Alloy Technical Definition

An alloy is a metal that is the homogeneous combination oI a metal and another element,
usually another metal. They are used to improve strength and perIormance in required
applications, and they generally have diIIerent properties Irom the component elements. Most oI
the metal around us is an alloy, and they are a major reason Ior the technology we have today.
Steel is primarily an alloy oI iron and carbon, and karat gold is a mix oI gold with iron allowing
it to be harder and less Ilexible.
How Alloys Work
Two things take place to allow alloy to Iormation, atom exchange and interstitial
mechanism. When atoms are similar in size atom exchange happens. This means that atoms oI
one constituent element are replaced with those oI another. The interstitial mechanism occurs
when one atom is smaller than the other, thereby causing the smaller ones to get trapped between
the spaces oI the larger one.
An alloy that only has two components is called a binary alloy, and one with three is
called a ternary alloy. The primary metal in an alloy is called the matrix. For example, the matrix
in steel is iron. The way alloys work is that they are largely based on the sizes oI the atoms that
are part oI the alloy. Larger atoms exert compressive Iorce on the smaller ones, and the smaller
ones exert tensile Iorce. All in all those two Iorces help the alloy resist deIormation. However,
the physical properties such as density and electrical conductivity oI an alloy`s matrix do not
diIIer much. It`s the engineering properties such as tensile strength and general strength that
change.

History of Alloys
Alloys have been ubiquitous in human history, and the use oI them gave the name to the
Bronze Age. Early on, cooper was valued by people due to its hardness, and it was one oI the
Iirst important metals. By 2500 BC people Iigured out how to extract it Irom ore and with that
noted you could mix tin into molten cooper to Iorm bronze. Bronze allowed people to make
objects that were stronger and harder to break than beIore. However, because tin was a rare metal,
people couldn`t produce bronze to the quantity they desired. Luckily people Iound you could mix
zinc into cooper to Iorm brass, and many historical art pieces were made Irom it. The Romans
also later Iigured out mercury could be extracted Irom cimber. They used mercury with other
metals to Iorm an alloy paste that could be used to glid metals.
Steel has been seen in antiquity and was produced by iron smelting places that contained
carbon. One oI these places was in Anatolia, Turkey where people have excavated steel around
4000 years old. Another notable piece oI trivia was that the Haya people oI east AIrica created a
type oI Iurnace that allowed Ior temperatures up to 1800 Celsius. This allowed them to produce
steel 2000 years beIore the modern making oI steel in the European industrial revolution. The
modern production oI steel started aIter the invention oI the blast Iurnace. Previously there was
no way to get iron to the required temperature to add in carbon to a large extent. The carbon was
Iirst added in with the use oI charcoal, however that was later replaced by coke, which is another
high carbon substance, because it was cheaper. The Bessemer process Iurther enhanced the
eIIiciently oI the steel process by the introduction oI pig iron.
Steel
Steel is one oI the most commonly seen alloys today. Steel needs more than iron and
carbon to be useIul in today`s industry. Steel with only carbon has a relatively low melting point,
and it does not contain any special traits. Addition oI certain speciIic metals such as
molybdenum and tungsten increase the melting point. The main Iorm oI steel we use today is
called chromium steel, also known as stainless steel. It is a mix oI 88 percent carbonated iron and
12 percent chromium.
The process oI making steel Irom scratch is called integrated steel manuIacturing. It
involves iron being smelted with coke and limestone in a blast Iurnace. The molten ore is then
directly used in the next process or it is turned into pit iron, which is brittle with a high carbon
concentration, to be used later. The impurities in the molten ore are then removed and diIIerent
things such as manganese, nickel, and chromium are added to give the required steel
characteristics. When all that is completed the steel is then molded into its desired shape and then
compressed.
Renaissance Services. (2009). Steel flow chart. A picture oI the various steps needed in order to produce steel Irom
scratch.

!roblems and Concerns
The making oI alloys has some problems to consider. Sometimes the metals used in an
alloy process have greatly diIIerent boiling points. This results in problems because the solution
might not be homogenous and one might boil and get mixed into the atmosphere. Other concerns
are the metals having diIIerent densities, or iI one oI is too soluble in the other. Solutions to these
problems are by having added metals directly stirred in and by using powdered metals.
Regarding the problem oI having densities, they have to be constantly stirred.
Conculsion
Alloys hold great importance in allowing us to become the society we are today. The
invention oI the alloying process allowed Ior great technology advances, and even more alloys
being discovered today. The new age oI designing new materials lies in the region oI material
sciences engineering.








ReIerences
lloying . Understanding the basics(2001). In Davis J. R. (. R. ). (Ed.), . Materials Park, OH:
ASM International.
Llewellyn, D. T. (1992). Steels . Metallurgy and applications / D.T. llewellyn. OxIord ; Boston:
Butterworth Heinemann.
Northeast Waste Management OIIicials' Association, Illinois Waste Management & Research
Center. Primary metals industry. Retrieved October, 2011, Irom
http://www.istc.illinois.edu/inIo/librarydocs/manuals/primmetals/chapter2.htm
Renaissance Services. (2009). Steel flow chart. Retrieved October, 2011, Irom http://blog.ren-
services.com/?attachmentid125
Smith, C. S. 1. (1960). history of metallography, the development of ideas on the structure of
metals before 1890. Chicago: University oI Chicago Press.