This article discusses the most important factors required for cutoff methods. It explains the operations of machines used for the punching, shearing, notching, or coping of plates, bars, and structural sections. The article describes the effects of the blade angle and speed on the shear blade life. It reviews the design requirements and best practices for the production of blades. The article compares double-cut dies with single-cut dies used for shearing of structural and bar shapes. The shearing of specific forms, such as angle iron and flat stock, is also discussed. The article describes the advantages of hydraulic bar and structural shears. It concludes with information on the principle and construction of impact cutoff machines.

Bitumen for coating usage can best be categorized as two fundamental but very different types: asphalts and coal tars. This article provides a detailed discussion on asphalt and coal tar hot-melt applications; asphalt and coal tar emulsions; asphalt and coal tar cutbacks; and coal tar epoxies. It reviews the similarities between asphaltic and coal tar coatings and discusses the health and environmental concerns of these materials.

This article discusses the operating principles, types, and applications of shearing and slitting of different forms of steel, including plates, flat sheets, bars, coiled sheet and strips. In addition, it provides a detailed account of the cutting methods such as oxyfuel gas cutting, plasma arc cutting, oxygen arc cutting, laser beam cutting, and air carbon arc cutting and gouging, describing their process capabilities, equipment used, operating principles and parameters, and factors affecting their efficiency.

Roll welding (ROW) is a process in which two or more sheets or plates are stacked together and then passed through the rolls until sufficient deformation has occurred to produce solid-state welds. This article begins with a process description of two modes of roll welding, including pack rolling. It describes a patented roll welding process for fabrication of heat exchangers. The article presents a table showing the typical properties of common roll welded clad laminates. The relative weldability of selected dissimilar metals and alloys roll welded into clad-laminate form are also tabulated. The article concludes with information on cladding of metals by strip roll welding.

This article is an atlas of fractographs that helps in understanding the causes and mechanisms of fracture of austenitic stainless steels and in identifying and interpreting the morphology of fracture surfaces. The fractographs illustrate the following: fatigue-crack fracture, rock candy fracture, cleavage fracture, brittle fracture, high-cycle fatigue fracture, fatigue striations, hydrogen-embrittlement failure, creep crack propagation, fatigue crack nucleation, intergranular creep fracture, torsional overload fracture, stress-corrosion cracking, and grain-boundary damage of these steels. The austenitic stainless steel components include spring wires, preheater-reactor slurry transfer lines and gas lines of coal-liquefaction pilot plants, oil feed tubes and suction couch rolls of paper machines, cortical screws and compression hip screws of orthopedic implants, and Jewett nails.

Aluminum possesses many characteristics that make it highly compatible with recycling. Production of aluminum from scrap has a number of advantages. This article discusses the technology for the recovery, sorting, and remelting of aluminum. It describes the collection and acquisition of aluminum scrap in transportation, packaging, electrical and electronic, and building and construction sectors. The article reviews the technologies used to accomplish comminution for aluminum: shearing, knife shredding, and swing-hammer shredding. It provides a description of the devices used in scrap sorting, such as hand sorting, air classification, magnetic separation, eddy-current separation, heavy-media separation, and sensor-based sorting. The article also describes thermal processing, refining and casting, and dross processing of aluminum. It provides information on reverberatory and electric furnaces used for melting aluminum.

Shearing is a method for cutting a material piece into smaller pieces using a shear knife to force the material past an opposition shear knife in a progression form. This article describes the principles, attributes, and defects of straight-knife shearing. The equipment, materials used, and the operating parameters are discussed. The article provides information on the applications of rotary shearing. It concludes with a discussion on devices equipped with shearing machines for protecting personnel from the hazards of shear knives, flywheels, gears, and other moving parts.

Coatings, such as those applied to ships, must be resistant to abrasion, in the case of cargo hold coatings, and cyclic changes of chemicals and tank cleaning, in the case of tank linings. Failures and defects can manifest themselves at various times in the life of a coating. To determine the cause and mechanism of coating failure, all possible contributory factors must be evaluated together with a detailed history from the time of application to the time the failure was first noted. Many coating failures require further evaluation and analysis to be carried out by a qualified chemist or coating specialist, often using specialized laboratory equipment. The article presents examples of coating failures and defects, together with descriptions, probable causes, and suggested preventative measures.

This article focuses on the recycling of metals including iron and steel, stainless steel, superalloys, nickel, aluminum, copper, precious metals, lead, magnesium, tin, titanium, and zinc. It provides information on the identification and sorting of scrap metals and discusses the equipment and procedures used for small-scale and large-scale scrapping operations.