Heat treatment will alter several properties of an alloy, many of which are important to a design engineer. A measurement of the electric conductivity of
aluminum alloys can be used to verify that a heat treatment process has been done correctly. For example a component made of "7075" alloy which was correctly treated with the process "T73" to gain resistance to
stress corrosion cracking will fall in the range of 38.0 to 43.0 % IACS. The acceptance criteria for electrical conductivity of finished or semi-finished parts of wrought aluminum alloys are contained in
SAE International specification AMS2658 Hardness and Conductivity Inspection of Wrought Aluminum Alloy Parts. Here the values are given in reference to the IACS. A method for measuring electrical conductivity is described in
ASTM International specification ASTM E 1004 Electromagnetic (Eddy-Current) Measurements of Electrical Conductivity. Electrical conductivity meters with direct readout in %IACS are commercially available. == References ==