DISPERSION-STRENGTHENED ALUMINIUM ALLOYS

Abstract

When, some fifteen years ago, Irmann made his discovery of the Sintered Aluminium Products of high elevated-temperature strength, subsequently known as S.A.P, its importance was by no means confined to the potentialities of the new material alone; metallurgists became generally conscious of the possibility of strengthening metals with the aid of a finely dispersed, hard, and thermally stable phase. Numerous theoretical and experimental investigations conducted over the past ten years have resulted in a self-consistent theory of dispersionstrengthened materials. This theory has been largely developed at the American Universities and Technical Institutes by such workers as Grant, Lenel, and Goetzel and their associates, and has been summarized in various publications. A short survey of the whole field has recently been published by Palme, while a major contribution by Goetzel deals particularly with the potentialities of the light metals. A paper on the latest developments in the S.A.P. field was recently presented by Bloch and Hug, while Towner has given a summary report on the APM alloys of ALCOA.