Thanks: 0
Likes: 0
Needs Pictures: 0
Picture(s) thanks: 0
Results 1 to 10 of 10
Thread: Alloy
-
27th Jul 2012, 09:42 PM #1Retired
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
- Location
- Liverpool, NSW
- Posts
- 44
Alloy
I hate to be a wordsnob but I need to say this; I notice that LOTS of people use the word "Alloy" when I suspect they really mean Aluminium. Two TOTALLY different meanings.
Stainless steel is an alloy. So is brass and titanium.
Aluminium is aluminium (as far as I know anyway).
I refuse to call aluminim an alloy as its simply not correct. Or am I missing something?
-
27th Jul 2012, 10:27 PM #2
I always understood the use of that expression to refect that very few aluminium end products anre NOT alloyed with manganes, zinc, copper or magnesium.
Hope that is right.
Joe
-
27th Jul 2012, 10:28 PM #3Golden Member
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Location
- Ballina, NSW
- Posts
- 900
Very few metals are used in their pure form in our industrial world. Take the various grades of aluminium, they have varying amounts of magnesium, copper, etc. in them, and therefore are technically alloys. Same goes for steel - it's iron alloyed with other metals as well as carbon. Brass is an alloy. Pure titanium isn't.
A lot of people abbreviate aluminium to "ally" which I guess is easily confused with alloy, and as you point out, not really the best use of the word. Having said that though, there are "alloy" bull bars and lots of other examples - just something you have to get used to.
-
27th Jul 2012, 10:30 PM #4Member: Blue and white apron brigade
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Perth
- Posts
- 7,183
From Aluminium alloy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1000 series are essentially pure aluminium with a minimum 99% aluminium content by weight and can be work hardened.
2000 series are alloyed with copper, can be precipitation hardened to strengths comparable to steel. Formerly referred to as duralumin, they were once the most common aerospace alloys, but were susceptible to stress corrosion cracking and are increasingly replaced by 7000 series in new designs.
3000 series are alloyed with manganese, and can be work hardened.
4000 series are alloyed with silicon. They are also known as silumin.
5000 series are alloyed with magnesium.
6000 series are alloyed with magnesium and silicon, are easy to machine, and can be precipitation hardened, but not to the high strengths that 2000 and 7000 can reach.
7000 series are alloyed with zinc, and can be precipitation hardened to the highest strengths of any aluminium alloy.
8000 series is a category mainly used for lithium alloys.
-
28th Jul 2012, 10:16 AM #5Retired
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
- Location
- Liverpool, NSW
- Posts
- 44
OK. So perhaps even aluminium itself is an alloy. But using the word Alloy is as descriptive as Metal. To me, an alloy just means a metal made up of two or more raw materials. I just hate it when people say alloy when they really mean aluminium.
-
28th Jul 2012, 10:25 AM #6Member: Blue and white apron brigade
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Perth
- Posts
- 7,183
I agree that alloy is a stupid term for aluminium even if we are talking about practical uses where it is an alloy.
Aluminium is an element and so is iron but we never use pure iron. For iron we have a useful term called "steel" which is a general term for iron based alloys.
Maybe we need a new name for aluminium alloys?
-
28th Jul 2012, 02:14 PM #7Retired
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
- Location
- Liverpool, NSW
- Posts
- 44
-
28th Jul 2012, 03:58 PM #8
I've always thought that people who say 'alloy' are using it as a general purpose descriptor for any "It hasn't gone rusty so 'taint that real metal metal" - ie anything from zinc diecast to aluminium, magnesium or titanium.
-
28th Jul 2012, 09:00 PM #9Senior Member
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
- Location
- Perth
- Posts
- 269
That silver stuff
Struth Mate
Called it by its real atomic symbol AL I think it is.
DD
-
29th Jul 2012, 12:05 AM #10Member
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
- Location
- Adelaide
- Posts
- 75
maybe i should re word the title of the thread i put up the other day
Similar Threads
-
SOLD: Alloy Pulley
By eskimo in forum METALWORK - Machinery, Equipment, MARKETReplies: 4Last Post: 6th Jan 2012, 08:31 AM -
Alloy Coupling
By Wahoon in forum TRAILERS & OTHER FABRICATED STUFFReplies: 2Last Post: 17th Jan 2011, 12:41 AM -
NB2B alloy
By Brickie in forum METALWORK GENERALReplies: 8Last Post: 1st Jan 2008, 07:18 AM