Mechanical cleaning systems are used to remove contaminants of work surface by propelling abrasive materials through any of these three principal methods: airless centrifugal blast blade- or vane-type wheels; compressed air, direct-pressure dry blast nozzle systems; or compressed-air, indirect-suction (induction) wet or dry blast nozzle systems. This article focuses on the abrasive media, equipment, applications, and limitations of dry and wet blast cleaning. It discusses the health and safety precautions to be taken during mechanical cleaning.

Surface treatments are applied to magnesium parts primarily to improve their appearance and corrosion resistance. Mechanical and chemical cleaning methods are used singly or in combination, depending on the specific application and product involved to ensure repetitive reliability. This article focuses on mechanical finishing methods, namely, barrel tumbling, polishing, buffing, vibratory finishing, fiber brushing, and shot blasting. It provides useful information on process control and difficulties with chemical and anodic treatments of magnesium alloys. The use and applications of plating and organic finishing of magnesium alloys are also reviewed. The article concludes with a description of health and safety precautions to be followed during the surface treatment process.

This article describes the safety precautions required for using laboratory equipment. It reviews the various personal protective equipment specified on the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for laboratory chemicals and products. The article provides information on the storage and handling of etchants, solvents, acids, bases, and other chemicals. It describes the safety precautions and procedures for handling concentrated and dilute hydrofluoric acid. The article concludes with a discussion on the precautions to be followed in the event of spills and cleanup.

This article presents an overview of the rules, regulations, and techniques implemented to minimize the safety hazards associated with welding, cutting, and allied processes. Safety management, protection of the work area, process-specific safety considerations, and robotic and electrical safety are discussed. The article explains the use of personal protective equipment and provides information on protection against fumes, gases, and electromagnetic radiation. It concludes with a discussion on safe handling of compressed gases as well as the prevention and protection of fire and explosion.

Safety is an important consideration in all welding, cutting, and related work. This article discusses the basic elements of safety general to all welding, cutting, and related processes. It includes safety procedures common to a variety of applications. The most important component of an effective safety and health program is management support and direction. The article reviews the role of management, training, housekeeping, and public demonstrations in welding safety to minimize personal injury and property damage. It provides information on the safety measures for eye and face protection in various welding and cutting operations. Injuries and fatalities from electric shock in welding and cutting operations can occur if proper precautionary measures are not followed. The article discusses the electrical safety aspects to be considered for various welding and cutting operations.

During metal powder production, powder and/or dust handling, compaction, and part finishing operations, many safety and environmental risks exist. This article is a detailed account of the types of safety hazards that can exist and the issues that occur during metal powder handling, as well as recommendations and strategies that can be employed to both prevent and protect against damaging effects from powder exposure, fire and/or explosions, or environmental impact events.

This article focuses on the basic metallurgy and machining parameters of classes of depleted and enriched uranium alloys. It provides information on the health precautions applicable to the machining of depleted uranium alloys. The article also discusses tool wear and the types of tools used in uranium alloy machining.

High-frequency (HF) welding is a welding process in which the heat source used to melt the joining surfaces is obtained from HF alternating current (ac) resistance heating. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages and applications of HF welding. It describes the equipment used for HF welding and the safety aspects to be considered during welding. The article concludes with a discussion on inspection and quality control.

This article discusses the requirements for safe design, installation, operation, inspection, testing, and maintenance of sintering atmosphere generators and atmosphere supply systems for both personal and environment safety. The four intrinsic dangers associated with producing and using common sintering atmosphere gases are explosion, fire, toxicity, and asphyxiation.

This article provides information on personal protective equipment (PPE), consistent with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Personal Protective Equipment Standard (29 CFR 1910.132-138). This standard is intended to protect individuals from the risk of injury by creating a barrier against workplace hazards. This article provides guidelines for establishing PPE programs with an overview of the responsibilities for employers, supervisors, and employees, assessing hazards associated with thermal spray operations, and training workers about PPE, as well as guidelines for selecting, using, and maintaining PPE. It presents an overview of eye, face, head, hand, foot, hearing, fall, and respiratory protection. Respiratory and hearing protection should be used in conjunction with industrial hygiene monitoring.

