Learning Metallurgy

My brother works in light manufacturing and has been tasked with learning about metallurgy by his boss. Most of what I learned was in engineering materials courses and more (and more useful) information later in welding and inspection classes. I'm searching around for formal learning for him in the Grand Rapids Michigan area, but do any of you have good sources for self learning? He's a smart guy and picks things up quickly, but good material makes learning easier. As a bonus, I can borrow if from him when he's done.

I would see what courses are available at the evening community colleges. Are they looking for knowledge in the welding and fabrication area, or heat treatment, or simply which metals to spec for assembly parts? For a broad overview, I can't think of anything better than the materials science courses for mechanical engineering, and they are often offered as standalone courses at community colleges.

He's looking for material properties, fatigue, changes associated with welding and cold working in manufacturing, a pretty broad overview. I found the right class at the local CC and have pointed him that way.
Anything else? Someone has to have a favorite intro to metallurgy book.

This a great book to get started playing with metals and understanding how things go wrong.

A lot of the answer depends on if the goal is to obtain a certain certificate.

I have always been of the school of "Figure it out on the job, as it pertains to the job". If he needs to obtain a specified certificate in order to fill the position, then I would look to who issues the certificate and see what they suggest.

What sort of light manufacturing? Aluminum bicycles, welding bits & pieces together for a Mortar baseplate, springs for a moon buggy? Your training is dictated by the need.

I spent time in a failure analysis lab and took courses from vendors dependent on need. Leco Corp. in St. Joseph, Michigan taught the basics of mounting, polishing and examining metallographic specimens. I also used a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and I'm sure an SEM salesman would be happy to spend time with you.

Define the scope of work and I may be able to point you toward some venues.

BTW: This is hydrogen embrittlement; the steel gets hard and brittle when carbon is not baked out after some types of coatings are applied.

Dan

He's currently building hingh end drawer slides. He has worked in lots of plastics stuff (OE car interiors, packaging, etc.) But I think this is his first forray into making metal things, he's been there about a year. He boss said "you should become better educated in this area". He has a business management degree and primarily works line setup/efficiency and personnel management.

mazdeuce wrote: He's currently building hingh end drawer slides. He has worked in lots of plastics stuff (OE car interiors, packaging, etc.) But I think this is his first forray into making metal things, he's been there about a year. He boss said "you should become better educated in this area". He has a business management degree and primarily works line setup/efficiency and personnel management.

Sounds like what his boss is saying is "You need to learn the lingo". He needs tot know how to communicate with suppliers and customers. Not really something I would see a course as being useful for.

Engineering to win does give a good base course on metals and some of the properties of the different alloys. It's a good place to start. If he just wants to learn the lingo, I'd start there.

LECO Corp offers basic courses, worth a call or email anyway.

http://www.leco.com/search-results?searchword=training&searchphrase=all

If you want I can get the information from my Materials Science textbook from college when I get home. It would go through crystal lattices, phase diagrams, and so on and so forth. It may be a bit heavy for a non-engineer type though.

I think it was this http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-William-Callister/dp/0470419970/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426171377&sr=1-2&keywords=introduction+to+materials+science