Industrial Development of Cubic Texture in High‐Purity Aluminium: Discussion of the Research and Development Method

Abstract

A research project is generally a scientific or technical problem that has never been solved. Like all problems, research projects are puzzling: is there a solution, how to find the solution should there be one, which strategy should be used? To help researchers and managers, a method was developed [1] that was based on a general approach to problem solving: ''A guide for those who have a problem and want to address it'', a roadmap for all types of problems, industrial and personal.A research project can be viewed as a puzzle, each piece being an aspect of the problem to be solved: the actors and the decision maker(s), the problem or the situation that creates the problem, what is unsatisfactory, the risks to be avoided if a deviation is possible, the needs or requirements to be fulfilled, the causes, the origins of the problem and the constraints, for example, timing, budget, and equipment.A research project should be documented following the steps indicated in Figure 1 to determine what the research should change if successful, the values it should create, and the methodology: the methods and strategy to be used to reach the goal. This paper covers an example of this approach used in the field of research and development (R&D). The problem I was asked to solve in 1968 by M. Wintemberger, head of the Division of Basic Research at Pechiney was: is it possible to produce 100% of cubic texture in high-purity aluminium foils at 0.1 mm gauge?The cubic texture, also called block texture or [100] (100) texture can be characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) pole figures, as indicated in Figure 2. Corrosion figures can also be used for microscopic observation of grains showing different orientations. The ''cubic texture'' corresponds to grains showing a cube sitting on the rolling plane with its [100] direction parallel to the rolling direction. In Figure 2, RD is the rolling direction and TD is the transverse direction. Optical microscopy under polarized light and macrographic chemical attack can also be used to observe the cubic texture in aluminium foils as shown in Figure 5 and 6.Pechiney was a producer of high-purity aluminium and also, through its subsidiaries CEGEDUR and SATMA, a producer of foils used in the capacitor market. A large number of appliances such as our washing machines and dryers use AC-induction single-phase motors. To start such a motor, one of the technologies uses a second stator winding fed through a capacitor to displace one of the two rotating electromagnetic fields. High-capacity, high-tension capacitors are made as shown in Figure 3 by wrapping an COMMUNICATION Fig. 1. A research project can be viewed as a puzzle; each piece is an aspect of the problem to be solved and the research project itself the solution to the problem. for discussing and reviewing this paper.The development of cubic texture in high purity aluminium in the seventies is used to demonstrate that reducing the overall duration of experimentation makes research more successful. 1060 wileyonlinelibrary.com ß