Aluminum mill products are those that have been subjected to plastic deformation by hot- and cold-working mill processes such as rolling, extruding, and drawing, either singly or in combination. Microstructural changes associated with the working and with any accompanying thermal treatments are used to control certain properties and characteristics of the worked, or wrought, product or alloy. This article discusses the designation system, classification, product forms, corrosion and fabrication characteristics, and applications of wrought aluminum alloys. Commercial wrought aluminum products are divided into flat-rolled products (sheet, plate, and foil); rod, bar, and wire; tubular products; shapes; and forgings. The article discusses factors affecting the strengthening mechanisms, fracture toughness, and physical properties of aluminum alloys, in addition to the effects of alloying on the physical and mechanical properties. Important alloying elements and impurities are listed alphabetically as a concise review of major effects.

Aluminum and its alloys are used in a broad range of applications. This article discusses the primary and secondary production of aluminum and the classification system for cast and wrought products. It describes some of the more common manufactured forms, including commercial wrought aluminum products, aluminum alloy engineered castings, powder metallurgy parts, and metal-matrix composites. The article also reviews fabrication characteristics such as machining, forming, forging, and joining. It concludes with a description of the major industrial applications of wrought and cast aluminum alloys.

The physical and mechanical properties of aluminum alloy can be improved by strengthening mechanisms such as strain hardening used for non-heat treatable aluminum alloy and precipitation hardening used for heat treatable aluminum alloy. This article focuses on the effect of strengthening mechanisms on the physical and mechanical properties of non-heat treatable and heat treatable aluminum alloys. It describes the use of the aluminum alloy phase diagram in determining the melting temperature, solidification path, equilibrium phases, and explains the effect of alloying element in phase formation.

Commercial aluminum alloys are classified based on how they are made and what they contain. This article describes the ANSI H35.1 designation system, which is widely used to classify wrought and cast aluminum alloys. The ANSI standard uses a four-digit numbering system to identify alloying elements, compositional modifications, purity levels, and product types. It also uses a multicharacter code to convey process-related details on heat treating, hardening, cooling, cold working, and other stabilization treatments. The article includes several large tables that provide extensive information on aluminum alloy and temper designations and how they correspond to critical mechanical properties as well as other designation systems.

Nonferrous metals and alloys are widely used to resist corrosion. This article describes the corrosion behavior of the most widely used nonferrous metals, such as aluminum, copper, nickel, and titanium. It also provides information on several specialty nonferrous products that cannot easily be categorized by elemental base.

This article provides an overview of key metallurgy, properties, and applications of the non-heat-treatable 5xxx series of aluminum alloys. It also shows the relationships between some of the more commonly used alloys in the 5xxx series.

This article focuses on the monolithic form of nonferrous alloys, including aluminum, copper, nickel, cobalt, titanium, zinc, magnesium, and beryllium alloys. Each metal and alloy offers unique combinations of useful physical, chemical, and structural properties that are made available by its particular composition and the proper choice of processing method. The article describes the composition, designation system, properties, and processing method of these metals and alloys. It discusses the effect of alloying elements in these alloys. The article explains microstructure/property relationships that are used to make specific properties available to the designers of structural applications. It provides examples of phase diagrams that illustrate eutectic and peritectic reactions.

A sliding bearing (plain bearing) is a machine element designed to transmit loads or reaction forces to a shaft that rotates relative to the bearing. This article explains the role of wear damage mechanisms in the design and selection of bearing materials, and its relationship with bearing material properties. Sliding bearings are commonly classified by terms that describe their application; they also are classified according to material construction, as single-metal, bimetal, or trimetal sliding bearings. The article further provides detailed tabular data on the designation and composition of the following types of bearing materials: tin-base alloys, lead-base alloys, copper-base alloys, and aluminum-base alloys. It also briefly discusses the following types of bearing materials: zinc-base alloys, silver-base alloys, gray cast irons, cemented carbides, and nonmetallic bearing materials.

Stainless steels are highly alloyed materials in comparison to most other popular powder metallurgy (PM) materials, such as low-alloy steels, copper alloys, and aluminum alloys. This article provides an overview of the history of PM stainless steels.

The powder metallurgy (PM) process is a relatively efficient and economic process that can be used to produce high quantities of aluminum components with a reasonable degree of precision and finds application in camshaft bearing cap (cam cap) production. The article discusses the production steps involved in cam cap manufacturing: powder production, compaction, sintering, repressing, and heat treatment. In addition, it reviews the R&D work involved in improving the structural properties of emerging aluminum alloy systems.

A sliding bearing (plain bearing) is a machine element designed to transmit loads or reaction forces to a shaft that rotates relative to the bearing. This article discusses the properties of bearing materials. It provides information on bearing material systems: single-metal systems, bimetal systems, and trimetal systems. The article describes the designations, nominal compositions, mechanical properties, and applications of various sliding bearing alloys: tin-base alloys, lead-base alloys, copper-base alloys, aluminum-base alloys, silver-base alloys, zinc-base alloys, additional metallic materials, nonmetallic materials. It describes casting processes, powder metallurgy processes, and electroplating processes. The article also discusses the selection criteria for bearing materials.

