BNTU

Belarusian National Technic University is one of the oldest and biggest educational institutions in our republic. It was founded in 1920. It's famous for its high quality academic programs and a stimulating learning environment.

BNTU includes 15 departments and trains specialists for different fields of science and technology. Many young people from our country and abroad enter BNTU to become mechanical engineers, architects, programmers, economists, building engineers, electrical engineers and etc. There are around 21 000 students who make a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate students studying mainly full - time Many of them are also professionals who attend courses in the evening alter work.

There are full - time, part - time and correspondence departments at the university. Full- time course lasts five years as a rule. Part - time and correspondence courses are longer. The curricula however do not differ greatly in the subject taught The difference is in the system in which the studies are organized.

The academic year is divided in to two terms At the end of each term students take exams If the results are good, students get scholarship

BNTU offers a full range of undergraduate, postgraduate and research decrees. It gives you the best opportunities to achieve your ambitions. All academic programs are designed to equip students with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need for their personal development and to be successful in their future careers

The teaching process is based on lectures, practical classes. seminars, lab works. Full -time students usually have three o four classes a day. They also have term papers to write. On completion of studies students present their graduation thesis After passing their finals, students are awarded ordinary diplomas or diplomas with honors.

Standard of teaching is very high Many lecturers of the university have a degree of Doctor or Candidate of Science

These are good facilities to study and to rest at the university Weil equipped laboratories, computer classes are available both for teaching and for personal use There is a large library and several reading halls at BNTU Books on all specialities are on open access there. All the students are encouraged to develop the skills of independent studies and to make full use of the facilities cf the academy. For those who are fond of spors there are several sport ground, a football field and different sport sections.

Graduates of BNTU work at factories, construction sites, power plants, design bureaus and research institutes. The best students who have done some research work become postgraduates.

Metals

Engineers have to know the best and most economical materials to use. Engineers must also understand the properties of these materials and how they can be worked. There are two kinds of materials used in engineering — metals and non-metals. The main advantage of metals is their strength and toughness. Concrete may be cheaper and is often used in building, but even concrete depends on its core of steel for strength.

Plastics are lighter and more corrosion-resistant, but they are not usually as strong. Another problem with plastics to be solved is what to do with them after use. Metal objects can often be broken down and the metals recycled; plastics can only be dumped or burned.

It is to be noted that not all metals are strong, however. Copper and aluminium, for example, are both fairly weak — but if they are mixed together, the result is an alloy called aluminium bronze which is much stronger than either pure copper or pure aluminium. Alloying is an important method of obtaining whatever special properties are required: strength, toughness, wear resistance, magnetic properties, machining resistance, etc.

The properties of a metal can be further improved by use of heat treatment, hardening, tempering, annealing, etc. For example, hardening is used to make metals harder. Tempering makes them softer and less brittle. Annealing is carried out to make a metal soft so that it can be machined more easily. In this way, metallic materials can be produced to meet every kind of engineering specification and requirement.

Cast iron. Ferrous metalls

Although there are very many metallic elements it is customary to divide metals and alloys into two major categories, ferrous and non-ferrous. Ferrous metals contain iron, an element that has a chemical symbol Fe and is the father of the ferrous family. It is to be noted that pure iron is soft, ductile and relatively weak. It is not normally used as an engineering material because of its low strength. That is why iron has to be combined with other elements such as carbon, silicon, phosphorous, etc. Carbon is the most important of all elements present in ferrous alloys. Some 94% of the total world consumption of metallic materials is in the form of steels and cast irons — the two most important forms of ferrous metals. Steels and cast irons are both alloys, or mixtures of iron and carbon which differ in the quantity of carbon content.

Cast iron is the cheapest of the ferrous metals. Cast iron is a general term to be applied to iron-carbon alloys containing more than 2.14% of carbon. Cast iron without the addition of alloying elements is weak in tension and shear, strong in compression and has low resistance to impact.

Grey cast iron is an alloy of iron and carbon in which the carbon is present in free or graphite state. Grey cast iron has its term because of special colour of its fracture. It is soft, easily machined and only moderately brittle. It is used for the parts not to be subjected to great tensile stresses.

Many castings that were formerly made of grey cast iron are now made of malleable iron because malleable iron is much stronger than grey iron castings. However, malleable iron castings are seldom used in the form they come from the moulds, as they are hard and brittle, and therefore they should be annealed. Malleable iron before annealing is usually spoken of as white iron. White iron is difficult to machine because most of the carbon present is in chemical combination with iron. It is desirable to use it in those machines that require some resistance to abrasion.

Steels. Ferrous metals

Steel by definition is an alloy of iron and carbon, with the carbon being restricted within certain concentration limits ( as a rule, up to 2.14%). Our automobiles, tools and buildings are said to all rely on steel for their manufacture.

As a structural material steel has two drawbacks: its weight and its susceptibility to rust. Yet steel has long been used, and in great quantities, in structural applications. This is because of many advantages of steel. It is superior to other structural materials in strength, toughness, workability and other properties that are critical for such applications.

There are two kinds of steel: carbon and alloy steel. Carbon steel should contain only iron and carbon without any other alloying elements and is divided into:

a) machine steel

b) medium carbon steel

c) high carbon steel.

Carbon steels are the most common steels used in industry. Their properties are known to depend only on the percentage of carbon they contain. Machine steels are said to be very soft and can be used for making machine parts that do not need strength. Medium carbon steels are stated to be better grade and stronger than machine steels. Tool steel can be used for producing cutting tools and working parts of machines because of its high strength and hardness.

Non-ferrous metals

Non-ferrous metals are more expensive than ferrous ones and are used only when some characteristic not possessed by iron or steel is essential or desirable in application. These characteristics are high electrical and thermal conductivity, high corrosion resistance, non-magnetic qualities, light weight, etc Non-ferrous metals are mixed in various proportions to form different alloys such as brasses, bronzes and aluminium alloys which can be strong, weak, hard or soft.

We know aluminium to be one of the best known light metals. Aluminium is said to be a white silvery metal that does not rust in the air. Its good corrosion resistance and low density permit it to be widely used in the field of transportation. Good electrical conductivity of the metal makes it suitable for many applications in the electrical industry. Everybody knows aluminium to be extensively used for castings that must be light in weight, light in colour or that must not rust. Copper, zinc and iron are the metals that alloy freely with aluminium.

Historically, copper, a reddish-brown, tough metal, became one of the first engineering metals. It is known to have been used in prehistoric times for making weapons and tools. Later it was alloyed with tin to form bronze. Pure copper having very high electric conductivity and high corrosion-resistant qualities is a good conductor

Brasses are yellowish or reddish alloys of copper and zinc in different proportions (about 60% copper and 40% zinc, but some brasses contain as high as 90% copper with only 10% zinc)

Nickel, a hard, tough, shiny, and silvery metal, is found in the form of ore. It does not rust and can be polished to a very bright, silvery finish. Nickel is said to be one of the most important metals in this technological age. It is used to a large extent as an alloying addition in many steels and cast irons and in a number of non-ferrous alloys.