Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Alloy
You might see the word alloy described as a "mixture of metals", but
that's a little bit misleading because some alloys contain only one metal and it's
mixed in with other substances that are nonmetals (cast iron, for example, is
an alloy made of just one metal, iron, mixed with one nonmetal, carbon). The
best way to think of an alloy is as a material that's made up of at least two
different chemical elements, one of which is a metal.

The most important metallic component of an alloy (often representing 90

percent or more of the material) is called the main metal, the parent metal,
or the base metal. The other components of an alloy (which are called alloying
agents) can be either metals or nonmetals and they're present in much smaller
quantities (sometimes less than 1 percent of the total). Although an alloy can
sometimes be a compound (the elements it's made from are chemically bonded
together), it's usually a solid solution (atoms of the elements are simply
intermixed, like salt mixed with water).

Metal Alloys

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Here are some Metal Alloys with its applications. If you want a full list of
Metal Alloys, there components and applications you can visit this site:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/alloys/a/list-of-alloys.htm, for a more in depth
discussion on the matter.

Alloy

Components

Typical uses

Amalga

Mercury (4555%), plus silver, tin,

copper, and zinc.

Babbitt

Tin (90%), antimony (715%), copper (4

Friction-reducing

metal

10%).

coating in machine

("white

Dental fillings.

bearings.

metal")

Brass

Copper (6590%), zinc (1035%).

Door locks and bolts,

brass musical
instruments, central
heating pipes.

Bronze

Copper (7895%), tin (522%), plus

Decorative statues,

manganese, phosphorus, aluminum, or

musical instruments.

silicon.

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Cast

Iron (9698%), carbon (24%), plus

Metal structures

iron

silicon.

such as bridges and

heavy-duty cookware.

Duralu

Aluminum (94%), copper (4.55%),

Automobile and

min

magnesium (0.51.5%), manganese (0.5

aircraft body parts,

1.5%).

military equipment.

Nickel (80%), chromium (20%).

Firework ignition

Nichro
me

devices, heating
elements in electrical
appliances.

Steel

Iron (8098%), carbon (0.22%), plus

Metal structures, car

(genera

other metals such as chromium,

and airplane parts,

l)

manganese, and vanadium.

and many other

uses.

Steel

Iron (50%+), chromium (1030%), plus

Jewelry, medical

(stainle

smaller amounts of carbon, nickel,

tools, tableware.

ss)

manganese, molybdenum, and other

metals.

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Steel Alloys
Alloy steel is steel that is alloyed with a variety of elements in total amounts
between 1.0% and 50% by weight to improve its mechanical or physical properties.

Strictly speaking, every steel is an alloy, but not all steels are called "alloy
steels". The simplest steels are iron (Fe) alloyed with carbon (C) (about 0.1% to 1%,
depending on type). However, the term "alloy steel" is the standard term referring to
steels with other alloying elements added deliberately in addition to the carbon.
Common alloyants include manganese, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, vanadium,
silicon, and boron. Less common alloyants include aluminum, cobalt, copper, cerium,
niobium, titanium, tungsten, tin, zinc, lead, and zirconium.

Element

Primary function

Percentage

Aluminium

ng Lungsod
ng Maynila
0.951.30 Pamantasan
Alloying element
in nitriding
steels

Bismuth

Improves machinability

Boron

0.0010.003

A powerful hardenability agent

0.52

Increases hardenability

418

Increases corrosion resistance

Copper

0.10.4

Corrosion resistance

Lead

Improved machinability

College Of Engineering and Technology

Chromium

Combines with sulfur and with phosphorus to

0.250.40

reduce the brittleness. Also helps to remove excess

oxygen from molten steel.

Manganese
>1

Increases hardenability by lowering transformation

points and causing transformations to be sluggish
Stable carbides; inhibits grain growth. Increases the
toughness of steel, thus making molybdenum a very

Molybdenum

0.25

valuable alloy metal for making the cutting parts of

machine tools and also the turbine blades of turbojet
engines. Also used in rocket motors.

25

Toughener

1220

Increases corrosion resistance

0.20.7

Increases strength

2.0

Spring steels

Nickel

Silicon

Higher
percentages
Sulfur

0.080.15

Titanium

Tungsten

Improves magnetic properties

Free-machining properties
Fixes carbon in inert particles; reduces martensitic
hardness in chromium steels
Also increases the melting point.

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

* Note: The following is a range of improved properties in alloy steels (as compared to
carbon steels): strength, hardness, toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance,
hardenability, and hot hardness. To achieve some of these improved properties the
metal may require heat treating.

Manufacturing Process
You might find the idea of an alloy as a "mixture of metals" quite confusing.
How can you mix together two lumps of solid metal? The raw materials for all of the
processes are 2 or more powdered metals or elements that are to be combined to yield
a metal with the desired characteristics.

The traditional way of making alloys was called Heat Treatment. It is the
process of heating and melting the components to make liquids, mix them together,
and then allow them to cool into what's called a solid solution (the solid equivalent of a
solution like salt in water).

An alternative way of making an alloy is to turn the components into powders,

mix them together, and then fuse them with a combination of high pressure and high
temperature. This technique is called Powder Metallurgy.

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

A third method of making alloys is to fire beams of ions (atoms with too few or
too many electrons) into the surface layer of a piece of metal. Ion implantation, as
this is known, is a very precise way of making an alloy. It's probably best known as a
way of making the semiconductors used in electronic circuits and computer chips.
(Read more about this in our article on molecular beam epitaxy.)

