Chapter 01:

Nonferrous Metals and Alloys

Assoc. Prof. Tao Quang Bang

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
8.1 Introduction

◼ Usage of nonferrous metals and alloys has

increased due to technology
◼ Possess certain properties that ferrous
materials do not have
❑ Resistance to corrosion
❑ Ease of fabrication
❑ High electrical and thermal conductivity
❑ Light weight
❑ Strength at elevated temperatures
❑ Color
Common Nonferrous Metals and Alloys

Figure 8-1 Some common nonferrous metals and alloys, classified by attractive engineering
property.
8.2 Copper and Copper Alloys

◼ General properties and characteristics

❑ Backbone of the electrical industry
❑ Base metal of a number of alloys such as bronzes and
brasses
◼ High electrical and thermal conductivity
◼ Useful strength with high ductility
◼ Corrosion resistance
◼ About one-third of copper is used in electrical
applications
◼ Other uses are plumbing, heating, and air
conditioning
General Properties and Characteristics

◼ Relatively low strength and high ductility

◼ Can be extensively formed
◼ Heavier than iron
◼ Problems can occur when copper is used at
higher temperatures
◼ Poor abrasive wear characteristics
Characteristics of Copper

◼ Low temperature properties are better than most

other materials
❑ Strength increases with decreasing temperature
❑ Material does not embrittle
❑ Retains ductility under cryogenic conditions
❑ Conductivity increases with a drop in temperature
◼ Nonmagnetic
◼ Nonpyrophoric
◼ Nonbiofouling
◼ Wide spectrum of colors
Commercially Pure Copper

◼ Electrolytic tough-pitch (ETP) copper is

refined copper containing between 0.02 and
0.05% oxygen
◼ Used as a base for copper alloys
◼ Used for electrical applications such as wire
and cable
◼ Oxygen-free high conductivity (OFHC)
copper provides superconductivity
Copper-Based Alloys

◼ Copper is the base metal

❑ Imparts ductility, corrosion resistance, and
electrical and thermal conductivity
◼ Standardized by the Copper Development
Association (CDA)
◼ Common alloying elements
❑ Zinc
❑ Tin
❑ Nickel
Designation Systems for Copper
Copper-Zinc Alloys

◼ Zinc is the most common alloy addition

❑ Known as brass
◼ Alpha brasses
❑ Ductile and formable
❑ Strength and ductility increase with increasing zinc content
◼ Two-phase brasses
❑ High electrical and thermal conductivity
❑ Useful engineering strength
❑ Wide range of colors
◼ Rubber can be vulcanized to it
Copper-Zinc Alloys

◼ Brasses have good corrosion resistance

❑ Brasses with 20 to 36% zinc may experience
dezincification when exposed to acidic or salt
solutions
❑ Brasses with more than 15% zinc may experience
season-cracking or stress corrosion
◼ Cold-worked brass is usually stress-relieved
to remove residual stresses
◼ Lead can be added to increase machinability
Copper-Tin Alloys

◼ Tin is more cost effective than zinc

◼ Alloys with tin are known as bronzes
❑ Bronzes can technically be any copper alloy where the
major alloy addition is not zinc or nickel
◼ Bronzes have desirable mechanical properties
❑ Good strength
❑ Good toughness
❑ Good wear resistance
❑ Good corrosion resistance
◼ Often used for bearings, gears and fittings with high
compressive loads
Copper-Nickel Alloys

◼ Copper and nickel exhibit complete solubility

◼ High thermal conductivity
◼ High temperature strength
◼ Corrosion resistance to a range of materials
◼ High resistance to stress-corrosion cracking
◼ Ideal choice for heat exchangers
◼ Cupronickels contain 2 to 30% nickel
◼ Nickel silvers contain 10 to 30% nickel and 5% zinc
◼ Constantan contains 45% nickel
◼ 67% nickel is known as Monel
Other Copper-Based Alloys

◼ Aluminum-bronze
❑ High strength and corrosion resistance
❑ Marine hardware, power shafts, pump and valve
components
◼ Silicon-bronze
❑ Strength, formability, machinability, and corrosion
resistance
❑ Boiler tanks, stove applications
◼ Copper-beryllium
❑ Highest strengths, nonsparking, nonmagnetic, electrically
and thermally conductive
❑ Electrical contact springs
Lead-Free Casting Alloys

◼ Addition of lead can serve as a lubricant and

chip breaker in machining processes
◼ Used in many plumbing components
◼ Due to increased concerns with lead in
drinking water, bismuth and selenium are
often substituted for lead
❑ EnviroBrass alloys
❑ Somewhat lower in ductility, but have other
properties similar to lead alloys
8.3 Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys

