Residual Stress Relief in the Aluminium Alloy 7075

What is it about?

7075 is a really common aluminium alloy used in aerospace. The reason it is so popular is it as strong as some steels but it is also low density. So for aircraft its an ideal material. To make is strong it has to be heat treated. This means we have to heat it up (but NOT melt it), and then cool it quickly by immersing it into cold water. The down side of this thermal shock is we introduce something called residual stresses. These residual stresses are normally bad news and we want rid of them for a large number of reasons. This paper is about an aspect of the technology we use to do this.

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Why is it important?

It isn't THAT important but if you want to use these kinds of materials then any way of reducing the impact of residual stresses is to be welcomed in my opinion.