Axel Gustaf Emanuel Hultgren, (November 16, 1886 – May 15, 1974) was a Swedish

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

. Hultgren is perhaps most famous for his work on

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

steels, and the transformation of

Austenite Austenite, also known as gamma-phase iron (γ-Fe), is a metallic, non-magnetic allotrope of iron or a solid solution of iron with an alloying element. In plain-carbon steel, austenite exists above the critical eutectoid temperature of 1000 K ...

. Hultgren was born near

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and studied metallurgy at the

Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technolo ...

in Stockholm, Sweden. Following his MSc and some temporary positions in teaching, industry and a research visit in Berlin under Prof. H. Hanemann, Hultgren joined

SKF AB SKF (Swedish: ''Svenska Kullagerfabriken''; 'Swedish Ball Bearing Factory') is a Swedish bearing and seal manufacturing company founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1907. The company manufactures and supplies bearings, seals, lubrication and l ...

bearing company in Gothenburg as a manager for the heat treatment and later as a metallurgist. In 1920 he published his monograph on tungsten steels. Later, in 1937 he became the first Metallography Professor at the Institute. His focus was to combine experimental methods and metallographic observation with theoretical reasoning, in a deductive way. Hultgren was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promo ...

in 1930 and of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

in 1945.

References

* Erik Rudberg (1975). ”Axel Hultgren in memoriam”. Jernkontorets Annaler 159: 39-42.

Selected works

*Hultgren, A., 1920, ''A metallographic study of tungsten steels'', John Wiley & Sons. *Hultgren, A., 1947, Isothermal transformation of Austenite. ''Transactions of the ASM, 39'', 915-989 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hultgren, Axel 1886 births 1974 deaths Swedish metallurgists People from Kalmar KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni Academic staff of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 20th-century Swedish people