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Selectively Annealing Metal Panels
Mysteries of Science |
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A large metalworking factory was making interior door trim panels for the new Lincoln. The perimeter of the panel needed to be raised by a metal bead, formed by pressing the sheet in a hydraulic press using a patterned set of embossing plates. However, forming the raised bead stretched the metal too much, causing cracking.Using a softer grade of aluminum worked, but now the product was too easily dented. Different levels of annealing were tried.But when the bead formed well, the aluminum was too soft. One solution was to anneal the metal where you are going to form the bead, and leave the rest at hard temper. But there was no such thing as selectively annealed aluminum. How did the company find a balance between preventing cracking and maintaining an aluminum that can withstand dents? Here's the rest of the story. An engineer marked a portion of an aluminum sheet generously with a black marker. Then he ran the sheet through a radiant heater. The black area absorbed heat and annealed the aluminum, while the shiny areas reflected the heat energy and didn't get hot enough to change the structure. |
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