Abstract: A moving hearth reducing furnace is operated, while a gap is provided between a discharging apparatus for discharging reduced iron agglomerates from the moving hearth reducing furnace and the surface of the moving hearth. The gap prevents squeezing metallic iron powder formed by reduction of powder included in iron oxide agglomerates into the surface of the moving hearth and the formation of an iron sheet. An iron oxide layer formed on the moving hearth during the operation can be periodically scraped off without shutdown of the furnace.

Abstract: A hard coating formed on a substrate material and having a first layer and a second layer of which, the first layer is a compound composed of one or more types of metallic elements selected to include at least aluminum or titanium from a group comprising aluminum, titanium and silicon; and also selected from one or more types of non-metallic elements from a group comprising boron, carbon and nitrogen, and the second layer is a lamination of AlBN on the surface.

Abstract: A brake device includes a controller for inputting detection signals from an engine speed sensor, vehicle speed sensor, shift lever position sensor and engine exhaust brake sensor. When a vehicle speed upon application of engine exhaust brake is lower than a low speed set value of an effective vehicle speed corresponding to a shift lever position, a lockup clutch of a torque converter is disengaged by the controller; and when the vehicle speed is in a range from the low speed set value to a high speed set value of the effective vehicle speed, the lockup clutch is engaged by the controller; and when the vehicle speed exceeds the high speed set value, the lockup clutch is disengaged, and a transmission is down-shifted to a just lower gear range by the controller.