This article discusses the process considerations and deposit properties of nickel plating. It describes the Watts solution and the anode materials used. The article focuses on the nickel plating processes used for decorative, engineering, and electroforming purposes. It provides information on the quality control of nickel plating. It concludes with a review of the environmental, health, and safety considerations associated with nickel plating.

The classes of tool materials for machining operations are high-speed tool steels, carbides, cermets, ceramics, polycrystalline cubic boron nitrides, and polycrystalline diamonds. This article discusses the expanding role of surface engineering in increasing the manufacturing productivity of carbide, cermet, and ceramic cutting tool materials used in machining operations. The useful life of cutting tools may be limited by a variety of wear processes, such as crater wear, flank wear or abrasive wear, builtup edge, depth-of-cut notching, and thermal cracks. The article provides information on the applicable methods for surface engineering of cutting tools, namely, chemical vapor deposited (CVD) coatings, physical vapor deposited coatings, plasma-assisted CVD coatings, diamond coatings, and ion implantation.

Strategies for the lubrication of mechanical systems operating in extreme environments must exclude the liquid lubricants and greases and rely on alternative methods of lubrication, such as gases and solids. This article provides a survey of some of the more effective alternative methods of lubrication. It provides a discussion on the solid materials that have been most commonly used as lubricants: carbon-base materials, transition metal dichalcogenides, polymers, and soft metals.

This article describes the coating materials, surface-preparation requirements, and application techniques used to protect underground pipelines. It provides a valuable insight into the types of polymer-based coatings that are both cost-effective and widely accepted in the pipeline industry.

This article contains tables that list standard reduction potentials for electrochemical reactions. The first table lists reactions alphabetically by element of interest. The second table is ranked by potential value. Potential is measured versus the Standard Hydrogen Electrode which has a value of 0.0000 V. Reactions with more than one voltage indicate that results have not been reconciled. Parenthetical materials not needed to balance reactions are catalysts.

This article describes the secondary operations for cemented carbide parts, namely, diamond grinding, honing, electrical discharge machining, and brazing after sintering to achieve desired results, such as specified size, shape, edge condition, and surface finish.

This article discusses the manufacturing steps and compositions of cemented carbides, as well as their microstructure, classifications, applications, and physical and mechanical properties. It provides information on new tool geometries, tailored substrates, and the application of thin and hard coatings to cemented carbides by chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition. The article also discusses tool wear mechanisms and the methods available for holding the carbide tool.

Lasers evolved as a versatile materials processing tool due to their advantages such as rapid, reproducible processing, chemical cleanliness, ability to handle variety of materials, and suitability for automation. This article focuses on state-of-the-art laser applications to improve tribological performance of structural materials in lubricated and nonlubricated environments. It discusses the fundamentals of various laser materials interactions and reviews laser-based surface-modification strategies, including laser surface heating and melting, laser-synthesized coatings, and laser-based design approaches such as laser patterning and dimpling. Laser-surface modification of novel materials, such as high-entropy alloys and metallic glasses, is explored. The article provides an overview of hybrid techniques involving laser as a secondary tool, as well as a discussion on the improved capabilities of laser surface engineering for tribological applications by means of integrated computational process modeling.

This article addresses surface cleaning, finishing, and coating operations that have proven to be effective for molybdenum, tungsten, tantalum, and niobium. It describes standard procedures for abrasive blasting, molten caustic processing, acid cleaning, pickling, and solvent and electrolytic cleaning as well as mechanical grinding and finishing. The article also provides information on common plating and coating methods, including electroplating, anodizing, and oxidation-resistant coatings.