Nonferrous metals are of commercial interest both as engineering materials and as alloying agents. This chapter addresses both roles, discussing the properties, processing characteristics, and applications of several categories of nonferrous metals, including light metals, corrosion-resistance alloys, superalloys, refractory metals, low-melting-point metals, reactive metals, precious metals, rare earth metals, and metalloids or semimetals. It also provides a brief summary on special-purpose materials, including uranium, vanadium, magnetic alloys, and thermocouple materials.

This chapter describes the properties and uses of aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and other nonferrous alloys. It also discusses the effect of cold working and the process of annealing, including recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth.

This chapter discusses the compositions, properties, and applications of nonferrous metals, including zirconium, hafnium, beryllium, lead, tin, gold, silver, and platinum group metals. It also addresses fusible alloys and provides melting temperatures for several compositions.

This appendix lists etch compositions and procedures that reveal strain patterns in aluminum and nickel-base superalloys.

This chapter discusses the use of phase diagrams in alloy design, processing, and performance assessment. The examples cover both ferrous and nonferrous metals and a variety of goals and objectives. The chapter also identifies limitations and pitfalls associated with the use of phase diagrams.

This appendix provides reference tables listing weldability of cast irons, steels, and nonferrous metals. A process selection table for arc welding carbon steels is included, and recommended preheat and interpass temperature tables are also presented. This appendix includes information on qualification codes and standards.

In forgings of both ferrous and nonferrous metals, the flaws that most often occur are caused by conditions that exist in the ingot, by subsequent hot working of the ingot or the billet, and by hot or cold working during forging. The inspection methods most commonly used to detect these flaws include visual, magnetic particle, liquid penetrant, ultrasonic, eddy current, and radiographic inspection. This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the characteristics, process steps, applications, advantages, and limitations of these methods. It also describes the flaws caused by the forging operation and the principal factors that influence the selection of a nondestructive inspection method for forgings.

Tool steels are the ferrous alloys used to manufacture tools, dies, and molds that shape, form, and cut other materials, including steels, nonferrous metals, and plastics. This chapter explores the considerations that make tool steels a very special class of steels, the long historical evolution of iron and steel manufacture, including steels for tools, and the development of tool steels as they emerged from the general class of iron and steel products.

This chapter presents an overview of heat treating of nonferrous alloys. First, a brief discussion on the effects of cold work and annealing on nonferrous alloys is presented. This is followed by a discussion on the mechanisms involved in the more commonly used heat treating procedures for hardening or strengthening, namely solution treating and aging. Examples are presented for heat treating of two commercially important nonferrous alloys, one from the aluminum-copper system and one from the copper-beryllium system.

This appendix serves as a cross reference to chemically similar titanium alloys and the various designations by which they are known.

This chapter presents the history of stainless steel and provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. This book covers a broad spectrum of historical events, many of which have not been touched upon in other works on stainless steel. It includes the discoveries of the various metallic elements that are used in the various alloys of stainless steel and discusses numerous experiments conducted during the 19th century with iron-base alloys containing chromium and carbon.

This chapter discusses recycling processes used for metals, plastics, rubber, glass, and paper. Is also describes the advantages of recycled materials.

In 1924, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) organized the symposium "Corrosion and Heat Resisting Alloys, and Electrical Resistance Alloys." It was the beginning of a major role that ASTM played in the history of stainless steel. This chapter provides information on the papers presented at the 1924 symposium. It also describes the role of ASTM in stainless steel standardization after the 1924 symposium.

The term heat treatable alloys is used in reference to alloys that can be hardened by heat treatment, and this chapter briefly describes the major types of heat treatable nonferrous alloys. The discussion provides a general description of annealing cold-worked metals and describes some of the common nonferrous alloys that can be hardened through heat treatment. The nonferrous alloys covered include aluminum alloys, cobalt alloys, copper alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel alloys, and titanium alloys.

This chapter describes the processes involved in alloy production, including melting, casting, solidification, and fabrication. It discusses the effects of alloying on solidification, the formation of solidification structures, supercooling, nucleation, and grain growth. It describes the design and operation of melting furnaces as well as melting practices and the role of fluxing. It also discusses casting methods, nonferrous casting alloys, and atomization processes used to make metal powders.

Electromagnetic induction, or simply "induction," is a method of heating electrically conductive materials such as metals. It is commonly used for heating workpieces prior to metalworking and in heat treating, welding, and melting. This technique also lends itself to various other applications involving packaging and curing of resins and coatings. This chapter provides a brief review of the history of induction heating and discusses its applications and advantages.