Chapter 10

Working with Metals

Working with metals involves understanding the limits of their mechanical
properties. Several aspects of these properties can be used to get the best
results from the metal. There cannot be a limit of what to and how much
information to know about any given material. As they can be in very
different environmental conditions, demanding that the impact of the envi-
ronment on the metal must be studied in order to determine which properties
of the material would be affected.
It is pertinent that a combination of knowledge, including knowledge of the
material’s mechanical properties and its corrosion behavior in the specific
service environment, must be developed for proper selection of material for
any project. Some of the mechanical properties that have significant impact on
the workability of the material are discussed in this chapter.

ELASTIC LIMIT
When a material is stressed below its elastic limit, the resulting deformation or
strain is temporary. Removal of an elastic stress allows the object to return to
its original dimensions. When a material is stressed beyond its elastic limit,
plastic or permanent deformation takes place, and it will not return to its
original dimensions when the stress is removed. All shaping operations such as
stamping, pressing, spinning, rolling, forging, drawing, and extruding involve
plastic deformation. Pressure testing, with few exceptions, is done within the
elastic limits of the material.

PLASTIC DEFORMATION
Plastic deformation may occur by slip, twinning, or a combination of slip and
twinning. Slip occurs when a crystal is stressed in tension beyond its elastic
limit. It elongates slightly, and a step appears on the surface, indicating
displacement of one part of the crystal. Increasing the load will cause
movement on a parallel plane, resulting in another step. Each successive
elongation requires a higher stress and results in the appearance of another
step. A progressive increase of the load eventually causes the material to
fracture.

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100 SECTION j 1 Introduction to Basic Metallurgy

Twinning is a movement of planes of atoms so that the lattice is divided

into two symmetrical parts that are differently oriented. Deformation twins are
most prevalent in close-packed hexagonal metals such as magnesium and zinc
and body-centered cubic metals such as tungsten and a iron. Annealing twins
can occur as a result of reheating previously worked face-centered cubic
metals such as aluminum and copper.

FRACTURE
Fracture is the separation of a body under stress into two or more parts. Brittle
fracture involves rapid propagation of a crack with minimal energy absorption
and plastic deformation. It occurs by cleavage along particular crystallo-
graphic planes and shows a granular appearance.
Ductile fracture occurs after considerable plastic deformation before fail-
ure. Fracture begins by the formation of cavities at nonmetallic inclusions.
Under continued applied stress, the cavities coalesce to form a crack. This
process is seen as micro-void coalescence on the fracture surface.

POLYCRYSTALLINE MATERIAL
Commercial materials are made up of polycrystalline grains whose crystal
axes are oriented at random. Therefore, depending on their orientation to the
applied stress, the deformation processes occur differently in the grains.
A fine-grained material in which the grains are randomly oriented will
possess identical properties in all directions and is called isotropic.
A metal with controlled grain orientation has directional properties
(anisotropic), which may be either troublesome or advantageous, depending on
the direction of loading.
When a crystal deforms, there is distortion of the lattice that increases with
increasing deformation. As a result, there is an increase in resistance to further
deformation known as strain hardening or work hardening.

COLD WORKING
A material is considered to be cold worked when its grains are in a distorted
condition after plastic deformation is completed. All of the properties of a
metal that are dependent on the lattice structure are affected by plastic
deformation.
By cold working, the tensile strength, yield strength, and hardness of the
material are increased. Hardness increases most rapidly in the first 10%
reduction by cold work, and tensile strength increases linearly; conversely,
most of the ductility is lost because of cold work in the first 10% reduction.
Thereafter, the reduction in ductility is at much slower rate. Yield strength
increases more rapidly than tensile strength. Cold work also reduces electrical
conductivity.
 Working with Metals Chapter j 10 101

STORED ENERGY
Although most of the energy used to cold work metal is dissipated in
heat, a finite amount is stored in the crystal structure as internal energy
associated with the lattice defects created by the deformation. The in-
crease in internal energy is often concentrated in the grain boundaries,
resulting in localized increased susceptibility to energy-driven reactions
such as corrosion.

RESTORING THE LATTICE STRUCTURE OF METAL AFTER

COLD WORK: ANNEALING
Full annealing is the process by which the distorted cold-worked lattice
structure is changed back to one that is strain free through the application of
heat. This is a solid-state process and is usually followed by slow cooling in
the furnace.
Recovery is the first stage of annealing. This is a low-temperature pro-
cess and does not involve significant changes in the microstructure. The
principal effect is relief of internal stresses. Recovery is a time- and
temperature-dependent process. There is little change in mechanical prop-
erties, and the principal application of recovery is stress relief to prevent
stress corrosion cracking or to minimize distortion produced by residual
stresses.
Recrystallization occurs at higher temperatures as minute new crystals
appear in the microstructure. They usually appear in the regions of highest
deformation such as at grain boundaries or slip planes. Recrystallization takes
place by the process of nucleation of strain-free grains and the growth of these
nuclei to absorb the cold-worked material.
Recrystallization temperature refers to the approximate temperature at
which a highly cold-worked material completely recrystallizes in 1 hour. It
may be noted that the greater the amount of deformation, the lower the
recrystallization temperature. Zinc, lead, and tin have recrystallization tem-
peratures below room temperature and so cannot be cold worked.

GRAIN GROWTH
Large grains have lower free energy than small grains because there is less
grain boundary volume. Grain growth is driven by a single crystal’s lowest
energy state. The rigidity of the lattice opposes grain growth.
As temperature is increased, the rigidity of the lattice decreases, and the
rate of grain growth is more rapid. Holding a specimen for a long time in the
grain-growth temperature region (slightly below the melting point) can grow
very large grains. Final recrystallized grain size is controlled by factors that
influence nucleation and growth rate.
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HOT WORKING
When a material is plastically deformed, it tends to become harder. But the
rate of work hardening decreases as the working temperature is increased. Two
opposing effects take placedhardening caused by plastic deformation and
softening caused by recrystallization.
For a given material, there is a temperature at which these two effects
balance. Material worked above this temperature is said to be hot worked, and
material that is worked below this temperature is said to be cold worked.
Whereas lead and tin may be hot worked at room temperature, steel is cold
worked at 538 C (1000 F).
Hot-worked material cannot be manufactured to exact size because of the
dimensional changes that take place during cooling. Cold-worked materials
can be held to close tolerances but require more power for deformation and so
are more expensive to produce.
Normally, by hot working, initial reductions are carried out at an elevated
temperature, and the final reductions are done cold to take advantage of both
processes. The finishing temperature for hot working determines the grain size
available for further cold working. Careful control of these processes is known
as thermomechanical processing.