Metallurgical states

The processes for hardening a metal

1. The first is to mix one or more other elements, generally metallic, into the starting metal to make alloys.

‍2. The second way, whether the metal is pure or whether it is an alloy, is to work it out by cold deforming it. This is true for all metals and alloys of any kind. The more a metal is deformed, the more it hardens, until it breaks. When a metal is deformed and therefore “hard”, it no longer has its “flexibility”, its capacity to deform. To restore its “flexibility”, to “soften” it, simply heat it up and anneal it in an oven. The metal or alloy is then in its “softest” state, the annealed state.

When annealed metal is deformed under cold conditions, it crumbles, all the more so as the amount of deformation and the quantity of work hardening is greater, until it is no longer possible to deform it. Between these two states, there are several intermediate nut states.