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Book Review: Aluminium-Rolling (Process, Principles & Applications)
12-26-02
Publisher: TMS
Flat rolled aluminum products represent roughly half of the US industry shipments of metal, and so an understanding of the rolling process is of commercial as well as technical importance. The recent book Aluminium-Rolling (Process, Principles & Applications) by R. V. Singh seeks to fill a perceived gap in published information available which addresses both the theory and practice of aluminum rolling in a comprehensive manner. In fact, it takes a much broader view, covering the entire production process from ore to finished sheet, plate, or foil product, somewhat at the expense of depth in the specific aspects of some of the key rolling technology elements.
The author's objective in writing this book, as captured in the Introduction, is to provide a technical basis for industrial professionals, professional institutions, and university students to address and solve problems in the rolling field. No "ready-to-use" practices are proposed but rather a framework and introduction. The author has chosen an analytical approach that attempts to hit the middle ground of being neither too complex mathematically nor too elementary, although certain sections are clearly heavy on theory and mathematical derivation, while others are quite high-level in nature. The flow of the book is from a process chronology perspective, with the core rolling chapters embedded in the middle. Hence, in some respects, the book title actually reflects a narrower focus than is actually the case, since the rolling section comprises only roughly one-third of the book's 445 pages.
The first major section of the book comprising two chapters provides the compulsory review of the history of aluminum, its extraction, elementary metallurgy, and discussion of the alloy and temper designation systems. Tables providing examples of alloys and their properties with a materials selection orientation are included.
The second section addresses molten metal processing in Chapter 3 and various casting operations in Chapter 4. The molten metal processing chapter has major subtopics in the areas of melting and holding furnaces, degassing and impurity removal, grain refining, and molten metal stirring. The casting operations chapter deals not only with DC and EMC casting but also covers the various forms of slab/strip/roll casting as well as the scalping process. While not covered in any great depth, the information in these chapters provides a concise summary of terminology and some commercial systems in use.
Chapters 5-9 address various facets of the rolling process. Chapter 5 is intended to provide an overview of rolling processes, including both hot and cold rolling. Discussion of the equipment used in rolling as well as control and other issues are introduced. This chapter is useful in presenting the common terminology used in rolling-related processes and in providing a lead in to the subsequent chapters. Chapter 6 delves into the theory of rolling from a fairly fundamental standpoint, dealing with areas such as flow of material, the geometrical aspects of rolling, and rolling loads and pressures. It is quite mathematical in content, and will be of primary interest to researchers and modelers. The topic area of shape control in rolling is covered in some depth in Chapter 7. Based on the emphasis here, as well as in a subsequent appendix, this appears to be one of the author's areas of specific expertise and interest. Issues of thickness, profile, and shape are addressed. Detailed discussion of gauge control systems and strategies is provided. The chapter concludes with discussion of recent developments and concepts of future optimization of cold rolling mills. Chapter 8 treats the area of rolling lubricants from primarily a chemist's perspective, describing the typical formulations, along with the properties of the lubricants. A seemingly peripheral topic of rolls is addressed in Chapter 9, which covers the metallurgy of rolls along with grinding and maintenance issues. While important to the plant operator, this topic seems out of place in a book focused on theory and practice of aluminum rolling.
A wide-ranging chapter on finishing processes follows the section on rolling. The finishing processes considered are annealing, tension leveling, slitting, cut-to-length, and a variety of other operations such as forming, anodizing, plating and painting, and finally surface inspection. Again, while none of these processes is covered in enough detail to satisfy the expert, there is value in a comprehensive listing of processes and terminology.
The book concludes with a catch-all chapter aptly titled "Utility Appendices" These includes a dictionary of terms and definitions, which defines some important terms but is sparse compared to the more complete listings in each individual chapter. Further discussion of thickness gauges and thickness gauge errors to complement the information in Chapter 7 is contained in this chapter. A potentially useful tabular presentation of process problems, causes, and cures, categorized by the specific sub-process, is included here, and may be useful in a trouble-shooting mode. A complete bibliography and index rounds out the book.
Aluminium-Rolling (Process, Principles & Applications) has been published by TMS, and is available via the TMS web site at www.tms.org. For those with further interest in the area of rolling, the Aluminum Association offers a number of publications in the Sheet and Plate area, including the Proceedings of the International Casting and Rolling Conference, 1999, available from the Aluminum Association Bookstore at www.aluminum.org
Article provided courtesy of The Aluminum Association - www.aluminum.org
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