CONTROLLING THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS.

ALTERING A MATERIALS PROPERTIES ANNEALING: The material is heated strongly and allowed to cool slowly. Annealing is also called hot working.

Annealing improves the ductility of the material. The material is more malleable, less brittle and less likely to undergo failure when worked.

QUENCHING

The material is heated strongly and then cooled quickly. Quenching hardens steel and makes it very brittle. TEMPERING
Quench hardened steel is immediately reheated during tempering Tempering softens the steel slightly and makes it less brittle.

COLD WORKING
Steel bars are stretched to just before it fractures. The load is removed gradually.

Cold working increases the fracture stress (the tensile stress required to break the bar).
It reduces the plastic deformation of the bar.

ALLOYS
An alloy is a combination of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal, to make a metallic material that is more useful than those of the original components.

Examples of alloys:
Steel iron and carbon

Stainless steel steel, chromium and nickel

Tool steel steel and tungsten

Alnico aluminium, nickel and cobalt (a very strong magnet) Nichrome iron, nickel and chromium (used in taster elements) Brass copper and zinc Bronze copper and tin Constantan copper and nickel (resistance wire)

Pewter tin, lead and copper

Solder lead and tin