Section 7: Non Ferrous Metals
Non-Ferrous metals
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Aluminium and its alloys
Copper, brass and bronze
Nickel alloys
Zinc
Tin
Lead
Titanium
Magnesium
Refractory metals: Tungsten, Iridium
Precious metals: Gold, Platinum, Silver
Special metals: Uranium, Mercury
Metal
1998 world usage
estimates
mt (1000)
Unlike pure metals, most alloys do not have a single melting point.
Instead, they have a melting range in which the material is a mixture of
solid and liquid phases. The temperature at which melting begins is
called the solidus and the temperature when melting is complete is
called the liquidus. However, for most alloys there is a particular
proportion of constituents which give them a single melting point or
(rarely) two. This is called the alloy's eutectic mixture.
London Metals
Exchange ($)
Steel
776000
Steel
Aluminum
30106
Aluminium
Aluminium Alloy
Copper
14200
Copper
Zinc
8160
Zinc
Lead
5940
Lead
Nickel
1130
Nickel
Tin
modulus, and electrical and thermal conductivity, of an alloy may not
differ greatly from those of its elements, but engineering or mechanical
properties, such as tensile strength and shear strength may be
substantially different from those of the constituent materials.
This is sometimes due to the sizes of the atoms in the alloy, since larger
atoms exert a compressive force on neighboring atoms, and smaller
atoms exert a tensile force on their neighbors, helping the alloy resist
deformation. Alloys may exhibit marked differences in behavior even
when small amounts of one element occur (Steel). Some alloys are
made by melting and mixing two or more metals. Brass is an alloy made
from copper and zinc. Bronze, used for statues, ornaments and church
bells, is an alloy of tin and copper.
Phase diagrams (equlibrium diagrams). This page is an in-depth
explanation of how a phase diagram is made (and what it really means).
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/phaseeqia/snpb.html
Link to info
Production Info
Here is a (slightly) simplified equilibrium or phase diagram for Tin and
Lead (Sn/Pb).
Al
Tin
Commodity Prices, Precious Metals (Aug 2008)
Name
Quote
Feed URL
822.00 $US/Troy
Gold
gold.txt
oz
286.00 $US/Troy
Palladium
palladium.txt
oz
1436.00 $US/Troy
Platinum
platinum.txt
oz
Silver
13.38 $US/Troy oz silver.txt
Commodity Prices, Base Metals (Aug 2008)
Name
Quote
Feed URL
Aluminum
1.24 $US/lb
aluminum.txt
Copper
3.52 $US/lb
copper.txt
Lead
0.86 $US/lb
lead.txt
Molybdenum
33.25 $US/lb
molybdenum.txt
Nickel
9.38 $US/lb
nickel.txt
Uranium
64.50 $US/lb
uranium.txt
Zinc
0.81 $US/lb
zinc.txt
Get current prices here: http://dollardaze.org/feeds/
Assume we cool a liquid (molten) mixture containing about 67% lead
and 33% tin by mass. This is what happens...
ALLOYS
An alloy is a solid solution or homogeneous mixture of two or more
elements, at least one of which is a metal, which itself has metallic
properties.
Alloying one metal with others often enhances its properties, especially
strength. The physical properties, such as density, reactivity, Young's
There are lots of things to look at:
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Notice that nothing happens at all at the normal freezing point
of the lead. Adding the tin to it lowers its freezing point.
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
Freezing starts for this mixture at about 250°C. You would start
to get some solid lead formed - but no tin. At that point the rate
of cooling slows down - the curve gets less steep.
However, the graph doesn't go horizontal yet. Although energy
is being given off as the lead turns to a solid, there isn't anything
similar happening to the tin. That means that there isn't enough
energy released to keep the temperature constant.
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The temperature does stop falling at 183°C. Now both tin and
lead are freezing. Once everything has solidified, the
temperature continues to fall.
The special 62%Sn/38%Pb mixture cools like this...
Fig 1. Uses of Copper, 2005 (Data from Brook Hunt, 2005)
After iron and aluminium, copper is the third most commonly used
metal. Most of the produced copper finds its way into electrical wire rod
or copper tubes for plumbing.
This particular mixture of lead and tin has a cooling curve which looks
exactly like that of a pure substance rather than a mixture. There is just
the single horizontal part of the graph where everything is freezing.
However, it is still a mixture. If you use a microscope to look at the solid
formed after freezing, you can see the individual crystals of tin and lead.
This particular mixture is known as a eutectic mixture. The word
"eutectic" comes from Greek and means "easily melted".