Heat Treatment
Heat treating of steel is the process of heating and cooling of carbon steel
to change the steel's physical and mechanical properties without changing the
original shape and size.
Heat Treating is often associated with increasing the strength of the
steel, but it can also be used to alter certain manufacturability objectives such
as improve machinability, formability, restore ductility etc. Thus heat treating is
a very useful process to helps other manufacturing processes and also improve
product performance by increasing strength or provides other desirable
characteristics. High carbon steels are particularly suitable for heat treatment,
since carbon steel respond well to heat treatment and the commercial use of
steels exceeds that of any other material.

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Topics Covered
I. The Softening Processes
-Annealing
-Normalising
II. The Hardening Processes
-

Hardening
Tempering

III. Thermochemical Processes

-

Carburising
Nitriding
Boronising

The Softening Process

Annealing
Used variously to soften, relieve internal stresses, and improve machinability
and to develop particular mechanical and physical properties.
In special silicon steels used for transformer laminations annealing develops
the particular microstructure that confers the unique electrical properties.
Normalising

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Also used to soften and relieve internal stresses after cold work and to refine
the grain size and metallurgical structure. It may be used to break up the
dendritic (as cast) structure of castings to improve their machinability and
future heat treatment response or to mitigate banding in rolled steel.
This requires heating to above the As temperature, holding for sufficient time to
allow temperature equalisation followed by air cooling.

The Hardening Process

Hardening
In this process steels which contain sufficient carbon, and perhaps other
alloying elements, are cooled (quenched) sufficiently rapidly from above the
transformation temperature to produce Martensite.
There is a range of quenching media of varying severity, water or brine being
the most severe, through oil and synthetic products to air which is the least
severe.

Tempering

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

After quenching the steel is hard, brittle and internally stressed. Before use,
it is usually necessary to reduce these stresses and increase toughness by
'tempering'. There will also be a reduction in hardness and the selection of
tempering temperature dictates the final properties. Tempering curves, which
are plots of hardness against tempering temperature. exist for all commercial
steels and are used to select the correct tempering temperature. As a rule of
thumb, within the tempering range for a particular steel, the higher the
tempering temperature the lower the final hardness but the greater the
toughness.

The Thermochemical Process

Carburising
Carbon diffusion (carburising) produces a higher carbon steel composition on
the part surface. It is usually necessary to harden both this layer and the
substrate after carburising.
Nitriding
Nitrogen diffusion (nitriding) and boron diffusion (boronising or boriding) both
produce hard intermetallic compounds at the surface. These layers are
intrinsically hard and do not need heat treatment themselves.
Nitrogen diffusion (nitriding) is often carried out at or below the tempering
temperature of the steels used. Hence they can be hardened prior to nitriding
and the nitriding can also be used as a temper.
Boronising
Boronised substrates will often require heat treatment to restore mechanical
properties. As borides degrade in atmospheres which contain oxygen, even

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

when combined as CO or C02, they must be heat treated in vacuum, nitrogen

or nitrogen/hydrogen atmospheres.
IRON CARBON DIAGRAM
Phases observed:
a. Ferrite
Ferrite is the interstitial solid solution of carbon in alpha iron. It has B.C.C. Structure.
It has very limited solubility for carbon (maximum 0.022% at 727C and 0.008% at
room temperature). Ferrite is soft and ductile.
b. Cementite
Cementite or iron carbide (Fe3C) is an intermetallic compound of iron and carbon. It
contains 6.67% carbon. It is very hard and brittle. This intermetallic compound is a
metastable phase and it remains as a compound indefinitely at room temperature.
c. Austenite
Austenite is the interstitial solid solution of carbon in gamma () iron. It has FCC
structure. Austenite can have maximum 2.14% carbon at 1143C. Austenite is
normally not stable at room temperature. Austenite is non-magnetic and soft.

Phase mixture observed:

1. Pearlite
The pearlite consists of alternate layers of ferrite and cementite. It has
properties somewhere between ferrite and cementite. The average carbon
content in pearlite is 0.76%

2. Ledeburite
Ledeburite is an eutetcic mixture of austenite and cementite in the form of
alternate layers. The average carbon content in ledeburite is 4.3%.

Fe-C ALLOYS:

Steel- Steels are alloys of iron and carbon containing up to 2.14% C. Other
alloying elements may also be present in steels.

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

Cast Iron- Cast irons are alloys of iron and carbon containing more than
2.14% C. Other alloying elements may also be present in cast irons.
IMPORTANT REACTIONS IN IRON CARBON DIAGRAM:

Eutectic reaction

Eutectic: 4.30 wt% C, 1147 C

L (4.30% C) (2.14% C) + Fe3C

Eutectoid reaction

Eutectoid: 0.76 wt%C, 727 C

(0.76% C) (0.022% C) + Fe3C

Peritectic Reaction

Peritectic: 0.16% C, 14930 C

(0.11% C) + L(0.51%C) (0.16%C)

IRON CARBON DIAGRAM

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College Of Engineering and Technology

0
Peritectic: 0.16% C, 1493 C
(0.11% C) + L(0.51)%C

Eutectic: 4.30 wt% C,

1147 C
L (4.30% C) (2.14%

Eutectoid: 0.76 wt%C, 727

C
(0.76% C) (0.022% C)