◼ General Properties and Characteristics

❑ Second to steel in quantity and usage
❑ Used in transportation, packaging, containers,
building construction, etc.
❑ Workable, light weight, corrosion resistance,
thermal and electrical conductivity, optical
reflectivity, easily finished
❑ Aluminum is about 1/3 the weight of steel for an
equivalent volume
Characteristics of Aluminum

◼ Four to five times more expensive than steel

per pound
◼ Easily recycled with no loss in quality
❑ About a 50% recycling rate in the United States
◼ Biggest weakness of steel is it low modulus
of elasticity
◼ Commercially Pure Aluminum
❑ Soft, ductile, and low strength
❑ In the annealed condition, pure aluminum has
about 1/5th the strength of hot rolled steel
Aluminums for Mechanical Applications

◼ On a strength to weight basis, aluminum

alloys are superior to steel
◼ Wear, creep, and fatigue resistance are lower
◼ For the most part, not suitable for high
temperature applications
◼ Performs well in low temperature applications
❑ Stronger at subzero temperatures than at room
temperature
Aluminum vs. Steel

◼ A selection between aluminum and steel depends

on different variables
❑ Cost
❑ Weight
❑ Corrosion resistance
❑ Maintenance expense
❑ Thermal or electrical conductivity
◼ For the automotive industry, aluminum has become
increasingly used because of its lower strength to
weight ratio and therefore improves fuel efficiency
❑ Use of aluminum in vehicles has doubled in cars and tripled
in SUVs
Weight Savings Designs
Figure 8-3a) (Left) The space frame chassis
for the 2005 Ford GT is comprised of 35
aluminum extrusions, 7 complex castings, 2
semisolid castings, and various aluminum
panels, some superplastically formed.
(Courtesy Ford Motor, Dearborn, MI; and
HydroAluminum of North America Linthicum,
MD.)

Figure 8-3b) (Right) The aluminum frame of the

2006 Corvette Z06 yielded a 30% weight savings
compared to the previous steel design. (Courtesy of
General Motors, Detroit, MI.)
Corrosion Resistance of Aluminum and its
Alloys
◼ Pure aluminum is reactive and is easily
oxidized
❑ Oxide provides corrosion resistance layer
❑ Aluminum oxides are not as reactive as pure
aluminum and therefore are not as corrosion
resistant
◼ Oxide coating may cause difficult when
welding
◼ Welding may be done in a vacuum or in inert
gas atmospheres
Classification System

◼ Wrought alloys are shaped as solids

❑ First digit indicates the major alloy element
❑ Second digit indicate a modification or
improvement
❑ Last two digits indicate the alloy family
❑ Temper designations
◼ F: fabricated
◼ H: strain hardened
◼ O: annealed
◼ T: thermally treated
◼ W: solution-heat-treated only
Wrought Alloys
Major Alloying Element
Aluminum, 99.00% 1xxx
Copper 2xxx
Manganese 3xxx
Silicon 4xxx
Magnesium 5xxx
Magnesium and sulfate 6xxx
Zinc 7xxx
Other 8xxx

◼ Only moderate temperatures are required to lower

strength, so wrought alloys may be easily extruded,
forged, drawn, and formed with sheet metal
operations
Aluminum Casting Alloys
◼ Pure aluminum is rarely cast
❑ High shrinkage and susceptibility to hot cracking
◼ Classification system
◼ First digit indicates the alloy group
◼ Second and third digit indicates the particular alloy
◼ Last digit indicates the product form
Major Alloying Element
Aluminum, 99.00% 1xx.x
Copper 2xx.x
Silicon with Cu and/or Mg 3xx.x
Silicon 4xx.x
Magnesium 5xx.x
Zinc 7xx.x
Tin 8xx.x
Other elements 9xx.x
Other Forms of Aluminum

◼ Aluminum-Lithium Alloys
❑ Lithium is the lightest of all metallic elements
◼ Light weight without compromising strength and stiffness
◼ Fracture toughness, ductility, and stress corrosion are lower
◼ Aluminum Foams
❑ Made by mixing ceramic particles with molten aluminum
and blowing gas into the mixture
◼ Resembles metallic Styrofoam
❑ Fuel cells of race cars may use aluminum foams
❑ Provide excellent thermal insulation, vibration damping,
and sound absorption
8.4 Magnesium and Magnesium Alloys

◼ General Properties and Characteristics

❑ Lightest of commercially important materials
❑ Poor wear, creep, and fatigue properties
❑ Highest thermal expansion of all engineering metals
❑ Strength drops with increase in temperature
❑ Low modulus of elasticity requires thick parts
❑ High strength to weight ratio
❑ High energy absorptions and good damping
❑ Used in applications where light weight components are the
primary concern
Magnesium Alloys and Their Fabrication

