The invention relates to a method and a device for strengthening the surface of workpieces, in particular of metal ones, by mechanical effects accompanying the impact of small projectiles or by mechanical effects accompanied by the impact of a shockwave induced by plasma created by electric evaporation of a metal foil. The device comprises a polymer strip with a metal foil on the surface of the side diverted from the surface of the workpiece in which foil bridges are formed to form projectiles, further comprising two electrodes and adjacent to the metal foil located on the polymer strip, wherein bridges are formed between the contact surface areas of the metal foil, and the electrodes and between which the plasma is formed, are mounted in a support body, through which flat conductors and are connected to a switch for switching large currents and high voltages with a high-voltage source. The polymer strip with the metal foil tightly abuts the support body with the electrodes and the electrodes and protrude above the upper surface of the support body to provide electric contact with the contact surface areas of the applied metal foil. The method of strengthening the surface of workpieces by means of the device according to the invention consists in that one cycle of strengthening the surface of workpieces involves the action of an electric current pulse supplied from a high voltage source after closing the switch by conductors to electrodes between which a high voltage is applied, thereby shorting the circuit on the metal foil at the location of the bridges to form a plasma expanding and by a compressive force acting on the polymer strip part of which hits as a projectile the surface of the workpiece. The plasma is generated by the electric current pulse, in addition to the expansion pressure, is also accelerated by the electromagnetic Lorentz force caused by the passage of electric current, through this plasma in the generated magnetic field.

Provided is a method for producing a Ni- or Ti-based alloy product, the method capable of reliably locally cooling and effectively cooling. The method includes the steps: heating and holding a hot working material of a Ni- or Ti-based alloy after hot forging or hot ring rolling at a solution treatment temperature to obtain a material held in a heated state, and cooling the material held in a heated state to obtain a solution-treated material. The cooling step includes carrying out local cooling by contacting a cooling member with a part of a surface of the material held in a heated state.

A forming sheet metal part (1) for a vehicle frame includes: a first portion (2) being locally heat-softened after the sheet metal part (1) has been formed out. The part (1) further includes a dedicated three-dimensional distortion-absorbing area (4), defining an internal boundary (6) within which the first portion (2) is to be locally heat-softened after the sheet metal part (1) has been formed out. The distortion-absorbing area (4) is dimensioned such that once said locally heat-softening step has been performed, the internal boundary (6) is adjacent to the first portion (2) and encloses the first portion (2) to absorb the dimensional distortions induced by the locally heat-softened first portion. The invention further relates to a method for producing a forming sheet metal part (1).

A pillar for a vehicle including at least two different localized areas of different tensile strengths. The pillar includes a body defining a width that merges into sidewalls at a transition. The body having a first tensile strength and the transition has a second tensile strength, wherein the first tensile strength is smaller than the second tensile strength. The variety in tensile strength resulting from at least one of varying the material treatment and varying the gauge. The pillar is press-hardened until it reaches a tensile strength of 1500 MPa to 2000 Mpa.

Metal components subject to wear or contact fatigue in a first area, and subject to bending, axial and/or torsional stress loading in a second area comprise a surface hardened, first surface layer in the first area, and a surface compressive-stress treated, second surface layer in the second area. The second surface layer has a material hardness different from, and typically lower than, the first surface layer, and induced residual compressive stress to improve fatigue strength. Example components described include a gear, a cog, a pinion, a rack, a splined shaft, a splined coupling, a torqueing tool and a nut driving tool. A hybrid manufacturing process is described, including area-selective surface hardening combined with a process to add compressive stress to fatigue failure prone areas.

Disclosed are a golf putter head having high fault tolerance and a method for manufacturing the same, and a golf putter with the head. The method for manufacturing the golf putter head includes: taking or manufacturing a head body including a ball hitting panel portion, and the ball hitting panel portion including a toe portion, a middle portion, and a heel portion; performing a solution treatment on the ball hitting panel portion; and quenching the toe portion and the heel portion.

The invention relates to a brake piston 1 for a brake caliper 9 of a disk brake, which is produced using working processes from a metallic material, in particular from a flat metal sheet, and is formed in one piece as a unilaterally open pot with a piston longitudinal axis A, with a piston wall 2 and with a piston head 3. There is a need for robust and light as well as alternatively constructed, efficiently producible and well guided brake pistons. The object is achieved firstly in principle on the basis of a cup-shapedly worked brake piston blank 19, in that at least one locally defined, i.e. partially cold-upset or partially ironed, cylindrical piston wall portion is present with a partially deformed piston wall 2 which is configured in adaptively modified manner by plastic material deformation by means of material redistribution (flow) including strain-hardening of its piston wall thickness of sl−x.

A cooling device for cooling a metallic item and a method for operating the cooling device. Such cooling devices having a plurality of cooling bars arranged in parallel in groups for applying a coolant to the metallic item are known in the prior art. In order to be able to set a desired distribution function of the coolant over the width of the metallic item as precisely as possible, the cooling device provides that similar application regions in at least two cooling bars within a group are each formed differently with respect to their contour and/or with respect to their surface area.

A shield covers a predetermined region of a plate workpiece during tempering of the plate workpiece in a furnace in which the shield and the workpiece are subjected to an austenitization temperature while the predetermined region of the plate is shielded by the shield against heat. The shield has at least one first shield part shaped to cover at least some of the predetermined region of the workpiece, at least one second shield part, and a fastener or the like securing the second part movably relative to or removable from the first part such that the first and second parts together achieve an optimum shape fully covering and shielding the predetermined region of the plate workpiece.

A heating station (1) for heating a metal sheet blank (50) and a system comprising such a heating station (1), is herein disclosed. In particular, the heating station comprises lower or upper heating elements (11) arranged in a heating chamber (10) below a metal sheet blank (50) when in a heating position, and configured to provide radiation heating towards the metal sheet blank (50), and a lower mask (14) arranged to block radiation heating from reaching at least a first portion of the metal sheet blank (50), wherein the lower mask (14) comprises a plurality of support projections (14d) projecting from a main surface (14a) of the lower mask (14) towards the metal sheet blank (50) when in a heating position, which support projections (14d) are configured to support a metal sheet blank (50) during heating thereof.