3. Thermomechanical treatments

3.1 Principle

Thermomechanical processing is designed to take advantage of rolling or forming heat and deformation to achieve a well-defined structural state, and thus interesting and reproducible product properties after cooling. The thermal path depends on the starting temperature, the shape of the products, and any waiting times to take advantage of natural cooling of semi-finished products, or accelerated intermediate or final cooling. The parameters are therefore numerous, and successive-pass deformation schemes would be difficult to implement if Ti or Nb elements did not save time by delaying recrystallization (see § ...