Superconductivity has been found in a wide range of materials, including pure metals, alloys, compounds, oxides, and organic materials. Providing information on the basic principles, this article discusses the theoretical background, types of superconductors, and critical parameters of superconductivity. It discusses the magnetic properties of selected superconductors and types of stabilization, including cryogenic stability, adiabatic stability, and dynamic stability. The article also focuses on alternating current losses in superconductors, including hysteresis loss, penetration loss, eddy current loss, and radio frequency loss. Furthermore, the article describes the flux pinning phenomenon and Josephson effects.

This article reviews the phase diagrams, alloy with third element additions, layer growth, critical current density, and matrix materials of A15 superconductors. It describes the production methods of tape conductors (chloride deposition, and surface diffusion) and multifilamentary wires (rod process, modified jelly roll process, niobium tube process, in-situ process, powder metallurgy process, and jelly roll method). The article focuses on reaction heat treatment, which is required at the end of wire processing to convert the ductile components to the desired, but brittle, superconductor. Finally, it discusses the applications of A15 superconductors in commercial magnets, power generation, power transmission, high-energy physics, and fusion.

This article discusses the principles and limitations of micromagnetic techniques, namely, magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) and magnetoacoustic emission (MAE). It also discusses various factors limiting the establishment of acceptance criteria for test components as they pertain to the successful application of MBN measurement and signal interpretation. The article provides an overview of basic magnetic phenomena and dynamics in ferromagnetic materials that underlie the origin of MBN emissions. It describes the changes in the domain structure of the ferromagnetic material under an applied external field. The relationship between uniaxial stress and angular-dependent strain is also discussed. The influence of stress on domain walls, and therefore, the generation of Barkhausen noise are described. The article also describes the directional and angular MBN measurements and provides information on detection, angular dependence, and advanced analysis methods of MBN emissions.

The quality of brazed stainless steel joints depends on the selection of the brazing process, process temperature, filler metal, and the type of protective atmosphere or flux. This article provides a detailed discussion on the applicability and brazeability of stainless steel and lays an emphasis on the selection of suitable filler metal, brazing processes, and its corresponding furnace atmosphere for brazing different grades of stainless steel. The types of brazing processes include torch brazing, furnace brazing in different atmospheres (dissociated ammonia, dry hydrogen, and vacuum atmosphere), dip brazing in salt bath, and high-energy-beam brazing. A complete list of the typical compositions and properties of standard brazing filler metals for brazing stainless steel is also provided.

This article focuses on the various types of corrosion-related failure mechanisms and their effects on passive electrical components. The types include halide-induced corrosion, organic-acid-induced corrosion, electrochemical metal migration, silver tarnish, fretting, and metal whiskers. The passive electrical components include resistors, capacitors, wound components, sensors, transducers, relays, switches, connectors, printed circuit boards, and hardware.

This article focuses on the design considerations and process parameters critical to the successful implantation of wave soldering on printed circuit boards. The design considerations include the through-hole technology and the surface-mount technology. The article presents information on process parameters, which can be divided into three groups: the fluxing operation, solder wave properties, and process schedule. It provides information on various solder defects.

Induction heat treatment is a common method for hardening and tempering of crankshafts, which are necessary components in almost every internal combustion engine for cars, trucks, and machinery, as well as pumps, compressors, and other devices. Similar to crankshafts, camshafts also belong to the same group of the critical engine/powertrain components. This article focuses on induction technologies used for surface hardening and tempering of automotive crankshafts, and provides general information on U-shaped inductors with crankshaft rotation and clamshell or split inductors without crankshaft rotation and their pros and cons. It also describes the effect of post-heat-treatment processes in crankshafts. The article concludes with a discussion on induction hardening of camshafts that focuses on those used in automobiles and truck engines.

Soldering represents the primary method of attaching electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors, or packaged integrated circuits, to either printed wiring board whose defects is minimized by consideration of proper PWB design, device packages, and board assembly. This article discusses the categories that are most important to successful electronic soldering, namely, solders and fluxes selection, nature of base materials and finishes, solder joint design, and solderability testing.

Niobium-titanium alloys (NbTi) became the superconductors of choice in the early 1960s, providing a viable alternative to the A-15 compounds and less ductile alloys of niobium-zirconium. This can be attributed to the relative ease of fabrication, better electrical properties, and greater compatibility with copper stabilizing materials. This article discusses the ramifications of design requirements, selection criteria and processing methods of superconducting fibers and matrix materials. It provides information on the various steps involved in the fabrication of superconducting composites, including assembly, welding, isostatic compaction, extrusion, wire drawing, twisting, and final sizing. The article also provides a detailed account of the properties and applications of NbTi superconducting composites.

In a typical semiconductor integrated circuits (SICs) component, corrosion may be observed at the chip level and at the termination area of the lead frames that are plated with a solderable metal or alloy, such as tin and tin-lead alloys that are susceptible to corrosion. This article focuses on the key factors contributing to corrosion of electronic components, namely, chemicals (salts containing halides, sulfides, acids, and alkalis), temperature, air (polluted air), moisture, contact between dissimilar metals in a wet condition, applied potential differences, and stress. It discusses the chip corrosion and oxidation of tin and tin-lead alloys (solders) in SIC. The article also addresses the corrosion of the device terminations resulting in lead (termination) tarnishing that are caused by various factors, including galvanic corrosion, chemical residues, base metal migration and plating additives.

