Short Courses

“Heat Treatment for Wrought and Cast Aluminum Alloys”

Date and Time: Sunday, March 12, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: $475 members; $560 nonmembers (Advanced registration price listed)
Who Should Attend?
Metallurgists, scientists, engineers, and technicians employed in either research or operations at facilities where cast or wrought aluminum alloy products are heat treated; operations both as producers and users are covered.

Sign up to attend this course by completing the TMS 2006 Annual Meeting & Exhibition Registration form.

This course combines theory with many practical examples. Learn about:

• Principles of precipitation hardening and alloy tempers in aluminum alloys
• Heat treatment metallurgy for precipitation hardenable alloy systems
• Simple kinetic equations to predict quenching and aging effects on properties
• Natural and artificial aging, and the influence of cold work on aging kinetics

Contents of the course include solution heat treatment of castings with emphasis on homogenization and rounding of Si particles and effects of time and temperature. Discussion of the important step of quenching covers quench sensitivity; water quenching and geometry; and effects of quench on residual stress, distortion, corrosion, strength and fracture toughness. Interactions between quenching and aging are also covered with examples of natural aging and effects of time and temperature of artificial aging provided. Examples of the contrasting effects of cold work prior to aging are shown as well, and reasons for the behaviors are presented. Multi-step aging treatments are also discussed with emphasis on low-high temperature aging of Al-Si castings.

Murat Tiryakioglu is a professor of engineering at Robert Morris University and has served as a consultant to companies such as Sumitomo, Tyco and Alcoa. He is the founder of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute at Western Kentucky University, where he conducted research on heat treatment of aluminum alloys.

James T. Staley Sr. recently retired after 35 years in R&D and operations at Alcoa. While there, he developed extensive experience in developing and applying heat treatments for aluminum alloy products. He continues to teach the metallurgy of heat treatment to Alcoa employees.