The eutectic mixture has the lowest melting point (which is, of course, the
same as the freezing point) of any mixture of lead and tin. The
temperature at which the eutectic mixture freezes or melts is known as the
eutectic temperature.
Electrical Applications
The primary use of copper is for electrical applications. Copper is the
best non-precious conductor of electricity (only silver is superior) and
sets the standard to which other conductors are compared. Compared to
copper, aluminium has worse conductivity per unit volume, but better
conductivity per unit weight. Gold is sometimes used to plate fine wire
applications not because it is a better conductor, but because it is
extremely resistant to surface corrosion.
Copper is used in both insulated and non-insulated power cables for all
regular voltage applications.
While optical fibre has displaced copper over long-haul applications,
the telecom industry still demands copper, as it is still the preferred
carrier for the last segment. Additionally, it is used for domestic carrier
lines, wide and local area networks and connectors. HDSL (High-Speed
Digital Subscriber Line) and ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber
Line) technology allows existing copper to carry high-speed data up to
1 giga-byte per second.
Copper is also starting to be used in the semiconductor industry instead
of aluminium because it allows microprocessors to operate at higher
speeds and reduces energy demand.
COPPER
Construction Applications
Copper is one of the few metals that can be found in nature as an
uncompounded metal (called native copper - i.e. not as rusty or corrroded
ore). Copper became popular around 2500 B.C., and it hasn't slowed...
Building construction accounts for more than 40% of all US copper
consumption with residential construction accounting for two-thirds of
that figure. The average 2,100 sq.ft. single-family home uses 439
pounds of copper, most of which is for wiring and plumbing.
Copper is still the preferred metal for plumbing applications because it
suppresses the growth of the Legionella bacteria, the microbe
responsible for Legionnaire's disease.
Transportation Applications
Today's average automobile contains between 50 to 60 pounds of
copper. A Boeing 747-400 contains nearly 9,000 pounds, representing
about 2% of the plane's total weight.
A typical diesel-electric railroad locomotive uses about 11,000 pounds
of copper. The latest and most-powerful locomotives manufactured by
General Electric Company and General Motors Corporation use more
than 16,000 pounds.
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Copper-nickel alloys are use for hulls of ships to reduce marine biofouling of mussels and barnacles.
Zinc Production
Known worldwide resource estimates for copper are estimated at 5.8
trillion pounds of which 0.7 trillion pounds (~12%) has been mined. Twothirds of that is accessible on land and the remainder is available as deepsea mineral rich nodules formed from undersea volcanic activity currently
too expensive to retrieve.
Global production of zinc has increased by 42% since 1995. Zinc metal
output is forecasted to increase by 4.9% next year, but many industry
experts expect a supply deficit.China is the world's largest producer,
consumer and refiner of zinc by a large margin. Canada and Australia
are important exporters of zinc.
The largest consumer of zinc, China, accounts for 30% of global
demand, nearly three times that of the next closest country, the United
States.
Chile is the world's copper king in terms of reserves, production and
refining capacity.
Zinc coating and galvanising are extremely toxic when welding.
Welding zinc plated steel in enclosed area can kill in minutes.
Copper's recycling rate is the highest out of any other engineering metal
(around one-third of the US annual demand is recycled)
From http://dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00044&cat_id=6
Global Resources and Production
From http://dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00052&cat_id=20
ALUMINIUM
ZINC
Current prices for zinc are hovering around its all time nominal high of
US$2.082 per pound. From its 2003 low of $0.34 per pound, zinc has
climbed nearly 500% to a $2.062 per pound close on Nov 24, 2006.
It takes a lot os electricity to smelt aluminium.
Read this link: (Including all 12 pages linked on the side)
http://sam.davyson.com/as/physics/aluminium/site/index.html
This is occurring at a time when physical zinc stores at the London Metal
Exchange (LME) have been dropping at a more or less steady pace since
March 2004. For the last year zinc stocks at the LME have dropped over
80%.
Zinc's many different applications rank it as the 4th most commonly used
metal behind iron, aluminium and copper.
http://www.lme.co.uk/aluminium_industryusage.asp
SILVER
Silver is both a precious metal and an important industrial metal. While
nearly all of the 155,000 tonnes of gold that have ever been mined are
still in the form of above-ground stocks, most of the silver has been
consumed in industrial applications.
Silver used to serve a monetary role alongside gold. It was more
applicable for everyday goods and services due and subsequently was
widely used by the general population. Only government, banks and the
wealthy dealt in gold coin.
Fig 2. Uses of Zinc for 2005 (Data from Brook Hunt, 2006)
The largest use of zinc is for the galvanization of steel. Nearly 60% of the
world's annual consumption of over nine million tonnes is used to protect
about 100 million tonnes of steel. The second largest use of zinc is as for
making brass alloys.
