Thermally treated metallic materials and related methods

Abstract

A thermally treated metal sheet or article as well as processes and systems for making the thermally treated sheet or article is provided. The process comprises heating and/or cooling the metal sheet by non contact thermal conduction for sufficiently long to provide a desired microstructure and mechanical properties. The process results in thermally treated metal sheets.

1 . A process for thermally treating metallic materials comprising:
 heating and/or cooling a metallic article, the article supported with gas during the heating and/or cooling;   wherein the article is heated by transferring thermal energy from a heat source to the article across a heating gap between the heat source and the article such that more than 20% of the thermal energy leaving the heat source crosses the heating gap and is received by the article;   wherein the article is cooled by transferring thermal energy from the article to a heat sink across a cooling gap between the article and the heat sink such that more than 20% of the thermal energy leaving the article crosses the cooling gap and is received by the heat sink.   
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein more than 50% of the thermal energy leaving the heat source or the article crosses the heating gap or the cooling gap, respectively, and is received by the article or the heat sink, respectively. 
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 2 , wherein the heating gap or the cooling gap has an average thickness between an outer surface of the heat source and an adjacent surface of the article or the adjacent surface of the article and an outer surface of the heat sink that is less than about 10 mm, 5 mm, 2 mm 1 mm, 800 μm, 600 μm, 400 μm, or 200 μm. 
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 3 , wherein a heat transfer rate from the heat source to the article during heating or from the article to the heat sink during cooling is greater than about 50 kW/m 2 , 100 kW/m 2 , 150 kW/m 2 , 200 kW/m 2 , 250 kW/m 2 , 300 kW/m 2 , 350 kW/m 2 , 450 kW/m 2 , 550 kW/m 2 , 650 kW/m 2 , 750 kW/m 2 , 1000 kW/m 2 , or 1200 kW/m 2  for the area of the outer surface of the heat source or for the area of the outer surface of the article, respectively. 
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 4 , wherein the article is a sheet having a length, a width and a thickness, wherein the thickness is greater than about 0.1 mm and less than 2 mm, and at least one of the width and the length are greater than 5 times the thickness. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 4 , wherein the heating gap or cooling gap is a gas gap with a gap area, wherein a total flow rate of gas into the gas gap is greater than zero and less than 2 k/gCp per square meter of gap area, where k is the thermal conductivity of a gas within the gas gap evaluated in the direction of heat conduction, g is the distance between the heated article and the heat sink surface, and Cp is the specific heat capacity of the gas within the gas gap. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 4 , wherein the metallic material is selected from the group consisting of a polycrystalline metallic material, a single crystal metallic material and a metallic glass material. 
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 4 , wherein the metallic material is a polycrystalline metallic material selected from the group consisting of a pure metal and an alloy. 
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 4  any of  claims 1   8 , wherein the polycrystalline metallic material is the alloy selected from the group consisting of an aluminum alloy, a copper alloy, an iron alloy and a nickel alloy. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the alloy is an aluminum alloy that is heated by the heat source and heating of the aluminum alloy results in precipitation strengthening of the article. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a cold worked aluminum alloy that is heated by the heat source, wherein a microstructure of the heated cold work aluminum alloy undergoes recrystallization. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a copper alloy that is heated by the heat source and heating of the copper alloy results in precipitation strengthening of the article. 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a cold worked copper alloy that is heated by the heat source, wherein a microstructure of the heated cold work copper alloy undergoes recrystallization. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a cold worked iron alloy that is heated by the heat source, wherein a microstructure of the heated cold worked iron alloy undergoes recrystallization. 
     
     
         15 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is an iron alloy that is heated by the heat source to an annealing temperature and cooled by the heat sink at a cooling rate that provides a microstructure with a desired amount of pearlite. 
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is an iron alloy that is heated by the heat source to an appropriate austenizing temperature for the iron alloy and cooled by the heat sink at a cooling rate that provides a microstructure with a desired amount of bainite and/or martensite. 
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 16 , wherein the cooling rate provides a microstructure with no pearlite. 
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a cold worked nickel alloy that is heated by the heat source for recrystallization of the article and cooled by the heat sink for controlled grain growth of the article after recrystallization. 
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a nickel alloy that is heated by the heat source to an appropriate aging treatment temperature that provides precipitation strengthening of the article via precipitation of at least one of gamma prime precipitates, carbide precipitates, nitride precipitates and carbonitride precipitates. 
     
     
         20 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the metallic material is a metallic glass that is heated such that a surface region of the article is recrystallized and an inner region is not recrystallized. 
     
     
         21 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the heating occurs in a heating zone configured to chemically alter a surface region of the article. 
     
     
         22 . The process of  claim 21 , wherein the heating zone is configured to provide chromizing, carburizing, boriding, nitriding, aluminizing, silicon izing, and combinations thereof, to the surface region of the article. 
     
     
         23 . A process for thermally treating metallic materials comprising:
 heating and/or cooling a metallic material article, the article supported with gas during the heating and/or cooling;   wherein the article is heated by transferring thermal energy from a heat source to the article across a heating gap between the heat source and the article such that at least 50% of the thermal energy leaving the heat source crosses the heating gap and is received by the article;   wherein the article is cooled by transferring thermal energy from the article to a heat sink across a cooling gap between the article and the heat sink such that at least 50% of the thermal energy leaving the article crosses the cooling gap and is received by the heat sink;   wherein the heating gap or the cooling gap has an average thickness between an outer surface of the heat source and an adjacent surface of the article or the article and an outer surface of the heat sink that is less than about 10 mm;   wherein a heat transfer rate from the heat source to the article during heating or from the article to the heat sink during cooling is greater than about 1000 kW/m 2 .   
     
     
         24 . A thermally treated metallic material article comprising:
 an article made from a metallic material selected from the group consisting of an Al-base alloy, a Cu-base alloy, a Ni-base alloy, an Fe-base alloy and a Ti alloy;   the metallic material article having a microstructure as a result of heating and/or cooling the metallic material while the metallic material article is supported with a gas during the heating and/or cooling;   the metallic material article heated by transferring thermal energy from a heat source to the metallic material article across a heating gap between the heat source and the metallic material article such that more than 20% of the thermal energy leaving the heat source crosses the heating gap and is received by the metallic material article;   the metallic material article cooled by transferring thermal energy from the metallic material article to a heat sink across a cooling gap between the metallic material article and the heat sink such that more than 20% of the thermal energy leaving the metallic material article crosses the cooling gap and is received by the heat sink;   the microstructure selected from the group consisting of a solid-solution strengthened microstructure, a precipitation strengthened microstructure, a ferrite plus pearlite microstructure, a ferrite plus bainite and/or martensite microstructure, a ferrite plus retained austenite microstructure and a ferrite with no pearlite microstructure.   
     
     
         25 . The thermally treated metallic material article of  claim 24 , wherein the article is made from an Fe-base alloy with a ferrite plus martensite microstructure with less than 6 vol % bainite and has a tensile strength of at least 590 MPa, a yield strength of at least 330 MPa and a total elongation to failure of at least 18%. 
     
     
         26 . The thermally treated metallic material article of  claim 24 , wherein the article is made from an Al-base alloy with an age hardened microstructure and an average room temperature tensile strength of 45,000 psi, an average room temperature yield strength of 40,000 psi, and an average room temperature elongation to failure of 12%. 
     
     
         27 . The thermally treated metallic material article of  claim 24 , wherein the article is made from an Ni-base alloy with an age hardened microstructure and has an average room temperature tensile strength of 1335 MPa, an average room temperature yield strength of 910 MPa, and an average room temperature elongation to failure of 26.6%.