Florida State University Research Foundation, Inc.

Yan Xin

Ke Han

Pingli Mao

Huigai Li

Qijie Zhai

Shaobo Zheng

Liuxing Wang

Provided herein are techniques for making low-carbon steels with high surface hardness. A technique includes heating a low-carbon steel precursor material in a furnace to form molten steel material, increasing the free oxygen content of the molten steel material to a predetermined level, and then solidifying the molten steel material having the predetermined oxygen level to produce a steel structure by cooling the molten steel material at a predetermined cooling rate. The predetermined oxygen level and the predetermined cooling rate are effective to produce the low-carbon steel with a high surface hardness. The low-carbon steel may have inclusions smaller than about 1 &#x3bc;m.

Low carbon steel having improved hardness and methods of making the same

This document describes a process/strategy for age hardening nickel based alloys to create desirable properties with reduced energy expenditure. The inventive process introduces isolated atom nucleation sites to accelerate the nucleation rate by approximately 36 times, thereby permitting age hardening to occur in significantly less time and with significantly less energy expenditure.

Age-hardening process featuring anomalous aging time

Growing community of inventors

Tallahassee, FL, United States of America

Yan Xin