The remaining zinc consumption is for making paint, chemicals,
agricultural applications, household appliances and fittings, in the
manufacture of electrical components, in the rubber industry, TV screens,
fluorescent lights and for dry cell batteries.
Silver has many properties that make it useful as an industrial metal:
high strength, malleable, ductile, highest thermal and electrical
conductivity of any metal, sensitivity and high reflectance to light,
chemical stability (does not corrode), ability to endure extreme
temperature ranges.
Together, industrial, decorative and photography consume 95% of the
annual silver supply.
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Other Uses
Superior power-to-weight batteries use silver oxides (both AgO and
Ag2O) as the cathode silver-zinc primary and rechargeable
batteries.Steel bearings are electroplated with high purity silver for
greater fatigue strength, load-bearing capacity, and to significantly
reduce friction.Silver is useful in dental alloys for fittings and fillings
where it is alloyed with tin, copper and zinc.Many high-end musical
instruments use silver for higher tone quality.
NICKEL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel
http://www.nickelinstitute.org/index.cfm/ci_id/13.htm
Sterling silver (92.5% Ag, 7.5% Cu) is used in the manufacture of
jewellery and silverware. The origin of the word "sterling" comes from
the term "easterling" which referred to coins issued by the Hanseatic
League, a group of trading cities in Northern Germany, which contained
large proportions of silver. The British 'pound' originally had the value of
one troy pound of sterling silver. It has since lost over 95% of its value.
Electrical Applications
Silver is the best electrical (and heat) conductor of all the metals and is
used in conductors, switches, relays, circuit breakers, contacts and fuses.
Printed circuits use silver paints, computer keyboards use silver electrical
contacts, and silver is used in high voltage contacts because it can
minimize arching due to carbon-polymer formation that occurs to other
metals.
In the home, wall switches, timing devices, thermostats, sump pumps, and
virtually all electrical appliances use silver contacts. A typical washing
machine requires 16 silver contacts to control its electric motor, pump,
and gear clutch. A fully equipped automobile may have over 40 silvertipped switches to start the engine, activate power steering, brakes,
windows, mirrors, locks, and other electrical accessories.
Catalysts
An estimated 700 tons of silver are in continuous use as catalysts in the
plastics industry. Silver is the only known catalyst for forming ethylene
oxide (an intermediate chemical for polyester) from ethylene gas. It also
serves as a catalyst in oxidation reactions such as the formation of
formaldehyde (the building block of solid plastics) from methanol and air.
Nickel is used in many industrial and consumer products, including
stainless steel, magnets, coinage, and special alloys. It is also used for
plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is pre-eminently an alloy
metal, and its chief use is in the nickel steels and nickel cast irons, of
which there are innumerable varieties. It is also widely used for many
other alloys, such as nickel brasses and bronzes, and alloys with copper,
chromium, aluminium, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold.
Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickelcopper alloys and nickel silver (14%), malleable nickel, nickel clad,
Inconel and other Superalloys (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons
(3%), heat and electric resistance alloys, such as Nichrome (3%), nickel
brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).
In the laboratory, nickel is frequently used as a catalyst for
hydrogenation, most often using Raney nickel, a finely divided form of
the metal.
Nickel has also been often used in coins, or occasionally as a substitute
for decorative silver. The American 'nickel' five-cent coin is 75%
copper. The Canadian nickel minted at various periods between 192281 was 99.9% nickel, and was magnetic.
Nickel(III) oxide is used as the cathode in many rechargeable batteries,
including nickel-cadmium, nickel-iron and nickel-metal hydride, and
used by certain manufacturers in Li-ion batteries.
Light Reflection
Silver's unique optical reflectivity, and its property of being virtually
100% reflective after polishing, allows it to be used both in mirrors and in
coatings for glass, cellophane or metals. Low quality mirrors use
aluminium backing.
One out of every seven pairs of prescription eyeglasses sold in the U.S.
incorporates silver. Silver halide crystals, melted into glass can change the
light transmission from 96% to 22% in less than 60 seconds and block at
least 97% of the sun's ultraviolet rays.
Photography
Silver nitrate made the first photograph in 1813 possible. Photosensitive
chemicals silver chloride and silver bromide are prepared by adding
sodium chloride or sodium bromide to a very pure solution of silver
nitrate. While still a significant user of silver, film photography is in
decline due to the advent of digital cameras
Soldering and Brazing
In 2005, 42.3 million ounces of silver were used for soldering and
brazing. Silver is used as a superior solder than lead for air-conditioning
and refrigeration equipment due to its greater ductility. Other uses include
ceramic-to-ceramic joints and silicon chips to metallic surfaces.
