Railway buffers during the operation are staying in almost permanent contact with each other, creating friction node in the point of contact

of two railway buffer heads. In consequence of overcoming track curves, turnouts and unevenness of track, the railway buffer heads moves

relative to each other causing friction, which results in its wear. When the wear is excessive, it might be a reason to withdrawn vehicle

from service, it causes flattening of buffer head, and in consequence its abnormal cooperation. To avoid this phenomenon the buffer heads

should be covered with graphitized grease, but this method has many disadvantages. Accordingly, it was found that it would be beneficial

to cover the buffer head with bronze using laser cladding. In this article the metallographic and mechanical analysis of the newly created

top layer of railway buffer head are presented. In article the results from tribological tests conducted on Amsler test bench are also

presented. Based on test results described in article concluded that the layer of bronze coat on working surface of railway buffer head can

be beneficial from operational point of view.

The study investigates the effect of the organic compound representing the cellulose derivative - sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC/Na) on the structure of the main component of bentonite (B) - montmorillonite (MMT). Structural analysis revealed that the CMC/Na of different viscosity interacts with the mineral only via surface adsorption, causing at the same time partial or full delamination of its layered structure. This was confirmed by the XRD diffraction tests. Such polymer destructive influence on the structure of the modified main component of the bentonite limits the use of its composites as an independent binder in moulding sand technology, but does not exclude it from acting as an additive being a lustrous carbon carrier. According to the IR spectra of the B/CMC/Na materials, it can be stated that the interaction between the organic and inorganic parts is based on the formation of hydrogen bonds. That kind of the interpretation applies especially to the MMT modified in the bentonite with a lower viscosity polymer. The characteristics of the main IR absorption bands for composites with a higher viscosity polymer indicates the formation of less stable structures suggesting the random nature of the hydrogen bonds formation.

The intercalation into interlayer spaces of montmorillonite (MMT), obtained from natural calcium bentonite, was investigated. Modification of MMT was performed by the poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) sodium salt (co-MA/AA). Efficiency of modification of MMT by sodium salt co-MA/AA was assessed by the infrared spectroscopic methods (FTIR), X-ray diffraction method (XRD) and spectrophotometry UV-Vis. It was found, that MMT can be relatively simply modified with omitting the preliminary organofilisation – by introducing hydrogel chains of maleic acid-acrylic acid copolymer in a form of sodium salt into interlayer galleries. A successful intercalation by sodium salt of the above mentioned copolymer was confirmed by the powder X-ray diffraction (shifting the reflex(001) originated from the montmorillonite phase indicating an increase of interlayer distances) as well as by the infrared spectroscopy (occurring of vibrations characteristic for the introduced organic macromolecules). The performed modification causes an increase of the ion exchange ability which allows to assume that the developed hybrid composite: MMT-/maleic acid-acrylic acid copolymer (MMT-co- MA/AA) can find the application as a binding material in the moulding sands technology. In addition, modified montmorillonites indicate an increased ability for ion exchanges at higher temperatures (TG-DTG, UV-Vis). MMT modified by sodium salt of maleic acid-acrylic acid copolymer indicates a significant shifting of the loss of the ion exchange ability in the direction of the higher temperature range (500–700°C).