[Pouting]

Im trying to apply it to titanium and how it affects titanium (if you want to help me a bit more)

[Arkcon]

No they're not the same.  Cold working (don't forget the verb part, its important) is hammering of metal without heating to alter the physical properties, you can read more here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_working  Annealing is a heating and cooling treatment that's used to remove strain defects in the long range structure (crystalline or otherwise) of just about and strained material, from metals to glass to ceramics to even plastics.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annealing_%28metallurgy%29  These pages give you the very basic, bog standard definitions of these terms.  How this applies to titanium is a specialized application, but you will want to know these basics before you get started.  You can read more on this topic in a college chemistry textbook -- usually.  Its definitely a part of Paluing's Chemistry, and that's a good place to start.

[Pouting]

I've researched a bit since your last post, and still have trouble but this is my findings:

when annealing a metal, it increases the ductility but reduces tensile strength of the cold worked metal, this is achieved by heating the metal in a furnace at a sufficient temperature over a long enough time, the metal will undergo 1) recovery 2) recrystallization 3) grain growth. However my question to this is:

is annealing done only when the metal has undergone cold working? or can it be done without any prior cold working? thanks if you clear up this last point

[Arkcon]

Briefly, no.  Annealing removes internal stresses in a stressed material.  The reasons why we'd do it rapidly become complicated given the changes in ferrous metal alloys.  And I don't know the effects on pure titanium.

[fledarmus]

Annealing is done to remove many types of strain in the materials. How it affects the properties of the metal depends on the specific alloy.

Strains and stresses can be set up in metal through many different processes. Drilling, casting, welding, soldering, cutting (mechanical or torch), bending and rebending, cold hammering, rapid heating and cooling especially of small sections of the material, and many other processes can set up strains in the metal. Annealing allows the mass of metal to regrow its structure and remove any stesses that have formed.