Rolling is the process of reducing the thickness or changing the cross section of a workpiece by compressive forces applied through a set of rolls. This article emphasizes flat rolling and illustrates basic flat-rolling process used to reduce the thickness of a rectangular cross section. It provides a discussion on hot rolling, cold rolling, and warm rolling, as well as lubrication in rolling. The article reviews the lubrication for iron-base and nickel-base materials, light metals, copper-base alloys, and titanium alloys. It discusses the wear mechanism in rolling: abrasion, adhesion, and fatigue, as well as oxidative and corrosive wear. Surface modification techniques, such as hardening by induction heat treating, weld overlay, thermal spray coating, coating via physical vapor deposition (PVD), and laser surface treatment, are also discussed for improving roll service life.

Aluminum and its alloys are among the more formable materials of commonly fabricated metals. This article discusses the formability, bendability, and springback of aluminum and its alloys. It describes the forming limit diagrams that illustrate the biaxial combinations of strain that can occur without splitting. The article reviews various bending methods, such as draw, compression, ram and press, roll, and stretch or tension bending. It describes the process variations of incremental sheet forming (ISF), such as single-point incremental forming, two-point incremental forming, and kinematic incremental sheet forming. The article concludes with a discussion on spinning, warm forming, and superplastic forming.

This article discusses the general formability considerations of aluminum alloys. To conduct a complete analysis of a formed part, the required mechanical properties, as determined by several standard tests, must be considered. The article describes tension testing and other tests designed to simulate various production forming processes, including cup tests and bend tests, which help in determining these properties. It provides information on the equipment and tools, which are used in the forming of aluminum alloys. The article presents a list of lubricants that are most widely used in the forming. It also analyzes the various forming processes of aluminum alloys. The processes include blanking and piercing, bending, press-brake forming, contour roll forming, deep drawing, spinning, stretch forming, rubber-pad forming, warm forming, superplastic forming, explosive forming, electrohydraulic forming, electromagnetic forming, hydraulic forming, shot peening, and drop hammer forming.

Thermomechanical processing (TMP) refers to various metal forming processes that involve careful control of thermal and deformation conditions to achieve products with required shape specifications and good properties. This article describes TMP methods in producing hot-rolled steel and reviews how improvements in the strength and toughness depend on the synergistic effect of microalloy additions and on carefully controlled thermomechanical conditions. It discusses TMP variables and the general distinctions between conventional hot rolling and common types of controlled-rolling schedules. The article describes the metallurgical processes in grain refinement of austenite steel by hot working, such as recovery and recrystallization and strain-induced transformation. The grain refinement in high strength low alloy steel by alloy addition is also discussed. The article provides an outline on the key stages of deformation, and the required metallurgical information at each of these stages.

This article describes ironmaking and steelmaking practices (melt or liquid processing, including hot metal desulfurization) and discusses the evolution of these processes and their effects on steel properties. The physical chemistry of steelmaking may appear deceptively simple for integrated steel mill operations where ore from the ground is converted into steel. The various refining steps that occur in steelmaking are reviewed. The article also describes solid processing of steel, with emphasis on hot and cold rolling, thermomechanical processing, and annealing of flat steel products.

Uranium is a moderately strong and ductile metal that can be cast, formed, and welded by a variety of standard methods. This article presents an overview of the processing and properties of uranium and uranium alloys with a brief overview of the principal hazards and precautions associated with processing depleted uranium and methods to control mild radioactivity, chemical toxicity, and pyrophoricity. It also describes the classification and heat treatment of uranium and uranium alloys. Furthermore, the article provides graphical representation of the effect of alloy composition, cooling rate, and aging temperature on microstructure, crystal structure, and mechanical properties of uranium and uranium alloys.

Thread rolling is a cold-forming process for producing threads or other helical or annular forms by rolling the impression of hardened steel dies into the surface of a cylindrical or conical blank. Methods that use cylindrical dies are classified as radial infeed, tangential feed, through feed, planetary, and internal. This article focuses on the capabilities, limitations, and machines used for these methods. It describes the three characteristics, such as rollability, flaking, and seaming, used in evaluating and selecting metals for thread rolling. The article explores the factors affecting die life and explains the effect of thread form on processing. It provides information on various fluids used in thread rolling to cool the dies and the work and to improve the finish on the rolled products. The article provides a comparison between thread rolling and cutting, as well as between thread rolling and grinding.

Very high density materials are used for such applications as counterweights and radiation shields. This article focuses on the metallurgy, processing, properties, fabrication, design considerations, health and safety considerations, and applications of the most commonly used very high density materials: depleted uranium and tungsten and their alloys.

This article discusses the three characteristics that are important in evaluating and selecting metals for thread rolling, namely, rollability, flaking, and seaming. It reviews the capabilities and limitations of flat-die rolling, radial-infeed rolling, tangential rolling, through-feed rolling, planetary thread rolling, continuous rolling, and internal thread rolling, as well as the rolling machines and dies used. The article describes the factors affecting die life and provides information on radial die load, seam formation, surface finish, and thread dimensions that are affected by the form of the thread. It explains the reasons for using fluids in thread rolling. The article concludes with a comparison of rolling with cutting and grinding.

