The paper discusses the effect of upsetting ratio on distribution of the microhardness in longitudinal sections of hydroformed axisymmetric elements made from P265TR1 steel. The experimental research of hydroforming was carried out at a special stand which included a press with tooling and a hydraulic feeding system of oil. The measurements of microhardness were taken with a MATSUZAWA MMT-X3 Vickers hardness tester at a load of 100 g. The samples used in the tests were prepared from tube segments with a thin-wall ratio of 0.045. In the experiment, steel components were formed at upsetting coefficients of 0.07 and 0.09. For an established course of pressure and upsetting force, a series of steel components with exact representation of the die-cavity was formed. The paper provides a comparison of the microhardness distributions in three zones of longitudinal sections of axisymmetric elements at different degrees of material deformation. The greatest values of microhardness occurred in the area of cap for components at an upsetting coefficient 0.09.

The article presents research on the use of Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) methods to create an artificial player for the popular card game “The Lord of the Rings”. The game is characterized by complicated rules, multi-stage round construction, and a high level of randomness. The described study found that the best probability of a win is received for a strategy combining expert knowledge-based agents with MCTS agents at different decision stages. It is also beneficial to replace random playouts with playouts using expert knowledge. The results of the final experiments indicate that the relative effectiveness of the developed solution grows as the difficulty of the game increases.

In this study, two different compositions of submicron-structured titanium (760 nm) and micron-structured chromium (4.66 μm) powders were mixed to fabricate Cr-31.2 mass% Ti alloys by vacuum hot-press sintering. The research imposed various hot-press sintering pressures (20, 35 and 50 MPa), while the sintering temperature maintained at 1250°C for 1 h. The experimental results showed that the optimum parameters of the hot-press sintered Cr-31.2 mass% Ti alloys were 1250°C at 50 MPa for 1 h. Also, the relative density reached 99.94%, the closed porosity decreased to 0.04% and the hardness and transverse rupture strength (TRS) values increased to 81.90 HRA and 448.53 MPa, respectively. Moreover, the electrical conductivity is enhanced to 1.58 × 104 S·cm–1. However, the grain growth generated during the high-temperature and high-pressure of the hot-press sintering process resulted in the grain coarsening phenomenon of the Cr-31.2 mass% Ti alloys after 1250°C hot-press sintering at 50 MPa for 1 h. In addition, the Cr-31.2 mass% Ti alloys were fabricated with the submicron-structured titanium (760 nm) and chromium (588 nm) powders showed more effective compaction than the micron-structured titanium (760 nm) and chromium (4.66 μm) powders did. The closed porosity decreases to 0.02% and the hardness values increase to 83.23 HRA. However, the agglomeration phenomenon of the Cr phase and brittleness of the TiCr2 Laves phases easily led to a slight decrease in TRS (400.54 MPa).

In this research, Co-30 mass% Cr alloys were fabricated by a vacuum hot-press sintering process. Different amounts of submicron cobalt and chromium (the mean grain size is 800 and 700 nm, respectively) powders were mixed by ball milling. Furthermore, this study imposed various hot-press sintering temperatures (1100, 1150, 1200 and 1250°C) and pressures (20, 35 and 50 MPa), while maintaining the sintering time at 1 h, respectively. The experimental results show that the optimum parameters of hot-press sintered Co-30 mass% Cr alloys are 1150°C at 35 MPa for 1 h. Meanwhile, the sintered density reaches 7.92 g·cm–3, the closed porosity decreases to 0.46%, and the hardness and transverse rupture strength (TRS) values increase to 77.2 HRA and 997.1 MPa, respectively. While the hot-press sintered Co-30 mass% Cr alloys at 1150°C and 20 MPa for 1 h, the electrical conductivity was slightly enhanced to 1.79 × 104 S·cm–1, and the phase transformation (FCC → HCP) of cobalt displayed a slight effect on sintering behaviors of Co-30 mass% Cr alloys. All these results confirm that the mechanical and electrical properties of Co-30 mass% Cr alloys are effectively improved by using the hot-press sintering technique.

This study utilizes Ti-8Nb-4Co alloys added to different proportions of Mo2C powders (1, 3, and 5 mass%) by the vacuum sintering process of powder metallurgy and simultaneously vacuum sinters the alloys at 1240, 1270, 1300, and 1330°C for 1 h, respectively. The experimental results indicate that when 3 mass% Mo2C powders were added to the Ti-8Nb-4Co alloys, the specimens possessed the optimal mechanical properties after sintering at 1300°C for 1 h. The relative density was 98.02%, and the hardness and TRS were enhanced to 69.6 HRA and 1816.7 MPa, respectively. In addition, the microstructure of vacuum sintered Ti-8Nb-4Co-3Mo2C alloys has both α and β-phase structures, as well as TiC precipitates. EBSD results confirm that the Mo ₂C in situ produced TiC during the sintering process and was uniformly dispersed in the grain boundary. Moreover, the reduced molybdenum atom acted as a β-phase stabilizing element and solid-solution in the titanium matrix.