1.—Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2.—Restorative Dentistry Department, Dentistry Faculty, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G1G6, Canada. 3.—Center of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Processing (AMMP), University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 4.—Department of Research and Development, Azarin Kar Ind. Co, Industrial Zone 1, 7635194844 Kerman, Iran. 5.—Department of Mechanical Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt. 6.—e-mail: mahmoodian.reza@gmail.com. 7.—e-mail: mahmoodian.reza@siswa.um.edu.my. 8.—e-mail: hamdi@um.edu.my Produced ceramic-lined steel pipe using the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) method has found uses in many applications. A SHScentrifugal machine was designed to produce a ceramic-lined steel pipe from ferric oxide and aluminum powder (thermite mixture) under high centrifugal acceleration. The obtained products are expected to be Al2O3 ceramic in the innermost layer and a Fe layer in a region between the outer steel pipes. In the present work, specific regions of a pipe was particularly observed to investigate the stuck (dead) spaces at the pipe head because of its importance in further processes (joining, welding, etc.) which may affect the quality of the next operations. In this article, the product’s composition, phase separation, microhardness, and surface finish were studied on three zones of the pipe.

Punch friction test is considered to be the best simulator of sheet metal stretching over the punch corner. In this study, an improved punch friction test eliminating the error due to the strain-rate effect was developed. This method enables the direct force measurement and the online evaluation of the friction coefficient. Also, an improved boundary friction model was introduced to predict the friction coefficients and the real contact areas around the punch nose portion. The predicted values were then compared with the experimental one obtained from the newly developed test for verification. A good agreement was obtained between the theoretical and the experimental results. Finite element simulation of the punch friction test under dry friction condition for annealed aluminium was performed using the experimental friction coefficients. Since the simulated force-displacement results are in good agreement with the experimental one, the accuracy of the test is high and reliable.