Alloy material is made of two or more than two kinds of metal and non-metallic materials which are synthesized by certain methods. Generally, it is obtained by melting homogeneous liquid and solidifying. According to the number of constituent elements, it can be divided into two element alloy, three element alloy and multi-component alloy. According to the structure, the main types of the alloys are:
(1) a mixture of alloy (eutectic mixture), when the liquid alloy solidified, the alloys, such as soldering tin and bismuth cadmium alloy, were formed respectively in each component of the alloy.
(2) solid melt alloys, such as gold and silver alloys, when solid alloys are formed when liquid alloys solidify.
(3) metal intermetallics, alloys composed of compounds that form compounds, such as brass and brass (beta brass, gamma brass and epsilon brass).
Many properties of alloys are better than pure metals, so alloys are widely used in Applied Materials (see ferroalloys and stainless steels).
The generality of alloy
All types of alloys have the following general properties:
(1) the melting point of most alloys is less than that of any of their components.
(2) hardness is generally greater than that of any metal in its components; (special case: sodium potassium alloy is liquid, used as heat conducting agent in an atomic reactor).
(3) the electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of the alloy are lower than that of any component metal. Using this characteristic of alloy, high resistance and high thermal resistance materialscan be manufactured. It can also produce materials with special properties, such as adding 15% chromium and 9% nickel in iron to obtain a corrosion-resistant stainless steel, suitable for chemical industry.
(4) some corrosion resistance (such as stainless steel)