NONFERROUS METALS

AND ALLOYS
 INTRODUCTION
⚫Nonferrous metals and alloys often possess
certain properties or combinations of
properties that are not available in the ferrous
metals, such as:
1. Resistance to corrosion
2.Ease of fabrication
3.High electrical and thermal conductivity
4.Light weight
5.Strength at elevated temperatures
6.Color
Classification of some nonferrous metals by
advantageous engineering properties
The Material Content of a Typical Family
Vehicle (in pounds)
COPPER AND COPPER ALLOYS
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Copper has been an important engineering metal for
over 6000 years.
⚫As a pure metal, it has been the backbone of the
electrical industry.
⚫It is also the base metal of a number of alloys,
generically known as brasses and bronzes.
⚫Compared to other engineering materials, copper and
copper alloys offer three important properties:
1)high electrical and thermal conductivity,
2)useful strength with high ductility,
3)corrosion resistance
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Because of its excellent conductivity, about one-third
of all copper produced is used in some form of
electrical application, such as the commutators.
⚫Other large areas of use include plumbing, heating,
and air conditioning.
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Because of its relatively low strength and high
ductility, copper is a very desirable metal for
applications where extensive forming is required.
⚫Since the recrystallization temperature for copper is
less than 260°C (500°F), the hardening effects of cold
working can also be easily removed.
⚫Copper and copper alloys lend themselves nicely to
the whole spectrum of fabrication processes,
including casting, machining, joining, and surface
finishing by either plating or polishing.
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Copper is heavier than iron .
⚫Copper alloys tend to soften when heated above 220°C
(400°F), and if copper is stressed for a long period of
time at high temperature, intercrystalline failure can
occur at about half of its normal room-temperature
strength.
⚫While offering good resistance to adhesive wear,
copper and copper alloys have poor abrasive wear
characteristics.
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Strength tends to increase as temperatures drop, and
the material does not embrittle, retaining attractive
ductility even under cryogenic conditions.
⚫Conductivity also tends to increase with a drop in
temperature.
⚫Copper and copper alloys respond well to
strengthening methods, with the strongest alloy
being 15 to 20 times stronger than the weakest.
⚫Because of the wide range of properties, the material
can often be tailored to the specific needs of a design.
⚫Elastic stiffness is between 50 and 60% of steel.
 COMMERCIALLY PURE COPPER
⚫Refined copper containing between 0.02 and
0.05% oxygen is called electrolytic tough-pitch
(ETP) copper.
⚫It is often used as a base for copper alloys and
may be used for electrical applications, such as
wire and cable, when the highest conductivity
is not required.
⚫For superior conductivity, additional refining
can reduce the oxygen content and produce
oxygen-free high-conductivity (OFHC) copper.
 COPPER-BASED ALLOYS
⚫As a pure metal, copper is not used extensively
in manufactured products, except in electrical
applications, and even here alloy additions of
silver, arsenic, cadmium, and zirconium are
used to enhance various properties without
significantly impairing conductivity.
⚫More often, copper is the base metal for an
alloy, where it imparts its good ductility,
corrosion resistance, and electrical and
thermal conductivity.
 COPPER-BASED ALLOYS
⚫ Table below presents a breakdown of this system, which has
been further adopted by the American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE),
and the U.S. government.
 COPPER–ZINC ALLOYS
⚫Zinc is by far the most popular alloying addition, and
the resulting alloys are generally known as some form
of brass.
⚫If the zinc content is less than 36%, the brass is a
single-phase solid solution.
⚫Since this structure is identified as the alpha phase,
these alloys are often called alpha brasses.
⚫With more than 36% zinc, the copper–zinc alloys
enter a two-phase region involving a brittle, zinc-rich
phase, and ductility drops markedly.
 COPPER–ZINC ALLOYS
⚫Most brasses have good corrosion resistance.
⚫In the range of 0 to 40% zinc, the addition of a small
amount of tin imparts improved resistance to
seawater corrosion.
⚫Cartridge brass with tin becomes admiralty brass, and
the 40% zinc Muntz metal with a tin addition is
called naval brass.
⚫Brasses with 20 to 36% zinc, however, are subject to a
selective corrosion, known as dezincification, when
exposed to acidic or salt solutions.
