This article describes the presses that are mechanically or hydraulically powered and used for producing sheet, strip, and plate from sheet metal. It also presents the JIC standards for presses, compares the presses based on power source, details the selection criteria and provides information on the various drive systems and the auxiliary equipment. It describes the selection of die materials and lubricants for sheet metal forming and provides information on the lubrication mechanisms and selection with a list of lubricant types for forming of specific sheet materials of ferrous or nonferrous metals. The article reviews the various types of forming processes such as blanking, piercing, fine-edge blanking, press bending, press forming, forming by multiple-slide machines, deep drawing, stretch forming, spinning, rubber-pad forming, three-roll forming, contour roll forming, drop hammer forming, explosive forming, electromagnetic forming, and superplastic forming.

Characteristics of stainless steel that affect its formability include yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility, in addition to the effect of work hardening on these properties. This article discusses the forming process of stainless steel, heat-resistant alloys and refractory metals, detailing the major aspects of forming, including formability, lubrication, and forming methods and tools. The effect of factors such as alloy condition, cold reduction, forming direction (in the case of heat-resistant alloys) and temperature (in the case of refractory metals) on formability is also discussed.

Metalworking is one of the three major technologies used to fabricate metal products. This article tabulates the classification of metal forming processes. It discusses different types of metalworking equipment, including rolling mills, ring-rolling machines, and thread-rolling and surface-rolling machines. The article outlines the significant characteristics of pressing-type machines: load and energy characteristics, time-related characteristics, and accuracy characteristics. It summarizes different specialized processes such as advanced roll-forming methods, equal-channel angular extrusion, incremental forging, and microforming. The article describes the thermomechanical processing of nickel- and titanium-base alloys and concludes with information on the advancements in process simulation.

This article outlines several polycrystal formulations commonly applied for the simulation of plastic deformation and the prediction of deformation texture. It discusses the crystals of cubic and hexagonal symmetry that constitute the majority of the metallic aggregates used in technological applications. The article defines the basic kinematic tensors, reports their relations, and presents expressions for calculating the change in crystallographic orientation associated with plastic deformation. It surveys some of the polycrystal models in terms of the relative strength of the homogeneous effective medium (HEM). The article analyzes the anisotropy predictions of rolled face-centered-cubic and body centered-cubic sheets and presents simulations of the axial deformation of hexagonal-close-packed zirconium. The applications of polycrystal constitutive models to the simulation of complex forming operations, through the use of the finite element method, are also presented.

Ceramic-forming processes usually start with a powder which is then compacted into a porous shape, achieving maximum particle packing density with a high degree of uniformity. This article compares and contrasts several forming processes, including mechanical consolidation, dry pressing, cold isostatic pressing, slip casting, tape casting, roll compaction, extrusion, and injection molding. It describes the advantages, equipment and tooling, and material requirements of green machining, the machining of ceramics in an unfired state with the intent of producing parts as close to as possible to their final shape. The article also provides useful information on drying methods, shrinkage, and defects as well as the removal of organic processing aids such as dispersants, binders, plasticizers, and lubricants.

This article describes the fundamental concepts of heat treatment simulation, including the physical events and their interactions, the heat treatment simulation software, and the commonly used simulation strategies. It summarizes material data needed for heat treatment simulations and discusses reliable data sources as well as experimental and computational methods for material data acquisition. The article provides information on the process data needed for accurate heat treatment simulation and the methods for their determination. Methods for validating heat treatment simulations are also discussed with an emphasis on the underlying philosophy for the selection and design of validation tests. The article also discusses the applications, capabilities, and limitations of heat treatment simulations via selected industrial case studies for a better understanding of the effect of microstructure, distortion, residual stress, and cracking in gears, shafts, and bearing rings.

This article uses metal and alloy powders as examples to briefly discuss how to perform the characterization of powders. It begins by reviewing some of the techniques involved in the sampling of powders to ensure accurate characterization. This is followed by a discussion on the important properties to characterize powders, namely the particle size, surface area, density, porosity, particle hardness, compressibility, green strength, and flowability. For characterization of powders, both individual particles and bulk powders are used to evaluate their physical and chemical properties. The article also discusses the important characteristics and compositions of powder as well as impurities that directly affect powder properties. It ends with a description of the ignition and dust-explosion characteristics of organic and metal powders.

This article provides a detailed discussion on the types of furnace atmospheres required for heat treating. These include generated exothermic-based atmospheres, generated endothermic-based atmospheres, generated exothermic-endothermic-based atmospheres, generated dissociated-ammonia-based atmospheres, industrial gas nitrogen-base atmospheres, argon atmospheres, and hydrogen atmospheres. Atmospheres for backfilling, partial pressure operation, and quenching in vacuum are also discussed. Furnace atmospheres constitute four major groups of safety hazards in heat treating: fire, explosion, toxicity, and asphyxiation. The article reviews the fundamentals of principal gases and vapors. It describes how the evaluation of the atmospheric requirements of heat treating furnaces is influenced by factors such as cost of operation and capital investment.

This article describes the mechanism, advantages and disadvantages, fundamentals, capabilities, variations, equipment used, and weldability of metals in solid-state welding processes, including diffusion bonding, explosion welding, friction welding, ultrasonic welding, upset welding, and deformation welding.

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.

