Metallurgy of Quenching Aluminum Alloys

Abstract

The present authors have collaborated since 2000 on revitalizing and extending the technology for metallurgical aspects of quenching heat-treatable aluminum alloys, which had been developed by Dr. James T. Staley, Sr. starting with Ref. [] and continued until his retirement from Alcoa three decades later. Our objective in this chapter is a concise and current overview of what came before us and what we have added. For this we have surveyed the open literature as well as Alcoa files going back into the 1940’s, excluding any details that might still be considered proprietary. We suppose our reader to be soundly grounded in metallurgical engineering, but not necessarily with any knowledge specific to aluminum. We have excluded the topic of quench-aging, the combination of quenching and aging into a continuous process, as a substantive survey would be heavy in proprietary concepts and sophisticated metallurgy. We have also excluded thermal and mechanical aspects of quenching aluminum alloys, as well as equipment and quenchants used in fabrication of aluminum products. On these topics much of the information presented elsewhere in this volume, is generally applicable to aluminum. We conclude with our views on what has been established, how to use it, and where to go next with the techniques pioneered by our mutual mentor, Dr. James T. Staley.