The ET Foundation is pleased to offer the following educational workshops from aluminum industry organizations, providing a comprehensive learning opportunity. Save time and money by attending one of these valuable, practical seminars as part of your ET ’12 experience.

Save $100 on the registration fee when you register to attend both ET ’12 and one of the courses listed below.  Register early; space is limited.

Courses offered include:

• Aluminum Extruders Council's Extrusion Excellence: Applied Fundamentals for Aluminum Extruders
• Aluminum Anodizers Council’s Anodizing Quality Workshop
• University of Bologna's Process Analysis and Optimization

All courses are offered on Tuesday, May 15, 2012.

$400      Course Only

$300      Course with ET ’12 ($100 savings)

Aluminum Extruders Council's Extrusion Excellence: Applied Fundamentals for Aluminum Extruders

Many people in the aluminum extrusion industry have production experience but have not had formal training in engineering and metallurgy as they pertain to the aluminum extrusion process. 

Why Attend?

You’ll gain a well-rounded education on the fundamentals of the aluminum extrusion process in this intensive one-day course.  The topics taught will enable you to offer your customers better assistance and help you better understand their needs.

This course will help you:

• Better understand engineering fundamentals
• Improve personnel safety
• Increase product quality and extrusion productivity
• Leverage competitiveness through better understanding of process and throughput

Who Should Attend

This course is intended for those involved in the production of aluminum profiles that may not have had any formal training in the engineering and metallurgical aspects of the extrusion process.  The curriculum taught is appropriate for those new to the industry, as well as experienced production personnel, including:

• Extrusion Managers
• Superintendents
• Production Supervisors
• Lead Extrusion Operators
• Die Shop Managers
• Maintenance Managers
• Process Engineers
• Engineering Staff

The Course

This one-day short course will include the basics of the extrusion process from a fundamental engineering approach.  The topics covered will include the extrusion process from billet production through the press to the runout table.

Extrusion Concepts

Get an overview of extrusion processes and the types of products that utilize aluminum profiles.

Aluminum Extrusion Alloys

A number of basic concepts involving aluminum alloys will be covered, including: composition

• Mechanical properties
• Standards
• Quench sensitivity
• Aging practices (natural and artificial)
• Tempers. 

Aluminum Billet Metallurgy

The microstructure development from casting through homogenization will be addressed in layman’s terms but also in enough detail to offer registrants the understanding needed to manufacture a product that meets mechanical property requirements. Other topics include:

• Deformation
• Quenching, and
• Aging.

Extrudability

The factors that control the term “extrudability” and decisions affecting output, quality, and scrap will be covered, including:

• Definitions
• Extrusion limit diagrams
• Differences between soft and hard alloys
• Throughput and productivity, and
• Limiting factors of extrusion.

Metal Flow Analysis

The fundamentals of metal flow in container and die, and their impact on butt discard scrap and product quality will be described.  Topics include:

• Billet upset
• Container issues, and
• Roles of friction, temperature, and strain distribution.

Extrusion Dies

The concept of overall die cost, the basics of die design, and proper handling techniques will be discussed.  Topics include:

• Preheating practice
• Deflection under load and temperature
• Dies nitiriding, and
• Cost of tooling relative to productivity.

Quality Assurance

The basic tools of quality control will be reviewed and their relative importance and proper application will be described.  Some of the quality tests that will be examined in this section include:

• Analysis of extrudates through microstructural evaluation and mechanical property testing
• Tensile tests covering elongation, yield strength, and tensile strength
• Hardness tests
• Microstructural gradients.

Current Technological Developments

Current developments in extrusion technology will be examined, including:

• Process monitoring and management
• Processing and fabrication subsequent to aluminum extrusion

The Instructor

Dr. Wojciech Z. Misiolek, Director of the Institute for Metal Forming (IMF) at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania will be the instructor.  Dr. Misiolek, Loewy Chair of Materials Forming and Processing, is a respected expert in the field who works closely with the industry to help propel the aluminum extrusion process forward.

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Aluminum Anodizers Council’s Anodizing Quality Workshop

The next level of education in the Aluminum Anodizers Council’s School for Anodizers, the Anodizing Quality Workshop is an advanced class that moves beyond the anodizing basics to address quality and process issues commonly faced by anodizers. 

