This article begins with a discussion on the fundamentals of cutting. It focuses on blanking and piercing operations in a press tool to form and shape the final part geometry. The types of piercing operations include conventional piercing, piercing with a pointed punch, piece-and-extrude operations, slotting, countersinking, and cutting and lancing of tabs. The article provides information on the punch assembly, the die assembly, and the stripper and discusses the factors considered during piercing operations. It reviews the applications of the four types of blanks used in sheet-forming operations, namely, rectangular blank, rough blank, partially developed blank, and fully developed blank. It concludes with a discussion on the process capabilities, applications, and limitations of fine-edge blanking and piercing.

Gas porosity is a major factor in the quality and reliability of castings. The major cause of gas porosity in castings is the evolution of dissolved gases from melting and dross or slag containing gas porosity. Degassing is the process of removing these gases. This article describes the methods of degassing aluminum, magnesium, and copper alloys. It provides information on the sources of hydrogen in aluminum and gases in copper.

This article focuses on the construction, operation of electric arc furnaces (EAF), and their auxiliary equipment in the steel foundry industry. It provides information on the power supply of EAF and discusses the components of the EAF, including the roof, furnace shell, spout and tap hole, water-cooling system, preheat and furnace scrap burners, and ladles. The article describes the acid and basic steelmaking practices. It discusses the raw materials used, oxidation process, methods of heat reduction, and deoxidation process in the practices. The article provides a discussion on the arc melting of iron and EAF steelmaking.

Oxyfuel gas cutting (OFC) includes a group of cutting processes that use controlled chemical reactions to remove preheated metal by rapid oxidation in a stream of pure oxygen. This article discusses the operation principles and process capabilities of the OFC. It reviews the properties and compositions of fuel types such as acetylene, natural gas, propane, propylene, and methyl-acetylene-propadiene-stabilized gas. The article describes the effects of OFC on base metal, including carbon and low-alloy steels, cast irons, and stainless steels. It provides information on light cutting, medium cutting, heavy cutting, and stack cutting. The article informs that the basic oxyfuel method can be modified to allow gas cutting of metals, such as stainless steel and most nonferrous alloys, that resist continuous oxidation.

This article discusses the most common methods of melting steels, namely, electric arc and induction melting. It describes the classification of refractories by an index of the “basicity” of the slag formed on the steel surface. The article provides a discussion on the converter metallurgy, which includes melt refinement in argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) vessels and vacuum oxygen decarburization (VODC) in a converter vessel. It also discusses ladle metallurgy, which includes vacuum induction degassing, vacuum oxygen decarburization, and vacuum ladle degassing.

This article presents a detailed account on the process flow, composition, alternative sources, and the advancement of ironmaking, steelmaking and secondary steelmaking practices. Some steels, such as bearing steels, heat-resistant steels, ultrahigh strength missile and aircraft steels, and rotor steels have higher quality requirements and tighter composition control than plain carbon or ordinary low-alloy steels. The production of special-quality steels requires vacuum-based induction or electric remelting and refining capabilities. The article explores the types and characteristics of various steel manufacturing processes, such as ingot casting, continuous casting, and hot rolling. It provides an outline of specialized processing routes of producing ultralow plain carbon steels, interstitial-free steels, high strength low-alloy steels, ultrahigh strength steels, stainless steels, and cold-rolled products, and briefly explains the analytical techniques for liquid steels.

Aluminum fluxing is a step in obtaining clean molten metal by preventing excessive oxide formation, removing nonmetallic inclusions from the melt, and preventing and/or removing oxide buildup on furnace walls. This article discusses the solid fluxes and gas fluxes used in foundries. It reviews the classification of solid fluxes depending on their use and function at the foundry operation. These include cover fluxes, drossing fluxes, cleaning fluxes, and furnace wall cleaner fluxes. The article also examines the operational practices and applications of the flux injection in the foundries. It describes the applications of the aluminum fluxing such as crucible furnaces, transfer ladles, reverberatory furnaces, and holding/casting furnaces.

The multiple-slide machine, sometimes called a four-way, four-slide, or multislide machine, is a somewhat specialized item of stamping equipment, although it is very versatile within a limited area of stamping applications. This article discusses the construction and advantages of multiple-slide machines. It presents comparisons of four-slide operations with press operations based on production speed, tooling cost, tool adjustments, and operating cost. The article reviews some factors to be considered while selecting multiple-slide machines. It summarizes the strip materials commonly used in four-slide production. The article examines the design factors of four-slide parts, including tolerances and finishes. It provides the design recommendations for optimal part quality at maximum production speed. The article also discusses various four-slide cutoff methods.

