Cold-forming metallurgy

Metallurgy is one of the components of the multidisciplinary field known as Materials Science. Unlike continuum mechanics, which deals with forming problems by considering the material as a "black box" made up of volume elements assumed to be homogeneous, its aim is to study the internal structure of metal, the evolution of this structure during forming, and the relationships between the final structure and the characteristics of use of the resulting product. Although the term "metallurgy" has long been associated with an essentially experimental discipline, it now makes increasing use of mathematical concepts and formalisms derived from solid state physics and chemistry, thermodynamics and mechanics. This latter interaction between metallurgy and mechanics is particularly marked in shaping, to such an extent that, in this field, the old boundary separating them is sometimes very blurred.

Shaping metallurgy is the subject of two articles in the same treatise, dealing respectively with the problems of cold and hot plastic deformation, excluding processes involving material removal (machining) and various types of assembly (welding, bonding, etc.). On the other hand, tribological issues (friction and lubrication, wear) and thermal issues (self-heating, metal-tool heat transfer), of considerable importance in the analysis of most processes, are covered in separate articles [19][20][21] in the "Metallic Materials" database: [M 3 002] at [M 3 005] and [M 3 012]