Can anyone suggest a decent print resource/reference book which describes aluminum heat treating processes from a chemical, metallugical, and physical point of view? Something from one of the societies?
ASM HANDBOOK Volume 2 Properties and Selection: Nonferrous Alloys and Special-Purpose Materials
ASM HANDBOOK Volume 4 Heat Treating
ASM SPECIALTY HANDBOOK Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys
Heat Treater's Guide: Practices and Procedures for Nonferrous Alloys
Aluminum: Properties and Physical Metallurgy
The SPECIALTY HANDBOOK is a compilation of all the references to aluminum contained in the entire 20 volume ASM HANDBOOK series, so it contains more than just heat treating information-- lots of information on forming and forging, casting, fatigue and fracture, etc.
The Heat Treater's Guide is very good, but contains a lot of info on other alloys (titanium, copper, magnesium, etc.), so you should take that into consideration. I highly recommend all of the above reference books, but I realize that they are quite expensive, even for just one of the volumes.