• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Alloys {Terminology}

Share this page

AweMan

AweMan

Jedi Knight
Offline
In browsing through the forum I have ran across the term Alloy, mostly in refrence to Aluminum. Most certainly Aluminum can be and most often is an Alloy, But in it`s pure form is NOT an alloy. Brass and Bronze are always Alloys consisting of copper and tin or zink to create brass or bronze. Steel is Always an Alloy consisting of Iron, carbon, and many other substances most metalic, some not,{for example silica} to give it it`s structural properties.
When we speak of a part bieng an Alloy part most of us take it for granted that the said part is Aluminum {which may or may not be the case}.
Even cast iron is an Alloy.
I know this is trivial but I just thought some of you would like to know exactly what an ALLOY is.
 
Alloy is to a lightweight material as Jeep is to an off road 4x4 vehicle. Common term yet completely inaccurate.
 
Alloy=admixture of materials.

Solder.

"Stainless" steel, too.

Never used it to mean anything else.
 
Maybe alloy stuck to aluminum 'cause alloy is pronounced the same on both sides of the pond. Thus minimizing having to pull out the English-to-English dictionary. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazyeyes.gif
 
DrEntropy said:
Alloy=admixture of materials.

Solder.

"Stainless" steel, too.

Never used it to mean anything else.
Click to expand...
Exactly right Doc. But then you already knew that!
I was speaking in refrence to Alloy valve covers and Alloy radiators, which in a sense is absolutely correct termanoligy. But would be much better refrenced as Aluminum Alloy whatevers. Again, trivial, but for the fact that someone like me and possibly you, maby some others, the meaning of the term Alloy is pretty broad ranging.
I didn`t want to start a fued over termanoligy here, Just clarification of information for general use.
 
AweMan said:
I know this is trivial but I just thought some of you would like to know exactly what an ALLOY is.
Click to expand...
I agree completely, except that I've never heard of pure aluminum being useful for anything. AFAIK it's always alloyed with something, even when (much like "cast iron") it's only with impurities that were not removed during the refining process.

But I believe assuming that the term "alloy" when used without qualification indicates an aluminum alloy is common usage (particularly in Britain/UK). It's more of an American practice to call something "aluminum" when in fact it is an aluminum alloy.
 
Randall:
There are multiple categories of cast iron. Wrought cast {which is, I assume the cast iron of which you speak}, It is pure iron other than the impurities not removed during the forging process. Then there is Grey cast, White cast, Malleable cast, Nodular cast, Ni-hard type 2 cast and Ni-resist type 2 cast. All with different properties due to the addition of elements to give them thier varying properties. Some of these elements are Slilca,in varying percentages for each different type. Carbon, also in varying percentages, Nodular cast has Tiny amounts of magnesium or cerium added to make it more ductile. The Ni types also have Nickle added to improve thier properties for specific purposes.
I know I know .... More than you ever wanted to know about cast iron
You are correct about Pure Aluminum it has very few uses other than to make "Aluminum Alloys"
Industrial and automotive parts made out of cast Iron are always "Alloys"
Wrought iron is ornamental iron.
 
Well, I suppose it's all a matter of how you look at it. Grey cast iron, for example (which is what I think of as simply "cast iron"), has carbon reduced to around 3% (varying somewhat with exactly which grey cast iron /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif ), while raw pig iron from the smelter typically has 5% or more. Silicon content is also normally reduced to make grey iron (tho sometimes not, since pig iron is highly variable). Sulfur and other things typically have to be reduced as well.

Or at least so it was using the old processes I've looked at; perhaps modern smelting methods produce better pig iron or even grey iron directly. It also at least used to be that other forms of cast iron were made by further refining grey cast iron; which is likely no longer true. But I agree, other elements are usually added to make other cast irons.

I actually hope to try smelting my own iron some day; so I do find it interesting. Likely no one else on this list does, however (and I'll have to retire away from CA's smog basin before I'd even think about firing up a backyard smelter ).
 
I grew up in the Steel Valley of PA. Third generation mill rat. Level II NDT Inspector. SAE & ASTM manuals still lyin' around here... I've looked at my share of materials, fer sure. Still fascinating to me, Randall. The first ultrasonic testing proceedures for nuclear grade materials was developed in my living room when I was a kid. Learned practical applications for Snell's Law at age 7. My tutors were metallurgists & physicists. PhD's. My Ol' Fella's crowd. They all had MG's, TR's 'n Jags, too! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
 
Hello Kerry,

" Wrought iron is ornamental iron."

probably today that is about all it is used for but it has properties that made it a good material to make chains (by hammer welding) and crane hooks etc as it is quite a malleable iron.
Superseded by alloy steels I guess, these days.

To comment on your original post, anyone with an engineering or chemical background understands that being told an item is made of alloy would find it an incomplete description unless they were actually looking at it. Much like asking what is for dinner tonight and being told it's a mix.

Alec
 
Exactly my point Alec,

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thankyousign.gif
 
A lot of lobster boats (up to about 30m) are built where I am in "ali", interesting to me is that they need to be grounded neg I think, rather than pos, something to do with electrolysis, piques my curiosity as to whether my healey would have less rot to ali panels with neg rather than pos earth
 
Think: "anode/cathode" here, zblu. :wink:
 
Back
Top