◼ Classification system is specified by ASTM

◼ Two prefix letters designate the two largest alloying
metals
◼ Numbers following the two letters indicate the
percentages of the two main alloy elements
◼ Magnesium alloys are often processed with sand,
permanent mold, die, semisolid, and investment
casting
❑ Wall thickness and draft angle are lower than for aluminum
◼ Improved machinability
8.5 Zinc-Based Alloys

◼ Over 50% of all metallic zinc is used for galvanizing

◼ Steel or iron may be hot dipped or be coated using
electrolytic plating
◼ Provides excellent corrosion resistance
◼ Also used as the base metal in many die casting
alloys
❑ Reasonably high strength and impact resistance
❑ Can be cast close to dimensional tolerances with extremely
thin section
❑ Low energy costs due to low melting temperature
8.6 Titanium and Titanium Alloys

◼ Titanium is a strong, lightweight, corrosion resistant

metal
◼ Properties are between those of steel and aluminum
◼ Less dense than steel
◼ Can be used in high temperature applications
◼ High energy costs for fabrication
◼ Fabrication methods: casting, forging, rolling,
extrusion, welding
◼ Abundant material, but is difficult to process from
ore
◼ Aerospace applications, medical implants, bicycles,
heat exchangers are common uses
8.7 Nickel Based Alloys

◼ Outstanding strength and corrosion resistance at

high temperatures
❑ Wrought alloys are known as Monel, Hastelloy, Inconel,
Incoloy, and others
❑ Good formability, creep resistance, strength and ductility at
low temperatures
◼ Can be used in food-processing industries, turbine
blades
◼ Electrical resistors and heating elements typically
use nickel-chromium alloys (Nichrome)
◼ Superalloys are those alloys that are suitable for
high temperature applications
8.8 Superalloys and Other Metals
Designed for High-Temperature Service
◼ Alloys based on nickel, iron, cobalt
◼ Retain most of their strength even after long
exposures to high temperatures
◼ Strength comes from solid solution strengthening,
precipitation hardening, and dispersion
strengthening
◼ The density of superalloys is much greater than that
of iron
◼ Difficult to machine
❑ Electrodischarge, electrochemical, ultrasonic machining,
powder metallurgy
High Temperature Alloys
◼ Refractory metals
❑ Use niobium, molybdenum,
tantalum, rhenium, and
Figure 8-6 Temperature tungsten
scale indicating the upper
limit to useful mechanical
❑ Coating technology is difficult
properties for various
because of their ceramic
engineering metals.
coating
◼ Intermetallic Compounds
❑ Provide properties between
metals and ceramics
❑ Hard, stiff, creep resistant,
oxidation resistant, high-
temperature strength
❑ Poor ductility, poor fracture
toughness, and poor fatigue
resistance
❑ Difficult to fabricate
8.9 Lead, Tin, and Their Alloys

◼ Lead alloys
❑ High density, high strength and stiffness
❑ Storage batteries, radiation absorption
❑ Good corrosion resistance, low melting point,
ease of casting or forming
◼ Tin alloys
❑ Used with lead
❑ Solder
❑ Bearing materials
8.10 Some Lesser Known Metals and
Alloys
◼ Beryllium
❑ Less dense than aluminum, greater stiffness than steel,
transparent to x-rays
❑ Used in nuclear reactors because of it low neutron absorption (as
well as hafnium and thorium)
◼ Uranium
❑ High density

◼ Cobalt
❑ Base metal for superalloys

◼ Zirconium
❑ Outstanding corrosion resistance

❑ High strength, good weldability, fatigue resistance

◼ Precious metals offer outstanding corrosion resistance and

electrical conductivity
8.11 Metallic Glasses

◼ Amorphous metals are formed by cooling

liquid metal extremely quickly so that no
crystalline structure can form
❑ Lacks grain boundaries and dislocations
❑ High strength, large elastic strain, good
toughness, wear resistance, magnetic, corrosion
resistance
❑ Used in load bearing structures, electronic
casings, sporting goods
8.12 Graphite

◼ Properties of metals and nonmetals

◼ Good thermal and electrical conductivity
◼ Can withstand high temperatures
◼ Lubricant
◼ Used as electrodes in arc furnaces
◼ Rocket-nozzles
◼ Permanent molds for casting
Summary

◼ Nonferrous metals are used in a variety of

applications
◼ Many nonferrous metals are lower in weight
than steel and are used in applications where
weight is a consideration
◼ Many have better corrosion resistance than
steels
◼ Nonferrous metals are often more expensive
than iron based metals or alloys