Articles - Industrial Metallurgists

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Learn about metallurgy, metals engineering, and component design

Here are metallurgy, metals engineering, and component design articles. The topics cover a range of topics include real-world situations, common problems, and metallurgy of different alloys.

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Metal Properties
Control metal properties For any component or joint we want to select materials that have specific metal properties and we […]

General Metallurgy |

Why is Stainless Steel Corrosion Resistant?
Stainless steel is known for its corrosion resistance in many environments in which carbon and low alloy tool steels would […]

Stainless Steel |

Phase Diagram
In metallurgy, the term phase is used to refer to a physically homogeneous state of matter, where the phase has […]

General Metallurgy |

Metal Corrosion Mechanisms
Corrosion of metals is an electrochemical reaction that involves changes in both the metal and the environment in contact with […]

Corrosion |

Preventing Failure Analysis Frustration
Have you ever run into the following situation? A component within your product broke or your manufacturing line was producing […]

Failure Analysis |

Orange Peel Failure Analysis
Orange peel was present on bowls that were deep-drawn from low-carbon steel sheet. It was present on bowls produced from […]

Failure Analysis |

Cracked Rivet Failure Analysis
Problem Brass rivets were cracking during assembly, when the rivets were being set. Failure analysis of the rivets was performed […]

Failure Analysis |

Free-Machining vs. Welding: A Manufacturing Dilemma
Product design and manufacturing often involves trade-offs to optimize product performance, reliability, and cost. One aspect of cost includes the […]

Steel |

Component design and metals engineering
Well-designed components are essential to every product’s success. Whether a component meets its performance and reliability requirements and is low-cost […]

Product design |

Aluminum Alloy Families: Strength Metallurgy
There are many different types of wrought aluminum alloys used in a wide variety of applications such as wire for […]

Aluminum |

Stress Corrosion Cracking
Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a fracture process that involves the combined and simultaneous action of a tensile stress and […]

Corrosion |

Annealing to Increase Metal Ductility
Abstract: Annealing is a heat treating process used to modify the properties of cold-worked metal. This article discusses the reasons […]

General Metallurgy | Heat Treating |

Specifying Metal Hardness - Is it Enough?
Rockwell and Brinell hardness tests are common metal characterization methods used to determine whether metal stock or a metal component […]

General Metallurgy | Product design |

Materials Selection: Design Requirements
This is the second article in a series of posts on the materials selection process. The first article gave an […]

Product design |

Materials Selection for Great Products: Overview
There are several situations during the life cycle of a product when a design team selects a material to use […]

Product design |

Introduction to Stainless Steel
Stainless steels are steels with a minimum of 10.5% chromium. They gain their resistance to corrosion from a thin, tenacious […]

Corrosion | Stainless Steel |

Why Temper Through Hardened Steel
Imagine you’re a warrior during the middle ages and it’s time to get a new sword. So, you go to […]

Heat Treating | Steel |

Residual Stress
Residual stresses are locked-in stresses within a metal object, even though the object is free of external forces.  These stresses […]

General Metallurgy |

Mechanisms for Strengthening Aluminum
This article discusses the different aluminum alloy families and the different methods for strengthening aluminum.  This includes a discussion of […]

Aluminum |

Orange Peel
Abstract: Orange peel is a cosmetic defect most commonly found on sheet metal components after forming.  This article discusses the […]

General Metallurgy |

Hydrogen Embrittlement of Steel
Abstract: This article discusses hydrogen embrittlement of carbon steel.  This includes a discussion of the mechanism by which a steel […]

Steel |

Recrystallization Anneal
Abstract: Recrystallization annealing is a heat treating process used to modify the properties of cold-worked metal.  This article discusses the […]

General Metallurgy | Heat Treating |

The difference between strength and toughness
Abstract: Metal strength and fracture toughness are important mechanical properties for structural components.  This article explains the trade-offs between strength […]

General Metallurgy |

What is a Failure Analysis?
A failure analysis is performed for these situations: A metal component fails during testing or use A component does not […]

Failure Analysis |

Materials Engineering and Successful Products
Successful product design and manufacturing requires the consideration of several perspectives including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, […]

Product design |

Case Study: Material Selection for Drive Shaft
Project Select the material to use for a 1/2-inch diameter, six foot long drive shaft used to run a power […]

Product design |

Cracked Chuck Failure Analysis
Problem Determine the root cause of a tool chuck that was cracking during product assembly. Description About 30% of the […]

Failure Analysis |

When a Low-cost Supplier Becomes Expensive
This article outlines an eight-step process to help you identify and repair the root cause of a problem that arises […]

General Metallurgy |

Selecting Capable Suppliers – Part 1
Suppliers of metal stock and components are critical to a company's success. They depend on their suppliers to provide materials […]

General Metallurgy |

Selecting Capable Suppliers - Part 2
Suppliers of materials, components, and sub-assemblies are critical to the success of a product.  This is the second part of […]

General Metallurgy |

Materials Engineering for Cost Reduction
One approach to cost reduction is to re-engineer products to use less expensive materials or reduced quantities of higher priced […]

General Metallurgy | Product design |

Why Control Heat Treatment Temperature?
Whether you are through hardening steel, annealing a cold-worked metal, or solution treating an aluminum alloy, the heat treating temperature […]

General Metallurgy | Heat Treating |

Engineering the Properties of Metals
When designing products engineers select metals that have specific properties.  What many engineers don't realize is that when they select […]

General Metallurgy | Product design |

Precipitation Strengthening
The strength of metals is improved by impeding the motion of dislocations through the metals. One approach to achieving this improvement […]

Aluminum | General Metallurgy | Heat Treating | Stainless Steel | Steel |

Controlling the Atoms in Metals
In this article, I’m going to take a step back to consider the basic science of metallurgy.  On a microscopic […]

General Metallurgy | Heat Treating |

Phase Transformations in Alloys
The metallurgical phases present in an alloy have a huge impact on the properties of a metal component.  Phases are […]

Aluminum | General Metallurgy | Heat Treating | Steel |

Sheet Metal Formability
Formability refers to the ability of sheet metal to be formed into a desired shape without necking or cracking. Necking […]

General Metallurgy |

The Science of Metals
This short video lesson explains the relationship between the properties of a metal and the metal's composition, microstructure, and the […]

General Metallurgy |

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