Heat treatment of depleted uranium (DU) alloys with 4.0 wt% or more molybdenum or equivalent is similar to that of dilute alloys. This article discusses the metallurgical characteristics and processing considerations of DU and its alloys, and describes the control of grain size and orientation using beta treatment. It lists the typical mechanical properties of DU as functions of the amount of cold work and hardness data of uranium rod, and describes the annealing of cold-worked DU. The article also describes the heat treatment of dilute alloys of DU, focusing on the three basic furnace designs used for heating or heat treating of unalloyed uranium: molten salt baths, inert-atmosphere furnaces, and vacuum furnaces. Finally, it presents procedures that are examples of heat treatment used to meet certain specifications of ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation.

This article describes various procedures used in the metallographic preparation of niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, and tungsten alloys. It provides information on sectioning, grinding, mounting, polishing, and electrolytic etching as well as alternate procedures that have been used on refractory metals. The article presents and analyzes several micrographs, provides etchant formulas for various materials, and discusses the unique characteristics of rhenium and its alloys.

This article describes the effect of temperature, composition, strain rate, and fabrication history on the results obtained in the forming of beryllium as well as the safety measures required. It provides information on the equipment, tooling, dies, and workpieces used for forming beryllium. The article discusses the role of lubrication, blank development, tool designs, and strain rates, in deep drawing. It also provides information on the tooling and applications of three-roll bending, stretch forming, and spinning.

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.

Cold heading is typically a high-speed process where a blank is progressively moved through a multi-station machine. This article discusses various cold heading process parameters, such as upset length ratio, upset diameter ratio, upset strain, and process sequence design. It describes the various components of a cold-heading machine and the tools used in the cold heading process. These include headers, transfer headers, bolt makers, nut formers, and parts formers. The article explains the operations required for preparing stock for cold heading, including heat treating, drawing to size, machining, descaling, cutting to length, and lubricating. It lists the advantages of the cold heading over machining. Materials selection criteria for dies and punches in cold heading are also described. The article provides examples that demonstrate tolerance capabilities and show dimensional variations obtained in production runs of specific cold-headed products. It concludes with a discussion on the applications of warm heading.

This article discusses the principles of physical metallurgy and metallography of depleted uranium. It describes the techniques involved in the preparation of thin foils for transmission electron microscopy and illustrates the resulting microstructure of uranium and uranium alloys, with the aid of black and white images. The article also provides information on the applications of etching and examination of uranium alloys, at both macro and micro scales, in characterizing the grain structures, segregation patterns, inclusions, and the metal flow geometries produced by solidification and mechanical working processes.

This article discusses the bulk formability or workability of steels. It describes their formability characteristics and presents procedures for various formability tests used for carbon and alloy steels. Tests for bulk formability can be divided into two main categories: primary tests and specialized tests. The article compares the processing of microalloyed plate and bar products. The article focuses on the use of torsion testing to evaluate the forgeability of carbon and alloy steels and presents information on measuring flow stress. The article discusses the metallurgy and thermomechanical processing of high-strength low-alloy (microalloyed) steels and the various parts of the rolling operation. The article summarizes some of the common tests for determining formability in open-die and closed-die forgings.

This article introduces the basic characteristics, processes, and product forms associated with the five major categories of aluminum wrought products, namely, flat-rolled products (sheet, plate, and foil); rod, bar, and wire; tubular products; profiles; and forgings. It summarizes the various product forms in which commonly used wrought aluminum alloys are available. The article also provides design guidelines for aluminum extrusions and discusses various forming methods.

This article describes the roll forming of components of nickel, titanium, and aluminum alloys. The metallurgical characteristics of the roll formed components, such as macrostructures, microstructures, tensile strength, and stress rupture performance, are discussed. The article compares the resulting properties of roll formed and conventionally forged components.

This article discusses the selection of types of stainless steel for various methods of forming based on the formability and on the power required for forming. It reviews the requirements of lubrication, blanking, and piercing. The article describes various forming methods, namely, press-brake forming, press forming, multiple-slide forming, deep drawing, spinning, rubber-pad forming, drop hammer forming¸ three-roll forming, contour roll forming, stretch forming, and bending of tubing.

Sheet forming comprises deformation processes in which a metal blank is shaped by tools or dies, primarily under the action of tensile stresses. This article discusses the classification of sheet-forming processes for obtaining desired dimensional features. It describes different process-related developments, namely, superplastic forming of aluminum, forming of tailor-welded blanks, rubber-pad forming, and high-velocity metal forming. The article explains cost-effective approaches of evaluating tooling designs prior to the manufacture of expensive steel dies and dieless forming techniques such as thermal forming and peen forming. It provides information on the application of advanced high-strength steels, magnesium alloys, and various ultrafine-grain materials for superplastic sheet forming. The article concludes with information on the development and application of simulation, design, and control of sheet-forming processes.