The paper deals with the variability of mechanical properties of EPSTAL steel rods produced in Polish steelworks, i.e. yield stress Re, tensile strength Rm, and elongation Agt. Our study is based on fundamental engineering static room-temperature tensile tests for large series specimens which have been made by manufacturers as the part of a factory quality control. Statistical analysis of these results shows that the stressstrain relationship of steel tensile tests should be described by a one-dimensional stochastic process, and three the most important mechanical parameters, i.e. the yield stress, tensile strength, and elongation by random variables. Based on the statistical elaboration of experimental data, it was found that the yield stress and tensile strength of steel rods produced in the years 2016-2017 had the coefficients of variation of less than 3%, and there is a reasonable basis for the manufacturer to increase the characteristic value of EPSTAL steel rods yield stress by a few percentages.

The broad range applications of Ultra-Fine Grained metals is substantially limited by the lack of a welding method that allows them to be joined without losing the strong refinement of structure. From this point of view, the solid state welding processes are privileged. Friction welding tests were carried out on UFG 316L stainless steel. A joining process at high temperature activates the recrystallization, therefore the friction welding parameters were selected according to the criterion of the lowest degree of weakness due to recrystallization in the heat affected zone. In order to characterize the structure of basic material and selected areas of the obtained joint, were performed SEM, TEM and metallographic examinations in terms of hardness and range of softening of the material and tensile test. Despite the short time and relatively low welding temperature, results of the test by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy confirmed the loss of the primary ultrafine structure in the Heat Affected Zone of welded joint.