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Factors affecting materials properties:

The following are the more important factors which can be influence the
properties and performance of engineering materials
1. Heat treatment
This is the controlled heating and cooling of metals to change their
properties to improve their performance or to facilitate processing.
An example of heat treatment is the hardening of a piece of highcarbon steel
rod. If it is heated to dull red heat and plunged into cold water to cool it
rapidly (quenching), it will become hard and brittle. If it is again heated to
dull red heat but allowed to cold very slowly it will become softer and less
brittle (more tough). In this condition it is said to be annealed.
After the heat treatment happened on the material it will be in its best
condition for flow forming, during flow forming (working) the grains will be
distorted and this will result in most metals becoming work hardened if flow
formed at room temperature. To remove any locked in stresses resulting from
the forming operations and to prepare the material for machining, the
material has to be normalized
2. Processing

HOT WORKING COLD WORKING


Hot working is carried out above the
Cold working is carried out below
recrystallization temperature and
the recrystallization temperature. As
below the melting point. Hence the
such, there is no appreciable
deformation of metal and recovery
recovery.
take place simultaneously.
No internal or residual stresses are In cold working process internal or
set-up in the metal in hot working residual stresses are set-up in the
process. metal.
If cracks and blow boles are present In cold working the existing cracks
in the metal, they can be finished propagate and new cracks may
through hot working. develop.

Close tolerance cannot be Better tolerance can be easily


maintained. maintained.

Surface finish of hot working process Surface finish of cold working


is comparatively not good. process is better.
It results in improvements of It also results in improvements of
properties like impact strength and properties like impact strength and
elongation. elongation.
If hot working process is performed
It improves ultimate tensile
properly, it does not affect ultimate
strength, hardness, yield strength
tensile strength, hardness, corrosion
but reduces the corrosion resistance
resistance yield strength and fatigue
of strength of the metal.
strength of the metal.
Due to recrystallization very Since cold working is done below
negligible hardening of metal takes recrystallization temperature the
place. metal gets work hardened.
Hot working refines metal grains
Most of the cold working processes
resulting in in improved mechanical
lead to distortion of grains.
properties.
Due to higher deformation
The stress required to cause
temperatures, the stress required for
deformation is much higher.
deformation is much less.

Hot working refers to processes where metals are plastically


deformed above their recrystallization temperature.
o Example of Hot Working Processes:
Rolling
Extrusion
Forging
Drawing
Cold Working refers to process which is characterized by shaping the
work piece below its recrystallization temperature, usually at ambient
temperature.
o Example of Cold Working Processes:
Squeezing
Bending
Shearing
Rolling
Drawing
3. Environmental reactions
The properties of materials can also be effected by reaction with
environment (sometimes chemical reactions) in which they are used. For
example:
Rusting of steel
Unless steel structures are regularly maintained by rust neutralization
and painting process, resting will occur. The rust will eat into the steel,
reduce its thickness and, therefore, its strength. In extreme cases an
entire structure made from steel may be eaten away. Steel has only
iron while rust contains iron oxide which is the chemical reaction of iron
and oxygen.

Dezincification of brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and when brass is exposed to a
marine environment for a long time, the salt in the sea water pray
react with the zinc content of the brass so as remove it and leave it
behind on spongy, porous mass of copper. This obviously weakness
the material which fails under normal working conditions.

Degradation of plastic
Many plastics degrade and become weak and brittle when exposed to
the ultraviolet content of sunlight. Special dyestuffs have to be
incorporated into the plastic to filter out these harmful rays.

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