and tribology. The Department consists of two chairs (Chair for Materials and Heat Treatment and Chair for Tribology and Surface Engineering) and Laboratory for Materials Testing and has 6 staff members (2 full professors tenure, 1 associate professor, 2 assistants, 1 associate). The Department for Materials Engineering is currently involved in one scientific research project financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. Laboratory for Materials Testing is used for education purposes, scientific and research work and for cooperation with the economy. The main Laboratory consists of the following Laboratories, i.e. sections:
- 1. Laboratory for Mechanical Testing
- 2. Laboratory for Metallographic Testing
- 3. Laboratory for Chemical Testing
- 4. Laboratory for Heat Treatment and Thermal Measurement
- 5. Laboratory for Tribology
The Department is currently preparing documents needed for accreditation of the Laboratory for Materials Testing at HAA (Croatian Accreditation Agency). The equipment used in the Laboratory is regularly calibrated according to EN ISO 17025. This provides the validity of results, as well as their comparison with the results acquired in other institutions during scientific research.
APPLICATIONS
Department for Materials Engineering is currently involved in one scientific research project financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports “Influence of Duplex Process on Steel Structure and Surface Engineering” (project coordinator Professor Dragomir Krumes).
Department for Materials Engineering, through its Laboratories, carries out following activities related to education, scientific research and cooperation with the economy:
– Mechanical testing (static testing of mechanical properties of materials at room temperature and high temperature, toughness testing at room temperature and low temperature, hardness testing – macro, semi-micro and micro hardness)
- Metallographic testing (light microscopy, dilatometry)
- Chemical composition testing
- Heat treatment and thermal measurement (hardening, tempering, annealing, thermodiffusion treatment)
- Tribology testing (friction and wear, with and without lubrication)
RESULTS OBTAINED
As a result of competences, number of papers was published in scientific journals and proceeding books, and many projects regarding cooperation with the economy have been successfully finished.
The results of the project “Influence of Duplex Process on Steel Structure and Surface Engineering” in years 2010 / 2011:
Structural changes in alloys induce changes of specific volume of the newly built grid. In steels the most intensive grid volume changes occur at phase transformation level, i.e. it is necessary that the tempered product changes its volume in relation to still unheated part of the product, especially in thermodifussional heat treatment. Thermodiffusion creates in surface layers of steels or castings thin surface layer of carbides B, V, Ti, N or Nb, which generate very hard and stabile connections. These surfaces with very hard carbide layers have great resistance to tribological wear, which in the end result prolongs the life time of products and tools. This project has envisaged the following research:
- The influence of thermodiffusion process on product components, design and tool volume changes
- Establishment of phase transformation (A1 and A3) and martensite transformable size changes (temperature Ms)
- One of the research goals is establishment of temperature height Ms in steels with increased hardness values treated with thermodiffusion process (continuation of many year researches on thermodiffusion process in steels)
- Extremely hard duplex layers on steel surface layers, such as: Fe B, C, VB, VN, TiC, TiN, CrN, VN, BN and others
- The influence of duplex process on tribological properties (adhesion, abrasion, erosion, tribocorrosion) of construction steels with increased hardness values.
As a result of investigation in the field of heat treatment and surface engineering, in 2010 Andrijana Milinović received PhD degree at Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Slavonski Brod. The title of doctoral thesis was “Research of boride layers formation kinetics on carbon steels”.
INDUSTRIAL SECTORS OF APPLICATION
Department for Materials Engineering competences may be applied in the field of metal processing industry, welding, casting, polymer processing (material testing)…
ACCOMPLISHED INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
As a result of cooperation with the economy, many projects have been successfully finished. Some of them are:
Project title: Materials testing and weld joint certification
Project coordinator: Prof. dr. sc. Vlatko Marušić
Short description: The following testing was performed: chemical composition of the base metal and added material, hardness, mechanical properties, technological properties, bending, widening of pipes, metallographic investigation of the structure of base material and weld. Testing is done according to the appropriate ISO/EN/ASTM Standards
Project title: Testing of shafts and choice of repair technology
Project coordinator: Prof. dr. sc. Vlatko Marušić
Short description: Rapid wear of elements of tribopair of oil press with characteristic wear mechanisms occurs due to almost simultaneous abrasion, adhesion, fatigue and tribocorrosion. Research results were used for the choice of parameters of welding with additional material based on Cr-Mo (for repair welding of the shaft).
Project title: Technical training for heat treatment operators
Project coordinator: Prof. dr. sc. Dragomir Krumes
Short description: Technical training for heat treatment operators was conducted. This training encompassed theoretical, as well as practical part.
POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
The competences of the Department for Materials Engineering can be used for design and optimisation of different heat treatment procedures, expertise dealing with heat treatment and tribology and for trainings within life-long learning. Through laboratories, different kind of testing can be carried out on metal and non-metal materials.
TRAINING ACTIVITIES FOR COMPANIES
Technical training for operators for different heat treatments can be carried out.
AVAILABLE INSTRUMENTATION
The Department for Materials Engineering is equipped with:
- Tensile tester ‘Amsler’ with max. load 400 kN
- Micro tensile tester ‘FY-15’ with max. load 500 N
- Tensile tester ‘ZMGi’ with max. load 2500 N
- Charpy toughness tester
- Hardness tester ‘Electronic Brinell’, type HBE, with max. load 3000 N
- Hardness tester ‘Eseway’ (Vickers method, HV with load 30 – 2500 N, and Rockwell method, HRC with load 1500 N)
- Portable hardness tester ‘MIC 10’ with measuring probe 98 N
- Micro-hardness tester Durimet ‘Leitz’, Vickers method, HV with load 0,15-20
- Light microscope ‘Leica’ DM 2500M, max. magnification 1000 : 1
- Electronic dilatometer ‘Netzsch’ 402 EP for temperature range 25-1200 °C
- Metasinex grinding and polishing machine (for preparing metallographic samples)
- Metasecar cutting machine with water cooling (for cutting of the hardest samples)
- Spectrometer Belec Compact Port
- ‘Cer’ furnace with two chambers, max. temperature 1100 °C and 1400 °C, chamber dimensions 300x300x600 mm and 150x300x600 mm
- Laboratory furnace ‘LHT’, max. temperature 1100 °C, chamber dimensions 150x100x300 mm
- The multi-channel printer ‘Honeywell’ , up to 1500 °C
- Control printers ‘Almemo’: 3290-8, D-83602 and 2090-8
- PtRh-Pt and NiCr-Ni
- Tribology test device ‘SMT 1-2070’, max. speed 1500 min-1, max. load 2000 N
- Tribology test device ‘Taber abraser’, load 250-1000 g
- Two scales, precision: 10-2 g and 10-4 g
RESEARCH GROUP
Department for Materials Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Slavonski Brod
Trg I. Brlić – Mažuranić 2
HR – 35000, Slavonski Brod
Contact person: Marušić, Vlatko dr.sc. Full professor tenure, Head of Department for Materials Engineering and Head of Laboratory for Materials Testing (Vlatko.Marusic@unisb.hr)
Contact person: Milinović, Andrijana dr. sc. Associate professor, Head of Chair for Tribology and Surface Engineering (Andrijana.Milinovic@unisb.hr)
Contact person: Kladarić, Ivica dr.sc Full professor tenure, Head of Chair for Materials and Heat Treatment (Ivica.Kladaric@unisb.hr)