Workshop Topics:

• Manufacturing Processes Review
• Anodizing Basics for Extruded Aluminum
• Troubleshooting:  Guidelines for Effective Troubleshooting
• Process Parameters, their Effects and Tips for Successful Processing
• Breakout Tabletop Discussions of Anomalies (defects), their Causes and Cures

For more information, including complete schedule and session descriptions, visit www.ET12.org or www.AACconf.org.

University of Bologna's Process Analysis and Optimization
Learn how to optimize and analyze the extrusion process from experts Lorenzo Donati and Luca Tomesani of DM-Tech at the University of Bologna in Italy.  They have worked extensively with Italian and European extruders and die makers in order to optimize die design, improve welding phenomena in extrusion dies, increase die life and analyze final microstructure of extruded profiles.  This course covers the following topics:

Introduction to practical and analytical extrusion concepts
• Brief review of basics concepts: strain, strain rate and flow stress;
• Dependency of flow stress on strain and strain rate in aluminum alloys; difference between flow stress and hydrostatic pressure in the extrusion dies;
• Friction models for light metal extrusion, influence on material flow, on press loads and on bearings efficiency;
• Heat balance in the process, generation of heat by material deformation and friction, dissipation trough container, dies and tools and profiles;
• Relation of profile defects like speed cracks to material damage;

Material flow and Friction in direct extrusion
• Material flow in direct/indirect extrusion through visioplasticity experiments and FEM simulations;
• Effect of die coatings on friction;
• Analysis of die filling in flat and porthole dies: the load-stroke diagram, the pressure of aluminum on the die, the stress distribution in the die; discussion on the most critical process stroke for die strength, the concept of “support effect” in porthole dies;
• Extrusion of empty/filled dies: die stresses and dead metal zones, influences on profiles quality
• Material flow corrections: use of portholes, pockets and bearings; influence of single, conical or stepped pockets;

Dies failure modes and die life prediction
• Working conditions of extrusion dies; Failure modes of dies: static strength, fatigue, creep and their interactions;
• Static strength: steels propriety, influence of the heat treatment, how to distinguish between ductile and fragile failures;
• Fatigue: how to measure steels proprieties; influence of notches and radii, influence of roughness; how to distinguish fatigue breakages; thermal fatigue;
• Creep: are extrusion dies affected by creep?; creep stages and die lifetime; how to measure steel’s creep resistance;
• Interactions between static strength, fatigue and creep: analytical models;
• Prediction of die life through FEM simulation: which analytical models are today available?

Charge welds and process performance
• Concept of seam and charge welds;
• Charge welds in a simple profile; interaction between butt length and charge weld; profile defects related to charge welds;
• Extent of charge welds in relation to the die design;  the “stop mark”, interpretation of profile etching response, material scrap as a • function of the stop mark;
• Interaction between charge welds and seam welds;
• Prediction and minimization of charge weld extent through FEM simulation;

Seam welds, welding criteria and profile strength
• Solid state bonding in aluminum alloys; parameters affecting the seam welds quality (material speed, temperature, pressure);
• Concepts of strength and deformability of welded zones;
• Influence of material flow stress and hydrostatic pressure;
• Welding criteria and their application;
• Prediction and optimization of seam weld quality through FEM simulation;

Streaks formation mechanisms: a compass for surface aesthetics
• The streaks defect in extrusion: classification and origins;
• Basics concepts of material metallurgy for 6XXX alloys: precipitates, intermetallics and grain shape evolution from casting to ageing;
• Grain deformation, grain recrystallization and grain growth; Abnormal grain growth;
• Interaction between streaks appearance and alloy microstructure;
• Profile streaks and their interaction with seam and charge welds;

About DM-Tech

DM-Tech is the manufacturing group at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna in Italy. They have expertise in the field of metal forming processes and, in particular, light metal extrusion--one of their core research activities. DM-Tech carried out several projects with various Italian and European companies, in particular extruders and die makers, in order to optimize die design, welding phenomena in extrusion dies, increase of die life and final microstructure of extruded profiles. All the research activities are carried out with an integrated use of experimental trials, FEM simulations, and profile characterizations.

Since 2007 they have organized the ICEB-International Conference on Extrusion and Benchmark (www.ice-b.net). The conference was held in Italy for Italian extruders in 2010 and at Aluminum 2000 in 2011.

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