Metallurgy is the manufacture of metallic components used in engineering or consumer products. It involves the fabrication of alloys, the formation, the treatment of heat and surface treatment of the item for consumption. Metallurgy is very common in production engineering. The primary task of a metallurgist is to attain stability between properties of materials like cost, strength, weight, hardness, corrosion, toughness, fatigue resistance and performance in extreme heat. To attain this aim, the working environment should be considered carefully. Ferrous metals and a few aluminum alloys rust rapidly in saltwater location.

Metals uncovered to cryogenic or cold conditions might suffer ductile to breakable transition and may lose their hardiness and become more breakable and inclined to cracking. Metals under continuous stress at high temperatures may creep. They can also endure metal fatigue if they under constant cyclic loading.

Metalworking processes

Metals are formed by means of processes like casting, rolling, gorging, extrusion, flow forming, sintering, machining, fabrication and metal working. With casting, liquefied metal is transferred into a formed mould. Forging is the process wherein the warm billet is being hammered into form. In rolling, the billet is passed consecutively through narrower rollers in order to make a sheet. With extrusion, the hot and soft metals are enforced under pressure to form before they cool. Sintering is the process wherein a pulverized metal is being heated in an environment which is not oxidized after compacted in a die. With machining, milling machine, lathes and drills slice the chilly metal to form. Fabrication is the process wherein the pieces of metal are sliced with gas cutters or guillotines and curved into shape.

Cold working procedure, where the shape of the product is changed by means of rolling, manufacture or other procedures while the item is cold, may improve the power of the manufactured goods by the procedure known as work hardening. The process of work hardening produces tiny defects within the metal that resist additional changes in shape.

Heat treatment

Metals may be treated with heat in order to change the properties of potency, toughness, ductility, stiffness or resistance to oxidization. Regular heat treatment procedures include precipitation strengthening, annealing, tempering and quenching. The annealing procedures soften the metals by permitting recovery of chilly work and growth of grain. Tempering may cause the liquefied alloying components to precipitate, or develop impact power and flexible property in case of slaked steels. Quenching is the process used in hardening alloy steels, to trap liquefied solute atoms which are in solution forms.

Regularly, thermal and mechanical treatments are merged known as thermo–mechanical treatments intended for superior assets and more proficient dispensation of materials. These procedures are commonly used in high alloy exceptional steels, excellent alloys and also titanium alloys.

Welding inspector is a part of QA/QC that involve in the welding work. He is responsible for doing inspection before, during and after welding. Starting from inspection of material receiving till the part completely welded.

To become a certified inspector, you need to pass some requirement. You need to have some years hands–on experience while working then taking a certification, or if you have higher level education that related to metallurgy then after 1~3 years experience in welding you can take the course + international certification such as CSWIP 3.1 (Certification Scheme for Welding Inspection Personnel 3.1) or CWI (Certified Welding inspector.

Your certification achievement status to one of the international certification bodies above signals a degree of professionalism and commitment that you are take seriously in welding inspector profession and typically will reward you with higher wages.

How to become a professional welding inspector?

• You need to have high school education at least and have 7 years experience and QA/QC of welding. Completion of your diploma or university that related to metallurgy or material education drastically reduces the amount of time you need to spend for professional experience.
• Find a vocational institute or training organizer that offers CSWIP training or CWI training. Enroll for the training and certification.
• For the certification purpose, you have to pass some papers with requirement: average score 80 and minimum score for individual paper is 70. Base on the experience, average passing rate is between 0~30%, means if there are 10 people attending the certification, the people that pass between 0~3 people only.
• You need to get expose in welding inspection activities, and all your experience after getting certification will be recorded for next renewal welding inspector certification purpose.

Professional welding inspector job is a quite nice profession with very high pay in the oil gas & its services industries. Many oil companies require CSWIP and CWI certification in their requirement and also insist the subcontractor to get his welding inspector [http://www.oilgasrigs.info] certified to one of the 2 certification bodies.

Strength of materials is one of the reasons that engineers have been able to build things higher, further, stronger, and able to withstand the incredible pressures of the deep ocean or internal pressures of space craft relative to their environment. For most of the last century it was all about metallurgy and the advances in the United States in metallurgy and material sciences blew the doors off the rest of the world.

Indeed, I've been very impressed with some of the work from a gentleman in OH with regards to hardening and quickly cooling for metals for super strength, specifically his awesome work in Titanium and exotic metals, it's something the US excels in and indeed. I wonder if the Chinese with their steel pipe may not be manufacturing their iron ore (less pure to begin with) when making pipe. You know this very much matters when drilling a mile–beneath the water, what 70,000 psi?

Well, it all matters when dealing with those types of pressures, your research is phenomenal and so important for the world. Have you kept up with the new materials and exotic alloys? I've been worried about all the Rare Earth Elements and the Chinese strangle hold on those, it could affect our militaries ability to manufacture equipment that can withstand the next generation of dreams to push the envelope! It's critical in my opinion.

Still, we are entering a new era, as in the last part of the last century we had done incredible things with plastics, composites and then nano–science. Today, we have not only incredible exotic metallic alloy blends, an extension of our uncanny ability to advance our theories in metallurgy, but we also have carbon nano–tubes, carbon nano–sheets, and graphene coatings. We've come a long way, but things are really starting to heat up, not only on the edge of our atmosphere, where we meet space, but also in the labs of the top material science facilities.

We are learning more and more each year about chemistry, nano–science, and particle physics – sometimes it seems there is no bounds to what we can build, we only need the innovative creative geniuses to ask the question and the rocket scientists and material scientists to make it happen. As we move into this future, we can expect cars that weigh under 500 lbs, and easily get 100 plus miles to the gallon. We will be able to build cities under the ocean, or colonies in space. It's time to boldly go!

Lance Winslow