Our company has become one of the UK’s leaders in tubing manipulation. One of the many techniques we use is that of tube ring rolling. Using it, we bend straight tubes into curves, spirals, or full rings. This allows users to create spiral staircases, heating components, and also large steel rings.
One process people use on the metals for tubing is that of metal aging. This is one of the most common methods of changing an alloy’s characteristics. Several metals suffer with changing attributes because of work hardening or heating and quenching. However, there are those alloys formulated specifically for aging. This is capable of transforming the aesthetic and physical qualities of alloys. It can therefore provide them with features that differ from their base forms.
How does this process work?
The actual process of metal aging is what you use on solution heat-treated alloys. You can let this happen naturally or do it artificially. Natural aging happens during the alloy’s life. In the natural operation, super saturated alloying components inside the alloy form metal precipitates. This enhances the hardness and strength of the alloy. At the same time, it lowers its ductility.
Artificial aging
As for this, you use it to speed up the development of precipitates. This is within a solution heat-treated metallic alloy to a speed that is much quicker than natural aging.
You perform artificial aging by increasing the solution heat-treated metal alloy’s temperature. It needs to be to a point below its recrystallization temperature. However, it must be high enough that you can speed up the precipitate creation.
Eventually, the alloying element precipitates will become the right size. After this occurs, you cool the metal alloy swiftly to stop the precipitates from changing any more.
It is possible to age several metal alloys to change their physical properties. This is as long as they are solution heat-treatable. Examples of metals you can age include aluminium, stainless steel, and copper alloys. Others would be magnesium, nickel, and titanium. If you require the best tube ring rolling money can buy, please let us know.
Overaging
One thing you must be careful of here is overaging. This happens when your precipitates change size because of an aging procedure done past the stage of it being advantageous. Usually, this leads to a loss of hardness and strength.
There are two common ways in which this occurs. They are by cold working or welding a metal. You must take care to figure out if you need to artificially age a heat-treatable metal a second time so it has the right properties.
Contact us for tube ring rolling
At Multiform Tubes, we use ring rolling to provide constant curves in many types of tube. This is the case even with the most robust of tubing. We also make certain that we don’t cause any flat spots on the tubes.
If you would like to do business with us, feel free to get in touch. We are happy to speak to you about tube ring rolling as well as the products we can create for you. Whatever application you have in mind, you can rely on us.