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Annealing is a heat treatment process used to remove hardness and increase the ductility of metals. For most metals, this involves heating the metal to a specific temperature, often until it glows red, and then allowing it to cool slowly, which is the reverse of the hardening process.
In the case of steel, annealing typically involves slow cooling. However, copper is annealed by heating it and then rapidly cooling it by plunging it into cold water. This process realigns the metal’s crystalline structure, reducing internal stresses and restoring its ductility. Annealing is crucial in metalworking for making metals easier to work with and less prone to cracking.
See Related Terms:
- Back annealing
- Box annealing
- Bright annealing
- Full annealing