Alloy Materials

An alloy is a substance with metallic properties synthesized from two or more metals and metals or non-metals through a certain method. Generally obtained by melting into a homogeneous liquid and solidification. According to the number of constituent elements, it can be divided into binary alloys, ternary alloys and multiple alloys.

Common alloys

Ductile iron, manganese steel, stainless steel, brass, bronze, white copper, solder, hard aluminum, 18K yellow gold, 18K white gold, etc.

Alloy type

(1) Mixed alloys (eutectic mixtures). When the liquid alloy solidifies, the alloys that form the components of the alloy are crystallized, such as solder, bismuth cadmium alloy, etc .;

(2) Solid-melt alloys, such as gold-silver alloys, which form solid solutions when the liquid alloy solidifies;

(3) Intermetallic alloys, alloys in which the components form compounds with each other, such as brass (β-brass, γ-brass, and ε-brass) composed of copper and zinc.

Many properties of alloys are better than pure metals, so alloys are mostly used in applied materials.

Alloy connectivity

All types of alloys have the following properties:

(1) The melting point of most alloys is lower than the melting point of any of the constituent metals in its composition;

(2) The hardness is generally greater than the hardness of any metal in its composition; (Special case: the sodium-potassium alloy is liquid and is used as a heat transfer agent in atomic reactors)

(3) The electrical and thermal conductivity of the alloy is lower than that of any constituent metal. Using this characteristic of the alloy, high resistance and high thermal resistance materials can be manufactured. Materials with special properties can also be manufactured.

(4) Some have strong corrosion resistance (such as stainless steel), such as 15% chromium and 9% nickel in iron to obtain a corrosion-resistant stainless steel, suitable for the chemical industry.