Physical Metallurgists

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Mechanical Engineers.

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The engineer typifies the twentieth century. He is making a vast contribution in design, engineering and promotion. In the organization and direction of large-scale enterprises we need his analytical frame of mind. We need his imagination.

He is either designing the product itself or inventing new products or testing the product, its components, and the materials in it; or analyzing its performance and making a mathematical analysis.

He may be engaged in the development of the new product, making drawings and specifications.

He may be concerning himself with the development of a new production process, or the adaptation of a current process to a new product.

He may be utilizing his engineering know-how in determining the best processes and equipment for the mass production of high-quality products.

He may be the project engineer in charge of the design and installation of a highly automatic conveyer system for handling different kinds of pans between various assembly stations.

He may be working on designing and developing tools, dies, jigs, assembly fixtures and welding fixtures for the production of an automotive body.

In the 20th century, the engineer had at his command many new sources of power. He worked hard to develop better materials, especially new alloys for special purposes. He wanted to make machinery automatic.

Simulation versus calculation

Calculation is the common method to analyze production rates. An idealized model of the plant, consisting of a number of its individual components, is first created. In the rolling mill, these components are the furnace, rolling stands, cooling bed, etc. Following the creation of the model, the production rate of each individual component is calculated for each product. The component with the lowest throughput becomes the bottleneck and determines the throughput of the entire mill by product.

Simulation, in comparison, attempts to reflect the exact behavior of the mill for any given scenario. A model is created that contains all of the equipment and processes in the mill. Modeling and implementation of the logic and rules are the tasks to be performed in this approach.

Simulation is replacing calculation for the analysis of minimill production and operations for many reasons including:

Limitations of calculation approach - The drawback of this method is that the mill components are considered independently, and an idealized model does not represent all of the important details and interactions of the real mill.

Reliability of results - simulation results are more reliable than calculation results due to logical approach of the method. Simulation results have greater accuracy and therefore are economically more efficient.

Physical metallurgists are responsible for developing new aluminium alloys that reduce weight and improve the fuel efficiency of aircraft, automobile steel that offer excellent properties without expensive heat treatments, and nickel superalloys that operate safely at high temperatures. The physical metallurgists, studies the behavior of metals and their alloys, in order to characterize their internal structure, or microstructure; to understand how the microstructure influences the properties or the metal and to develop new and improved alloys. The physical metallurgist often uses sophisticated instruments to understand the structure and properties of metals. With the electron microscopes, the physical metallurgist can directly observe very tiny features of the microstructure and learn how these features
influence the metal's behavior. With such instruments even the arrangement of individual atoms in the metal can be observed.

The physical metallurgist develops strengthening mechanisms based on the micro-structural features in the metal. Strength can be increased by controlling the atomic structure in the metal, deforming the metal, or adding alloys. Heat treatment of alloyed metal can often significantly improve us strength. In a number of metal systems, heat treatments can produce complicated microstructures that prevent even very large cracks from growing. These metals may allow airplanes to safely operate with small cracks until the cracks are discovered and repaired.

Дата добавления: 2015-03-29