This article discusses the occupational health hazards related to industrial protective coating application and removal. It explains the health hazards associated with coating constituents such as lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, silica, and asbestos. The article also discusses hazard evaluation, hazard controls, Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, and industry consensus standards. It concludes with a description of containment systems to prevent environmental exposures from industrial paint removal projects.

The gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process derives the heat for welding from an electric arc established between a tungsten electrode and the part to be welded. This article provides a discussion on the basic operation principles, advantages, disadvantages, limitations, and applications of the process. It describes the equipment used for GTAW, namely, power supplies, torch construction and electrodes, shielding gases, and filler metals as well as the GTAW welding procedures. The article concludes with a review of the safety precautions to avoid possible hazards during the GTAW process: electrical shock, fumes and gases, arc radiation, and fire and explosion.

Solvent cleaning is a surface preparation process that can be accomplished in room temperature baths (cold cleaning ) or by condensing vapors of a solvent on a workpiece (vapor degreasing). This article provides a detailed discussion on solvents, equipment, process limitations and applications, and safety and health hazards of cold cleaning and vapor degreasing. It also includes information on control of contamination, conservation and recovery of solvent, and disposal of solvent wastes.

This article describes the effect of temperature, composition, strain rate, and fabrication history on the results obtained in the forming of beryllium as well as the safety measures required. It provides information on the equipment, tooling, dies, and workpieces used for forming beryllium. The article discusses the role of lubrication, blank development, tool designs, and strain rates, in deep drawing. It also provides information on the tooling and applications of three-roll bending, stretch forming, and spinning.

This article provides members of the thermal spray community with practical recommendations for the safe installation, operation, and maintenance of gas equipment used in the thermal spray process. It focuses on safety issues concerning gas equipment used in conjunction with thermal spray equipment at consumer sites. The article covers the gas sources (bulk or gaseous), the piping (hard and soft) leading to the gas console or the torch, and the specific safety devices used to help ensure safe operation. It discusses the characteristics and safety hazards of gases such as oxygen, compressed air, nitrogen, helium, argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, acetylene, kerosene, propylene, propane, and natural gas. The article also provides information on the maintenance and safety practices involved in the plumbing configurations of cylinder gas supply units and bulk gas supply units.

This article discusses the principles of physical metallurgy and metallography of depleted uranium. It describes the techniques involved in the preparation of thin foils for transmission electron microscopy and illustrates the resulting microstructure of uranium and uranium alloys, with the aid of black and white images. The article also provides information on the applications of etching and examination of uranium alloys, at both macro and micro scales, in characterizing the grain structures, segregation patterns, inclusions, and the metal flow geometries produced by solidification and mechanical working processes.

Selective plating, also known as brush plating, differs from traditional tank or bath plating in that the workpiece is not immersed in a plating solution (electrolyte). Instead, the electrolyte is brought to the part and applied by a handheld anode or stylus, which incorporates an absorbent wrapping for applying the solution to the workpiece (cathode). This article focuses on the selective plating systems that include a power pack, plating tools, anode covers, specially formulated plating solutions, and any auxiliary equipment required for the particular application. It provides a detailed account of the applications of selective plating, with examples. The article describes the advantages, limitations, key process elements, and health and safety considerations of selective plating. It also includes the most important industrial, government, and military specifications.

Maintainability is a function of the durability, damage tolerance, and repairability of a structure. This article discusses the configurations of composite structures, such as sandwich, stiffened-skin, and monolithic structures, used in commercial aircraft composites. It describes the considerations for maintainability of the composite structures during the conceptual design phase. Sources of the defects and damage, such as manufacturing defects and in-service defects, are reviewed. The article describes the nondestructive inspection methods that are used in the repair of composite structures to locate damage, characterize the extent of damage, and ensure post-repair quality. It lists suggestions that can be used as design guidelines for adhesive bonding, general composite structure, sandwich structure, material selection, and lightning-strike protection. The article also provides the basic considerations for personnel, facilities, and equipment during maintenance.

Very high density materials are used for such applications as counterweights and radiation shields. This article focuses on the metallurgy, processing, properties, fabrication, design considerations, health and safety considerations, and applications of the most commonly used very high density materials: depleted uranium and tungsten and their alloys.