A method of electroless gold plating includes a step of forming an underlying alloy layer on a base material and a step of forming a gold plate layer directly on the underlying alloy layer by electroless reduction plating using a cyanide-free gold plating bath. The underlying alloy layer is formed of an M1-M2-M3 alloy, where M1 is at least one element selected from Ni, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, where Sn, M2 is at least one element selected from Pd, Re, Pt, Rh, Ag and where Ru, and M3 is at least one element selected from P and B.

An alloy includes: steel; manganese; aluminum; and silicon in an amount such that the alloy has an electrical conductivity from 2% IACS to 6% IACS measured in accordance with ASTM E1004-09 (2009).

An electric contact material for a connector includes a base material made of a metal material; an alloy layer that is formed on the base material and made of an alloy containing at least three elements including Sn and Cu as well as at least one metal selected from Zn, Co, Ni, and Pd; and a conductive coating layer formed on the surface of the alloy layer. The alloy layer contains an intermetallic compound obtained by replacing some of the Cu atoms in Cu.sub.6Sn.sub.5 with at least one metal selected from Zn, Co, Ni, and Pd. It is preferable that the content of at least one metal selected from Zn, Co, Ni, and Pd in the alloy layer is in a range of 1 to 50 atom % when the total content of the metal and Cu is regarded as 100 atom %.

Provided is a zinc-plated steel sheet for hot pressing having outstanding surface characteristics, comprising: a steel foundation plate comprising a metal surface diffusion layer of which the Gibbs free energy reduction per mole of oxygen during oxidation is less than that of Cr, an aluminum-rich layer containing at least 30 wt. % of aluminum formed on the surface diffusion layer, and a zinc plating layer formed on the aluminum-rich layer. In this way, a metal having a low affinity for oxygen is coated to an effective thickness prior to annealing and thus the creation of annealing oxides at the surface of the steel sheet is suppressed and a uniform zinc plating layer is formed, and alloying of the zinc plating layer is promoted during press-processing heat treatment. Cracking in the steel foundation plate during hot press molding is prevented.

Methods of enhancing the corrosion resistance of an oxidizable material exposed to a supercritical fluid is disclosed One method includes placing a surface layer on an oxidizable material, and choosing a buffered supercritical fluid containing a reducing agent with the composition of the buffered supercritical fluid containing the reducing agent chosen to avoid the corrosion of the surface layer or reduce the rate of corrosion of the surface layer and avoid the corrosion of the oxidizable material or reduce the rate of corrosion of the oxidizable material at a temperature above the supercritical temperature and supercritical pressure of the supercritical fluid.

The present invention relates to a copper alloy for electric and electronic device, a copper alloy sheet for electric and electronic device, a conductive component for electric and electronic device, and a terminal. The copper alloy for electric and electronic device includes more than 2.0 mass % to 15.0 mass % of Zn; 0.10 mass % to 0.90 mass % of Sn; 0.05 mass % to less than 1.00 mass % of Ni; 0.001 mass % to less than 0.100 mass % of Fe; 0.005 mass % to 0.100 mass % of P; and a remainder comprising Cu and unavoidable impurities, in which 0.002Fe/Ni<1.500, 3.0<(Ni+Fe)/P<100.0, and 0.10<Sn/(Ni+Fe)<5.00 were satisfied by atomic ratio, and a yield ratio YS/TS is more than 90% which is calculated from a strength TS and a 0.2% yield strength YS when a tensile test is performed in a direction parallel to a rolling direction.

There is provided a seamless steel pipe for line pipe, wherein a chemical composition consists, by mass percent, of C: 0.03-0.10%, Si: 0.50%, Mn: 1.0-2.0%, P: 0.050%, S: 0.005%, Cr: 0.05-1.0%, Mo: 0.01-0.30%, Al: 0.001-0.10%, N: 0.01%, Ni: 0.04-2.0%, Ca: 0.0005-0.0050%, Cu: 0-2.0%, Ti: 0-0.05%, Nb: 0-0.05%, V: 0-0.10%, the balance: Fe and impurities, and satisfies the conditions of Cu+Ni: 0.10%, and Mo+V: 0.30%, wherein in a scale formed on the surface of the steel pipe, metal particles consisting mainly of Ni or Cu having an average circle-equivalent diameter of 0.1-5 m exist, and a distance from a boundary between the base metal of the steel pipe and the scale to a region in which the metal particles do not exist is 20 m or longer.

This disclosure is to provide a brass-plated steel wire for reinforcing a rubber article, which is capable of improving the initial adhesiveness, heat-resistant adhesiveness and initial adhesion rate. This disclosure is a brass-plated steel wire for reinforcing a rubber article, wherein: when measured with XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), an outermost surface contains zinc at an amount of 4.8 atom % or less, phosphorus at an amount of 0.5 atom % or more, and oxygen at an amount of 50 atom % or less; and in the outermost surface, an atomic ratio of copper to zinc is 1 to 6.

Substrate provided with a plurality of layers, at least one of which includes metal oxides and is topped directly by a metal coating layer that contains at least 8% by weight nickel and at least 10% by weight chromium, the remainder being iron, additional elements and the impurities resulting from the fabrication process, wherein this metal coating layer is topped directly by an anticorrosion coating layer. A corresponding fabrication method is also provided.

A plated steel sheet (1) includes: a steel sheet (2); a pre-plating layer (3) on at least one surface of the steel sheet (2), the pre-plating layer (3) containing Al, Cu, In, Zn, Sn, or Sb, or any combination thereof; and a plating layer (4) of a ZnNi alloy on the pre-plating layer (3), a Ni content of the ZnNi alloy being 5 mass % to 15 mass %. A coating weight of the pre-plating layer (3) is 0.5 g/m.sup.2 or more, and a coating weight of the plating layer (4) is 5 g/m.sup.2 or more.