This article presents an introduction to brazing, including information on its mechanics, advantages, and limitations. It reviews soldering with emphasis on chronology, solder metals, and flux technology. The article also provides useful information on mass, wave, and drag soldering. It presents a table which contains information on the comparison of soldering, brazing, and welding.

This article provides an overview of experimental, analytical, and numerical tools for temperature evaluation of dry and lubricated systems. It describes the analytical methods and numerical techniques for frictional heating and temperature estimation, as well as viscous heating in full-film lubrication. The article also discusses the viscous heating temperature measurements and numerical analysis of viscous heating.

This article focuses on the frequently encountered causes of induction coil failures and typical failure modes in fabrication of hardening inductors, tooth-by-tooth gear-hardening inductors, clamshell inductors, contactless inductors, split-return inductors, butterfly inductors, and inductors for heating internal surfaces. It discusses the current density distribution and the skin effect, the proximity effect, and crack-propagation specifics. The article also describes selected properties of copper alloys, the electromagnetic edge effect of coil copper turn, and the effect of magnetic flux concentrators on coil life. It also reviews the importance of having appropriate and reliable electrical contacts.

Before the quality of a soldered joint can be evaluated, the components that are required for the formation of a good soldered joint should be reviewed. These components are solder, applied heat, and solderable surface. This article discusses each of these as well as the end-use requirements and joint configurations required for the formation of a good soldered joint. It focuses on the visual, automatic, and destructive inspection techniques for determining overall joint quality.

This article describes the control of alloy composition and impurity levels in die casting of zinc alloys based on agitation, use of foundry scrap, and melt temperature and fluxing. It reviews the process considerations for the melt processing of the zinc alloys. The process considerations include the usage of furnaces and launder system, scrap return, inclusions in zinc alloys, fluxing of zinc alloys, and galvanizing fluxes. The article discusses the materials and lubricant selection, casting and die temperature control, and trimming process used in hot chamber die casting for zinc alloys. It also reviews other casting processes for zinc alloys, such as sand casting, permanent mold casting, plaster mold casting, squeeze casting, and semisolid casting.

This article describes the melting process of casting metals used in hot chamber die casting. It discusses the design and capabilities of injection components, such as gooseneck, plunger, and cylinder. The article reviews the distinctions between hot and cold chamber processes. An example of a typical runner, gate and overflow configuration for faucet fixture casting is shown. Temperature control for die casting is also discussed. The article explains some ejection and post-processing techniques used for the hot chamber die casting: robotics, recycling, and fluxing.

Electroslag welding (ESW) and electrogas welding (EGW) are two related procedures that are used to weld thick-section materials in the vertical or near-vertical position between retaining shoes. This article discusses the fundamentals of the electroslag process in terms of heat flow conditions and metal transfer and weld pool morphology. It presents constitutive equations for welding current, voltage, and travel rate for ESW. The article describes the metallurgical and chemical reactions in terms of fusion zone compositional effects, weld metal inclusions, solidification structure, and solid-state transformations. It describes the electroslag process development and the applications of electroslag and electrogas processes. The article concludes with a discussion on weld defects, such as temper embrittlement, hydrogen cracking, and weld distortion.

Electroslag welding (ESW) involves high energy input relative to other welding processes, resulting generally in inferior mechanical properties and specifically in lower toughness of the heat-affected zone. Electrogas welding (EGW) is a method of gas metal or flux cored arc welding, wherein an external gas is supplied to shield the arc, and molding shoes are used to confine the molten weld metal for vertical-position welding. This article describes the fundamentals, temperature relations, consumables, metallurgical and chemical reactions, and process development of ESW. The problems, quality control, and process applications of ESW and EGW are also discussed.

Friction stir welding (FSW) involves plastic deformation at high strain rates and elevated temperatures with resultant microstructural changes leading to joining. This article provides a link between deformation and FSW process parameters and summarizes the results of experimental temperature measurements during FSW of various metals. It considers the physical explanation of the heat input during FSW and the possible methods of their estimation. The article presents the experimental results of two analytical models, supplemented by experimental/numerical flow models on material flow during FSW. The types of defects, processing parameters affecting the generation of these defects, and results of theoretical models and simulations to understand the formation and control of defects during FSW are discussed. The article concludes with information on the microstructure and its distribution produced during FSW.

This article provides a detailed account of the principles, instrumentation,and applications of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), a technique used for elemental and compositional analysis of surfaces and thin films. It reviews the nomenclature of energy states and sensitivity of electrons at the surface that are capable of producing peaks in XPS. Additionally, it presents information on the instrumentation and the preparation and mounting of samples for XPS analysis. The article explains qualitative analysis, namely, measuring of shifts in the binding energy of core electrons, multiplet splitting, and the Auger parameter; and quantitative analysis such as depth analysis carried out using XPS. It also discusses the applications of XPS with examples.