The material. Nickel forms a wide range of alloys, valued by the chemical engineering and food-processing industries for their resistance to corrosion and by the makers of furnaces and high temperature equipment for their ability to retain useful strength at temperatures up to 1200° C. Typical of these are the nickel-chromium (Ni-Cr) alloys, often containing […]
Category: Materials and the Environment: Eco-Informed Material Choice
Zinc die-casting alloys
The material. Zinc is a bluish-white metal with a low melting point (420°C). The slang in French for a bar or pub is le zinc; bar counters in France used to be clad in zinc—many still are—to protect them from the ravages of wine and beer. Bar surfaces have complex shapes: a flat top, curved […]
Lead alloys
The material. When the Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD they discovered rich deposits of lead ore and started a mining and refining industry that was to continue for 1000 years (the symbol for lead, Pb, derives from its Latin name: plumbum). They used it for pipes, cisterns, and roofs, this last a use that […]
Copper alloys
The material. In Victorian times people washed their clothes in a "copper"—a vat or tank of beaten copper sheet, heated over a fire. The device exploited both the high ductility and the thermal conductivity of the material. Copper has a distinguished place in the history of civilization: it enabled the technology of the Bronze Age […]
Titanium alloys
The material. The alloys of titanium have the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any structural metal, about 25% greater than the best alloys of aluminum or steel. Titanium alloys can be used at temperatures up to 500°C; compressor blades of aircraft turbines are made of them. They have unusually poor thermal and electrical conductivity and low […]
Magnesium alloys
The material. Magnesium is a metal almost indistinguishable from aluminum in color but of lower density. It is the lightest of the light-metal trio (with partners aluminum and titanium), and light it is: a computer case made from magnesium is barely two thirds as heavy as one made from aluminum. Titanium, aluminum, and magnesium are […]
Aluminum alloys
The material. Aluminum was once so rare and precious that the Emperor Napoleon III of France had a set of cutlery made from it that cost him more than silver. But that was 1860; today, nearly 150 years later, aluminum spoons are things you throw away—a testament to our ability to be both technically creative […]
Metals and alloys
Most of the elements in the periodic table are metals. Metals have "free" electrons—electrons that flow in an electric field—so they conduct electricity well, they reflect light, and, viewed with the light behind them, they are opaque. The metals used in product design are, almost without exception, alloys. Steels (iron with carbon and a host […]
Material profiles
CONTENTS 12.1 Introduction and synopsis 12.2 Metals and alloys 12.3 Polymers 12.4 Ceramics and glasses 12.5 Hybrids: composites, foams, and natural materials 12.1 Introduction and synopsis You can’t calculate anything without numbers. This chapter provides them. It takes the form of double-page data sheets for 47 of the materials used in the greatest quantities in […]
Opportunities
The concerns on the left of Figure 11.7 involve land, climate change, water, and food, but at bottom it is energy that is the key to them all. The right side of the figure shows some of the tools we have to deal with them. Predictive modeling. As we’ve said, it is better to anticipate […]