1. The role of heat treatment

Before going into detail on the principles of heat treatment of titanium alloys, it would be useful to introduce the plan adopted here, by first considering the objectives sought and, consequently, the different types of treatment envisaged.

At the same time, it is important to situate heat treatments within the range of applications for titanium alloys, and above all their importance in relation to other manufacturing stages, particularly thermomechanical treatments, which are not developed here, but whose influence on microstructures, and therefore on mechanical properties, is considerable.