What is anneal?

Annealing is a metallurgical process of heating and cooling a material to alter its physical and chemical properties. The process is aimed at relieving internal stresses, improving ductility, reducing hardness, improving machinability, and enhancing resistance to corrosion and wear. Annealing can be done to a variety of metallic materials, including steel, copper, aluminum, brass, and nickel alloys. The annealing process typically involves heating the material to a specific temperature, holding it for a predetermined amount of time, and then slowly cooling it down to room temperature. There are different types of annealing processes, such as full annealing, stress relief annealing, normalizing, and spheroidizing. The choice of annealing process depends on the type of material, its intended use, and the desired final properties.