⚫Brasses with more than 15% zinc often experience
season cracking or stress–corrosion cracking.
COPPER–ZINC ALLOYS
 COPPER–NICKEL ALLOYS
⚫Copper and nickel exhibit complete solubility and a
wide range of useful alloys have been developed.
⚫Key features include high thermal conductivity, high-
temperature strength, and corrosion resistance to a
range of materials, including seawater.
⚫Cupronickels contain 2 to 30% nickel.
⚫Nickel silvers contain no silver, but 10 to 30% nickel
and at least 5% zinc.
⚫An alloy with 45% nickel is known as constantan, and
the 67%-nickel material is called Monel.
 OTHER COPPER-BASED ALLOYS
⚫Within the copper-alloy family, alloys containing
aluminum, silicon, or beryllium can be strengthened
by precipitation hardening.
⚫Aluminum–bronze alloys are best known for their
combination of high strength and excellent corrosion
resistance, and they are often considered to be cost-
effective alternatives to stainless steel and nickel-
based alloys. With less than 8% aluminum, the alloys
are very ductile. When aluminum exceeds 9%,
however, the ductility drops and the hardness
approaches that of steel.
 OTHER COPPER-BASED ALLOYS
⚫Silicon–bronzes contain up to 4% silicon and
1.5% zinc (higher zinc contents may be used
when the material is to be cast). Strength,
formability, machinability, and corrosion
resistance are all quite good.
⚫Copper–beryllium alloys, which ordinarily
contain less than 2% beryllium, can be age
hardened to produce the highest strengths of
the copper-based metals but are quite
expensive to use.
 OTHER COPPER-BASED ALLOYS
⚫In the copper-beryllium alloys, these properties make
the material an excellent choice for electrical contact
springs, but cost limits application to small
components requiring long life and high reliability.
⚫Other applications, such as spark-resistant safety
tools and spot-welding electrodes, utilize the unique
combination of properties:
1. the material has the strength of heat-treated steel but
is also;
2.nonsparking, nonmagnetic, and electrically and
thermally conductive.
 LEAD-FREE CASTING ALLOYS
⚫With increased concern about lead in drinking
water and the introduction of environmental
regulations, efforts were made to develop lead-
free copper-based casting alloys.
⚫Among the most common are the EnviroBrass
alloys, which use bismuth and selenium as
substitutes for lead.
⚫Bismuth is not known to be toxic for humans
and has been used in a popular remedy for an
upset stomach.
⚫Selenium is an essential nutrient for humans.
ALUMINUM AND ALUMINUM
ALLOYS
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Although aluminum has only been a commercial
metal for about 120 years, it now ranks second to steel
in both worldwide quantity and expenditure, and it is
clearly the most important of the nonferrous metals.
⚫A number of unique and attractive properties account
for the engineering significance of aluminum.
1. Workability
2.light weight
3.corrosion resistance
4.good electrical and thermal conductivity
5.optical reflectivity
 GENERAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
⚫Aluminum can be recycled repeatedly with no loss in
quality, and recycling saves 95% of the energy
required to produce aluminum from ore.
⚫Disadvantages:
✔A serious weakness of aluminum from an engineering
viewpoint is its relatively low modulus of elasticity,
which is also about one-third that of steel.
✔Under identical loadings, an aluminum component
will deflect three times as much as a steel component
of the same design.
 COMMERCIALLY PURE ALUMINUM
⚫In its pure state, aluminum is soft, ductile, and not
very strong.
⚫In the annealed condition, pure aluminum has only
about one-fifth the strength of hot-rolled structural
steel.
⚫Commercially pure aluminum, therefore, is used
primarily for its physical rather than its mechanical
properties.
⚫Electrical-conductor-grade aluminum is used in large
quantities and has replaced copper in many
applications, such as electrical transmission lines.
 CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
⚫Aluminum alloys can be divided into two
major groups based on the method of
fabrication.
1. Wrought alloys are those that are shaped as
solids and are therefore designed to have
attractive forming characteristics, such as low
yield strength, high ductility, good fracture
resistance, and good strain hardening.
2.Casting alloys achieve their shape as they
solidify in molds or dies.
 WROUGHT ALUMINUM ALLOYS

⚫The various wrought alloys are often