Don Invents Tool For Hardenability Determination

A University Teacher, Don, Prof. Jacob Aweda,  of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), has designed and evaluated  what he called the ‘Jominy End Quencher’ apparatus for the determination of hardenability of steel materials.
Aweda  disclosed this during his paper presentations at the 217th inaugural lecture of the institution titled, “Engineering Technology and Manipulation of Process Parameters”, in Illorin recently.
According to the Don, Hardenability of steel was the property of material that determines the depth of the hardness of material when cooled in a desirable quenchant from its austenising temperature.
The scholar, who lectures in  the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, explained that this was measured through the determination of the depth of hardness of the standard size and the shape of the steel in a controlled standardised environment, which the apparatus was used for.
He noted that in many research centres and tertiary institutions, appropriate testing equipment were either not easily available or obsolete.
“Added to this is the cost of testing, which is enormous, charges are high where necessary equipment are available.This may probably be due to high initial cost of procurement and high cost of maintenance of such equipment.
“If access to research equipment is readily available and at  an affordable cost, the risk of travelling long distances and paying so much for material evaluation will reduce.
“Currently, due to the  non-availability of required laboratory equipment, many researchers  send  test samples outside the country resulting in the reduction of the number of samples required for testing, which may not be a good representative of the overall result,” he said.