Thermally treated metallic materials and related methods

A process for thermally treating metallic materials comprising:

• heating and/or cooling a metallic material article, the article supported with gas during the heating and/or cooling;
• wherein the article is heated by transferring thermal energy from a heat source to the article across a heating gap between the heat source and the article such that at least 50% of the thermal energy leaving the heat source crosses the heating gap and is received by the article;
• wherein the article is cooled by transferring thermal energy from the article to a heat sink across a cooling gap between the article and the heat sink such that at least 50% of the thermal energy leaving the article crosses the cooling gap and is received by the heat sink;
• wherein the heating gap or the cooling gap has an average thickness between an outer surface of the heat source and an adjacent surface of the article or the article and an outer surface of the heat sink that is less than about 10 mm;
• wherein a heat transfer rate from the heat source to the article during heating or from the article to the heat sink during cooling is greater than about 1000 kW/m2.

A thermally treated metallic material article comprising:

• an article made from a metallic material selected from the group consisting of an Al-base alloy, a Cu-base alloy, a Ni-base alloy, an Fe-base alloy and a Ti alloy;
• the metallic material article having a microstructure as a result of heating and/or cooling the metallic material while the metallic material article is supported with a gas during the heating and/or cooling;
• the metallic material article heated by transferring thermal energy from a heat source to the metallic material article across a heating gap between the heat source and the metallic material article such that more than 20% of the thermal energy leaving the heat source crosses the heating gap and is received by the metallic material article;
• the metallic material article cooled by transferring thermal energy from the metallic material article to a heat sink across a cooling gap between the metallic material article and the heat sink such that more than 20% of the thermal energy leaving the metallic material article crosses the cooling gap and is received by the heat sink;
• the microstructure selected from the group consisting of a solid-solution strengthened microstructure, a precipitation strengthened microstructure, a ferrite plus pearlite microstructure, a ferrite plus bainite and/or martensite microstructure, a ferrite plus retained austenite microstructure and a ferrite with no pearlite microstructure.