Heat Treatment of Aluminum and Aluminum Alloy

Heat treatments are used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or cooling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result such as hardening or softening of a material.

Figure 1. NUTEC Bickley Drop Bottom Furnace for Aluminum Heat Treatment

The general types of heat treatments applied to aluminum and its alloys are: homogenizing, to improve their workability; Annealing, to soften heat treated alloy structures, to relieve stresses, and to stabilize properties; Solution heat treatments, to improve mechanical properties; Aging, natural or artificial, for strengthening heat treatment of aluminum alloys.

Aluminium heat treating are precision processes. They must be carried out in ovens/furnaces properly designed and built to provide the thermal conditions and temperature uniformity required. To insure the final desired characteristics, process details must be established and controlled carefully for each type of product.

Those treatments are often ruled by specifications related to different industries as:

• AMS 2770, 2771, 2772 (Aerospace)
• AMS 2750 (Aerospace Pyrometry)
• ASTM B917, B918 (General purpose)
• CQI-9 (Automotive)