Metallurgy

Metallurgy is a very ancient manufacturing art, characterized by an empirical tradition, which can rightfully be recognized as a peculiar element of the transition from prehistory to history. In fact, the first metal objects were accompanied by very important cultural and social transformations that made great civilizations flourish. Among the testimonies of the past, a prominent place is occupied by bronze works of unsurpassed artistic value and it is singular how they were the result of refined artisanal techniques and extraordinary intuitions. In the recent past metallurgy has evolved into science, so today it involves different skills and embraces various sectors of interest, such as the extraction of metals from minerals, the production of alloys, the development of thermal and / or mechanical treatments, as well as studies concerning the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties of metals. This text comes from the collection of the lessons of the metallurgy courses, which I have been carrying out for more than twenty years at the University of Messina, with the aim of providing an educational support to students. The first chapter is dedicated to a brief historical introduction and a synthetic presentation of the extractive processes, the following ones are organized in a first part concerning the principles of physical metallurgy (from chapter 2 to 7) and in a second part dealing with metallurgy of steel, cast iron and non-ferrous metals, with attention to heat treatments and mechanical properties (from chapter 8 to 15). Everything was calibrated on the knowledge of the students of the last years of the degree courses in Engineering, in order to support and motivate them in their encounter with metallurgy, stimulating the interest and the ambition to grow in this field. At the same time, graphs, tables and metallographic images represent a useful database for young people entering the world of research.