This article provides a thorough review of the physical metallurgy of aluminum alloys and its role in determining the properties and from a design and manufacturing perspective. And its role in include the effects of composition, mechanical working, and/or heat treatment on structure and properties. This article focuses on the effects of alloying and the metallurgical factors on phase constituents, structure, and properties of aluminum alloys. Effects from different combinations of alloying elements are described in terms of relevant alloy phase diagrams. The article addresses the underlying alloying and structural aspects that affect the properties and possible processing routes of aluminum alloys. It provides information on the heat treatment effects on the physical properties of aluminum alloys and the microstructural effects on the fatigue and fracture of aluminum alloys. The important alloying elements and impurities are listed alphabetically as a concise review of major effects.

This article describes the different types of precipitation and transformation processes and their effects that can occur during heat treatment of various nonferrous alloys. The nonferrous alloys are aluminum alloys, copper alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel alloys, titanium alloys, cobalt alloys, zinc alloys, and heat treatable silver alloys, gold alloys, lead alloys, and tin alloys. It also provides a detailed discussion on the effects due to precipitation and transformation processes in these non-ferrous alloys.

Aluminum, the second most plentiful metallic element, is an economic competitor in various applications owing to its appearance, light weight, fabricability, physical properties, mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance. This article discusses the primary and secondary production of aluminum and classification system for cast and wrought aluminum alloys. It talks about various manufactured forms of aluminum and its alloys, which are classified into standardized products such as sheet, plate, foil, rod, bar, wire, tube, pipe, and structural forms, and engineered products such as extruded shapes, forgings, impacts, castings, stampings, powder metallurgy parts, machined parts, and metal-matrix composites. The article also reviews important fabrication characteristics in the machining, forming, forging, and joining of aluminum alloys. It concludes with a description of the major industrial applications of aluminum, including building and construction, transportation, consumer durables, electrical, machinery and equipment, containers and packaging, and other applications.

The most widely accepted alloy and temper designation system for aluminum and its alloys is maintained by the Aluminum Association and recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as the American National Standard Alloy and Temper Designation Systems for Aluminum (ANSI H35.1). This article provides a detailed discussion on the alloy and temper designation system for aluminum and its alloys. The Aluminum Association alloy designations are grouped as wrought and cast alloys. Lengthy tables provide information on alloying elements in wrought aluminum and aluminum alloys; nominal composition of aluminum alloy castings; typical mechanical properties of wrought and cast aluminum alloys in various temper conditions; and cross references to former and current cast aluminum alloy designations.

This article describes the general categories and metallurgy of heat treatable aluminum alloys. It briefly reviews the key impurities and each of the principal alloying elements in aluminum alloys, namely, copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, zinc, iron, lithium, titanium, boron, zirconium, chromium, vanadium, scandium, nickel, tin, and bismuth. The article discusses the secondary phases in aluminum alloys, namely, nonmetallic inclusions, porosity, primary particles, constituent particles, dispersoids, precipitates, grain and dislocation structure, and crystallographic texture. It also discusses the mechanisms used for strengthening aluminum alloys, including solid-solution hardening, grain-size strengthening, work or strain hardening, and precipitation hardening. The process of precipitation hardening involves solution heat treatment, quenching, and subsequent aging of the as-quenched supersaturated solid solution. The article briefly discusses these processes of precipitation hardening. It also reviews precipitation in various alloy systems, including 2xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx, aluminum-lithium, and Al-Mg-Li systems.

There are a wide variety of furnace types and designs for melting aluminum. This article discusses the various types of furnaces, including gas reverberatory furnaces, crucible furnaces, and induction melting furnaces. It describes the classification of solid fluxes: cover fluxes, drossing fluxes, cleaning fluxes, and furnace wall cleaner fluxes. The article reviews the basic considerations in proper flux selection and fluxing practices. It explains the basic principles of degassing and discusses the degassing of wrought aluminum alloys. The article describes filtration in wrought aluminum production and in shape casting. It also reviews grain refinement in aluminum-silicon casting alloys, aluminum-silicon-copper casting alloys, aluminum-copper casting alloys, aluminum-zinc-magnesium casting alloys, and aluminum-magnesium casting alloys. The article concludes with a discussion on aluminum-silicon modification.

Heat treatment of aluminum alloys frequently refers to the heat treatable aluminum alloys that can be strengthened by solution treatment, quenching, and subsequent hardening. This article introduces the general metallurgy of strengthening aluminum alloys by heat treatment. It discusses various heat treatable alloying elements, such as copper, chromium, iron, magnesium, silicon, zinc, and lithium. The article describes the age-hardening treatments and generalized precipitation sequence for aluminum alloys. It reviews the solution heat treatment in terms of solution heating time and temperature, as well as high-temperature oxidation. The article also discusses quench sensitivity, vacancy loss, grain-boundary precipitates, and quench delay for the heat treatment of aluminum. It concludes with a discussion on the deformation of aluminum alloys prior to aging.

Aluminum powders can be formed into components by several competing technologies, including powder metallurgy (PM), metal injection molding, powder forging, and additive manufacturing. This article explores PM methodologies that are being exploited to manufacture such components. It reviews emerging technologies that promise to offer exciting ways to produce aluminum parts. The article discusses the various steps involved in PM, such as powder production, compaction, sintering, repressing, and heat treatment. It provides information on aluminum production statistics and the wear-resistance applications of PM.

This article discusses the major characteristics of the 3xxx series aluminum alloys. It contains a table that lists product specifications of these 3xxx alloys.