School Project Help - Metallurgy.

[Joe Baker]

My gosh, schools give the stupidest assignments these days. Not just this one, mind you; my own kids come home with idiot assignments like this, too.

Why not just go to the various job search websites (www.monster.com, www.jobs.com, there are others...) and see what they've got for metallurgist. You'll learn what the requirements are (this is surely the point of the assignment, right?), and your lazy-arsed teacher will get their lame-arsed answer.
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Joe Baker, who thinks chemistry teachers should TEACH CHEMISTRY.

[Joe Baker]

the government regulated...

Your government or mine, those are three of the most chilling words I know of.

Good luck on your search. I still think you might be able to take one of those sites and find a listing as a starting point. But I don't really know how much actual metallurgy goes on amongst brass instrument makers. There are a half dozen metal compositions used in brass, and I don't think there's much experimentation with the formulas.
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Joe Baker, who is not surprised that a stupid assignment would be the result of a government dictate.

[Dean E]

[C]an anybody point me to information about metallurgical engineers in the brasswind manufacturing industry?!

I don't help with homework assignments, but I don't mind suggesting resources.

There are lots of trade secrets in instrument manufacture, so you may not find specific information easily in the public domain, other than published patents. It would help to read Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, German, Portuguese, or Italian. Google for the NAPBIRT Boston conference scheduled for April 18, 2005. Their speakers could be good sources to interview. The US Dept of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook should have some general ideas. Let us know what your research turns up.

[Pippen]

When I have something unusual to search on the net I have found that www.alltheweb often gives me more useful hits than other search engines.

[Rick Denney]

Blah blah blah ... thanks for any help. I know there are technicians here somewhere!

Technicians work with metal, not create it. They know what it does, not why it does it. Metallurgists are into the whys.

I think you'll find that there are very few metallurgists in the instrument trade. Most production techniques are determined by trial and error and have developed over very long periods of time. Pretty much everyone gets their metal from a metal supplier. They may specify certain characteristics, such as malleability, ductility, strength, fatigue resistance, corrosion resistance, work hardening, age hardening, heat treatments, and price, but I bet they'll leave it up to the metal supplier to figure it out from there.

"That last batch you sent us cracked in the hydroforming machine. What did you do to it?"

I suspect they determine by experiment at what point they need to anneal the metal to allow it to be worked further, and so on.

I doubt that anyone in the process is all that concerned with chemistry. Alloying ain't really the same thing, and we are using pretty much the same alloys now that we used, oh, about 100 years ago.

If you want a chemistry topic that might be more interesting, and still related to tubas, look into plating processes. A general search on copper, nickel, and silver plating ought to turn up stuff.

Rick "providing no further hints" Denney

[Lew]

I suspect that the closest you will get to a metallurgical engineer in the musical instrument manufacturing business is a mechanical engineer, desiging on manufacturing equipment, or an industrial engineer, defining processes. I suspect that companies don't even hire those because the processes and equipment don't change enough to warrent a full time engineering staff.

Metallurgical engineers work with specifying materials for different uses, and I suspect that brass instrument manufacturers work with primary metal companies. For that matter, I bet that very little experimentation or innovation takes place in brass instrument materials. They just buy the stock that the metals companies make, some of which is intended for brass instruments.

Just a guess, but that's the way it is in most manufacturing businesses with which I have been associated (as an industrial engineer).

(Sorry, I just read Rick's post and he said pretty much the same thing)

[Chuck(G)]

Get into woodwinds, particularly flutes, and there you've got a whole 'nother story. Alloys and metals are very hot topics.

For example:

http://www.landellflutes.com/Netscape/- ... entium.htm

[Chuck(G)]

I'm allergic to sulfur - which has a few of the properties of metals, but I have no known allergies to actual metals...

Stay away from them eggs, Joe!





Ever notice how downright unappetizing some food looks on the web?

[Joe Baker]

We'd all like to see the "job posting" when it's finished!
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Joe Baker, who is authorized to speak for all of "us"

[Dean E]

I've decided that Sankyo Flutes needs a new metallurgical engineer to help them develop a new line of flutes.

A flute person's background might include this experience:
--Cryogenic conditioning.
--Industrial lead-free, environmentally friendly, soldering processes.
--Allergy free design (especially with surgical stainless steel).
--Recycled metals

[Chuck(G)]

Say what you want, I know of no other musical instrument where you can have the choice of various silver and gold alloys, platinum, palladium, or titanium as well as more traditional plated brass construction. And I know that Robert Dick plays a stainless steel flute.

And those are just the metal flutes--the non-metallic ones run the gamut from wood, bamboo, PVC, carbon fiber to glass.

[Ames0325]

I think what he means is that these days. There are a lot of teachers/programs that search the internet to make sure students aren't plagerizing and such.
Amy

[Joe Baker]

Fair enough. I'd not want you to do anything you think inappropriate. Hope you got a satisfactory outcome!
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Joe Baker, just showing a friendly interest.