ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this part. The part explains the structure of aluminium bronzes. The type of space lattice has a bearing on the ease or difficulty with which a wrought alloy can be worked and on the choice of working temperature. As a liquid metal approaches its solidification temperature, a number of 'nuclei' are formed simultaneously in the melt, a 'nucleus' being a single unit of a given type of space lattice. The more nuclei appear in the melt the sooner the growth of the crystal is halted by neighbouring crystals and therefore the smaller the 'grain' structure of the alloy. By controlling the time of exposure to a higher temperature and the rate of cooling thereafter, the nature of the alloy, both in its grain size and phase constitution can be adjusted to achieve a desired combination of properties.