This article describes the eight chemical cleaning methods, namely, circulation, fill and soak, cascade, foam, vapor-phase organic, steam-injected, on-line chemical, and mechanical cleaning. It presents information on deposit types, solvents used to remove them, and construction material incompatibilities in a table. The article summarizes the uses of chemical cleaning solutions, including hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, and sulfamic acid, as well as the additives used to neutralize their impact on corrosion. It discusses the chemical cleaning procedures, including selection of cleaning method and solvent, documentation of cleaning, and corrosion monitoring in chemical cleaning.

This article discusses the production of blanks from low-carbon steel sheet and strip in dies in a mechanical or hydraulic press. It describes the cutting operations that are done by dies in presses to produce blanks. The applications of blanking methods are described with examples. The article reviews the characteristics of blanked edges and explains how to calculate the forces and the work involved in blanking. Factors affecting the processing of blanks are discussed. The article provides information on the selection of work metal form, the effect of work metal thickness on the selection of material for dies and related components, as well as the selection of die type and design. The article illustrates the construction and use of short-run dies and conventional dies. It concludes with information on the shaving and deburring methods for blanking.

Thermal spray is an important surface-modification process implemented by the steel industry. This article reviews thermal spray materials and equipment used and also provides examples of where typical coated components result in improved performance. It contains a table that lists thermal spray applications in the iron-steel manufacturing industry.

This article discusses the principles of the press-brake forming process and its applicability with an example. It describes the types of press brakes and examines some considerations, which help in the selection of machine. The article provides information on flattening dies, gooseneck punches, wiping dies, channel dies, arbor-type punches, box-forming dies, curling dies, beading dies, and cam-driven dies, with illustrations. It discusses the tool material selection for various operations. The article explains the procedures used for producing different shapes, including simple boxlike parts, panels, flanged parts, architectural columns, fully closed parts, and semicircular parts. It examines the effect of work metal variables on results in press-brake operations. The article also reviews stock tolerances, design, and condition of machines and tools, which help in obtaining good dimensional accuracy.

Metals and alloy powders are used in welding, hardfacing, brazing, and soldering applications, which include hardface coatings, the manufacturing of welding stick electrodes and flux-cored wires, and additives in brazing pastes or creams. This article reviews these applications and the specific powder properties and characteristics they require.

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.

Multiple-slide forming is a process in which the workpiece is progressively formed in a combination of units that can be used in various ways for the automated fabrication of a large variety of simple and intricately shaped parts from coil stock or wire. This article discusses the components of multiple-slide rotary forming machines involved in the blanking and forming of strip stock. It describes a complicated application of the two-level forming, with an example.

Functional fusion-bonded epoxy (FBE) coatings are used as external pipe coatings, base layer for three-layer pipe-coating systems, internal pipe linings, and corrosion coatings for concrete reinforcing steel (rebar). This article provides information on the chemistries of FBE, and discusses the application procedures for internal and external FBE pipe coating. The procedures involve pipe inspection, surface preparation, heating, powder application, curing, cooling, coating inspection, and repairing. It describes the problems and solutions for FBE external pipe coatings, girth weld FBE application, FBE custom coatings, internal FBE pipe linings, and FBE rebar coatings.

This article describes the applications, advantages, and disadvantages of three centrifugal casting processes as well as the equipment used. These processes are true centrifugal casting, semicentrifugal casting, and centrifuge mold casting. The article discusses the cooling, inoculation, fluxing, and extraction of castings. It reviews mold heating and coating techniques as well as the various molds used. The three most common defects observed in centrifugal castings are also discussed. The article concludes with information on the applications of centrifugal casting in investment casting and combustion synthesis as well as spin casting.

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.

Stretch forming is the forming of sheet, bars, and rolled or extruded sections over a die or form block of the required shape while the workpiece is held in tension. This article discusses the applicability, advantages, and machines and accessories of stretch forming. It provides a detailed discussion on four methods of stretch forming, namely, stretch draw forming, stretch wrapping, compression forming, and radial draw forming.