Copper and copper alloys are widely used in many environments and applications because of their excellent corrosion resistance, which is coupled with combinations of other desirable properties. This article lists the identifying characteristics of the forms of corrosion that commonly attack copper metals as well as the most effective means of combating each. General corrosion, galvanic corrosion, pitting, impingement, fretting, intergranular corrosion, dealloying, corrosion fatigue, and stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) are some forms of corrosion. The article also lists a galvanic series of metals and alloys valid for dilute aqueous solutions, such as seawater and weak acids. It provides useful information on the effects of alloy compositions, selection for specific environments, and atmospheric corrosion of selected copper alloys. The article also tabulates the corrosion ratings of wrought copper alloys in various corrosive media.

Stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) is a form of corrosion and produces wastage in that the stress-corrosion cracks penetrate the cross-sectional thickness of a component over time and deteriorate its mechanical strength. Although there are factors common among the different forms of environmentally induced cracking, this article deals only with SCC of metallic components. It begins by presenting terminology and background of SCC. Then, the general characteristics of SCC and the development of conditions for SCC as well as the stages of SCC are covered. The article provides a brief overview of proposed SCC propagation mechanisms. It discusses the processes involved in diagnosing SCC and the prevention and mitigation of SCC. Several engineering alloys are discussed with respect to their susceptibility to SCC. This includes a description of some of the environmental and metallurgical conditions commonly associated with the development of SCC, although not all, and numerous case studies.

The large majority of the commercially important glasses are processed from a carefully calculated batch of raw materials that is then melted in special furnaces. Providing an introduction to melting practices of glass production, this article focuses on various finishing methods of glass products, including forming, grinding and polishing, and explores the advantages, disadvantages and steps involved in sol-gel process. It also discusses the types, processes and properties of annealed, laminated, and tempered glass, and presents the steps involved in glass decoration. The article gives a detailed account of production, properties and application of fiberglass, optical fibers, glass spheres and ceramic glasses, and describes the forms, classification, compositions and properties of glass/metal and glass-ceramic/metal seals.

This article discusses different forms of ingot and explains molten-metal processing. It describes ingot casting processes, namely, open-mold casting and direct chill (DC) process. The process variations and solidification in the DC process are summarized. The article describes continuous processes, namely, twin-roll strip casting, slab casting, and wheel-belt processes. It concludes with information on postsolidification processes, including stress relief and scalping.

Tantalum is one of the most versatile corrosion-resistant metals known. The outstanding corrosion resistance and inertness of tantalum are attributed to a very thin, impervious, protective oxide film that forms on exposure of the metal to slightly anodic or oxidizing conditions. This article provides a discussion on the mechanism of corrosion resistance and on the behavior of tantalum in different corrosive environments, namely, acids; salts; organic compounds; reagents, foods, and pharmaceuticals; body fluids and tissues; and gases. It contains several tables that summarize the effects of acids, salts, and miscellaneous corrosive reagents on tantalum and applications for tantalum equipment in chemical, pharmaceutical, and other industries. Finally, the article presents a discussion on hydrogen embrittlement, the galvanic effects, and cathodic protection of tantalum and describes the corrosion resistance of different types of tantalum-base alloys.

This article discusses the properties, primary and secondary production, product forms and applications of various grades of lead and lead-base alloys with the aid of several tables and illustrations. It lists the Unified Numbering System (UNS) designations for various pure lead grades and lead-base alloys grouped according to nominal chemical composition. The properties of lead that make it useful in a wide variety of applications are also discussed. The largest use of lead is in lead-acid storage batteries. Other applications include ammunition, cable sheathing, cast products such as type metals, terneplate, foils, and building construction materials. Lead is also used as an alloying element in steel and in copper alloys to improve machinability. The article concludes with information on the principles of lead corrosion, corrosion resistance of lead in water, atmospheres, underground ducts, soil and chemicals.

This article discusses the operating principles, types, and applications of shearing and slitting of different forms of steel, including plates, flat sheets, bars, coiled sheet and strips. In addition, it provides a detailed account of the cutting methods such as oxyfuel gas cutting, plasma arc cutting, oxygen arc cutting, laser beam cutting, and air carbon arc cutting and gouging, describing their process capabilities, equipment used, operating principles and parameters, and factors affecting their efficiency.

Carbonitriding is a modified form of carburizing that involves the introduction and diffusion of atomic nitrogen into the surface steel during carburization. This article discusses the composition, depth, and hardenability of a carburized case, and demonstrates how to control atmosphere in batch and continuous furnaces. It discusses the most important considerations in the selection of carbonitriding temperature. The article also describes the processing factors for minimizing retained austenite in the carbonitrided case. Hardness testing and carbonitriding of powder metallurgy parts, quenching and tempering of carbonitrided steel parts, and applications of carbonitriding are also covered in the article.

This article discusses the identifying characteristics of the forms or mechanisms of corrosion that commonly attack copper metals, as well as the most effective means of combating each. It tabulates corrosion ratings of wrought copper alloys in various corrosive media. The article describes the corrosion behavior of copper alloys in specific environments. It reviews the corrosion characteristics of copper and copper alloys in various acids, alkalis, salts, organic compounds, and gases. The article provides information on the behavior of copper alloys that is susceptible to stress-corrosion cracking in various industrial and chemical environments. It concludes with a discussion on various corrosion testing methods, including aqueous corrosion testing, dynamic corrosion tests, and stress-corrosion testing.