Silver-based alloys used in brazing (above 600°C) are suitable for nearly
all steels and nonferrous metals except aluminium, magnesium, and
titanium.
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replaced in the early 20th century by the use of aluminium foil, which is
now commonly referred to as tin foil.
LEAD
TIN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin
http://www.lme.co.uk/tin_industryusage.asp
Tin, like copper, was one of the first metals mined and its excellent
qualities and shiny finish made it a highly sought after commodity.
Particularly liked for its fusion abilities in the making of alloys, notably
bronze, and its non-toxic qualities, tin was soon traded in many parts of
the world. Today it is still used in the production of bronze, pewter and
die-casting alloys and, in modern engineering, to make tungsten more
machineable. However, the largest uses for tin are for the production of
solders and for tin plating (providing an attractive coating to iron and steel
products).
Tin bonds readily to iron, and has been used for coating lead or zinc and
steel to prevent corrosion. Tin-plated steel containers are widely used for
food preservation, and this forms a large part of the market for metallic tin
(as in"tins" or "tin cans").
Some important tin alloys are bronze, bell metal, Babbitt metal, die
casting alloy, pewter, phosphor bronze, soft solder, and White metal.
The most important salt formed is stannous chloride, which has found use
as a reducing agent and as a mordant in the calico printing process.
Electrically conductive coatings are produced when tin salts are sprayed
onto glass. These coatings have been used in panel lighting and in the
production of frost-free windshields.
Window glass is most often made via floating molten glass on top of
molten tin (creating float glass) in order to make a flat surface (this is
called the "Pilkington process").
Tin is also used in solders for joining pipes or electric circuits, in bearing
alloys, in glass-making, and in a wide range of tin chemical applications.
Although of higher melting point than a lead-tin alloy, the use of pure tin
or tin alloyed with other metals in these applications is rapidly
supplanting the use of the previously common lead–containing alloys in
order to eliminate the problems of toxicity caused by lead.
Tin foil was once a common wrapping material for foods and drugs;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead
Lead is a major constituent of the lead-acid battery used extensively as a
car battery.
A coloring element in ceramic glazes, notably in the colors red and
yellow.
Lead is used as projectiles for firearms and fishing sinkers because of its
density, low cost compared to alternative products and ease of use due
to relatively low melting point.
Lead or "sheet-lead" is used as a sound deadening layer in such areas as
wall, floor and ceiling design in sound studios where levels of airborne
and mechanically produced sound are targeted for reduction or virtual
elimination.
Lead is used as shielding from radiation, e.g. in x-ray rooms.
Molten lead is used as a coolant, eg. for lead cooled fast reactors.
Lead glass is composed of 12-28% lead oxide. It changes the optical
characteristics of the glass and reduces the transmission of radiation.
Lead is the traditional base metal of organ pipes, mixed with varying
amounts of tin to control the tone of the pipe.
Lead is used as electrodes in the process of electrolysis.
Lead is used in solder for electronics, although this usage is being
phased out by some countries to reduce the amount of environmentally
unfriendly waste.
Lead is used in high voltage power cables as sheathing material to
prevent water diffusion into insulation.
Lead is used for the ballast keel of sailboats. Its high weight-to-volume
ratio allows it to counterbalance the heeling effect of wind on the sails
while at the same time occupying a small volume and thus offering the
least underwater resistance. It does not have the weight-to-volume ratio
of many heavy metals, but its low cost increases its use in these and
other applications.
Lead is added to brass to reduce machine tool wear.
Lead has many uses in the construction industry, e.g. lead sheets are
used as architectural metals in roofing material, cladding, flashings,
gutters and gutter joints, and on roof parapets. Detailed lead mouldings
are used as decorative motifs used to fix lead sheet.
Lead is frequently used in scuba diving weight belts to counteract the
diver's natural buoyancy and that of his equipment.
Lead is often used to balance the wheels of a car; this use is being
phased out in favor of other materials for environmental reasons.
Lead is still widely used in statues and sculptures.
Toxicity: Many lead containing products now banned/replaced. Leaded
petrol, leaded paints etc.
Lead has been commonly used for thousands of years because it is
widespread, easy to extract and easy to work with. It is highly malleable
and ductile as well as easy to smelt. In the early Bronze Age, lead was
used with antimony and arsenic. (Lovely mixture..!) Lead is mentioned
in the Book of Exodus (15:10).
Industrial Lead consumption
http://www.lme.co.uk/lead_industryusage.asp
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