This article examines the role of alloying in the production and use of lead and tin. It describes the various categories and grades of lead and lead-base alloys along with their nominal compositions and corresponding UNS numbers. It also discusses the composition and properties of lead used in battery grids, type metals, and bearings. It, likewise, discusses the use of tin in various types of solder and in bearings and provides composition and property data for application-specific designations and grades. The article also discusses the effect of impurities in tin-lead solders and the amounts and combinations in which they are found.

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 presents an overview and survey of solder alloy systems. Extensive reference is made to phase diagrams and their interpretation. The chapter describes the effect of metallic impurities on different solders. The chapter concludes with a review of the key characteristics of eutectic alloys and of the factors most effective at depressing the melting point of solders by eutectic alloying.

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.

Brazing and soldering processes use a molten filler metal to wet the mating surfaces of a joint, with or without the aid of a fluxing agent, leading to the formation of a metallurgical bond between the filler and the respective components. This chapter discusses the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of brazing and soldering. The first part focuses on the fundamentals of the brazing process and provides information on filler metals and specific brazing methods. The soldering portion of the chapters provides information on solder alloys used, selection criteria for base metal, the processes involved in precleaning and surface preparation, types of fluxes used, solder joint design, and solder heating methods.

Phases are distinct states of aggregation of matter and one of the primary leverage points for understanding and applying materials. This chapter discusses the phase nature of metals and alloys, the concept of solid solutions, and the use of phase diagrams. It also describes some of the metallurgical effects of freezing or solidification, including the segregation of solutes and the formation of metal glasses.

This chapter presents several materials and processes related to soldering technology. It first provides information on lead-free solders, followed by sections devoted to flip-chip processes, diffusion soldering, and modeling. Scanning acoustic microscopy and fine-focus x-ray techniques are also discussed. The chapter describes several evaluation procedures and tests developed to measure solderability and standards for process calibration. The chapter also describes the characteristics of reinforced solders, amalgams used as solders, and other strategies to boost the strength of solders. Further, the chapter considers methods for quantifying the mechanical integrity of joints and predicting their dimensional stability under specified environmental conditions. It discusses the effects of rare earth elements on the properties of solders. The chapter concludes with information on advanced joint characterization techniques.

This chapter discusses the process, principles, and modeling of the diffusion brazing system. The applications of diffusion brazing to wide-gap joining and layer manufacturing are also discussed.

This chapter describes the origins of solders and soldering, covering the composition of solders and applications of soldering.

Compared with other deformation processes used to produce semifinished products, the hot-working extrusion process has the advantage of applying pure compressive forces in all three force directions, enhancing workability. The available variations in the extrusion process enable a wide spectrum of materials to be extruded. This chapter focuses on the processes involved in the extrusion of semifinished products in various metals and their alloys, namely tin, lead, lead-base soft solders, tin-base soft solders, zinc, magnesium, aluminum, copper, titanium, zirconium, iron, nickel, and powder metals. It discusses their properties and applications as well as suitable equipment for extrusion. It further discusses the processes involved in the extrusion of semifinished products in exotic alloys and extrusion of semifinished products from metallic composite materials.

This article discusses the composition, properties, and behaviors of copper and its alloys. It begins with an overview of the characteristics, applications, and commercial grades of wrought and cast copper. It then discusses the role of alloying, explaining how zinc, tin, aluminum, silicon, and nickel affect the physical and mechanical properties of coppers and high-copper alloys as well as brasses, bronzes, copper-nickels, and nickel silvers. It also explains how alloying affects electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, stress-corrosion cracking, and processing characteristics.

Materials used in joining, whether solders, fluxes, or atmospheres, are becoming increasingly subjected to restrictions on the grounds of health, safety, and pollution concerns. These regulations can limit the choice of materials and processes that are deemed acceptable for industrial use. The chapter addresses this issue with a focus on soldering fluxes. The chapter also describes factors related to soldering under a protective atmosphere, provides information on chemical fluxes for soldering of various metals, and discusses the processes involved in fluxless soldering processes.

This chapter discusses the phase transformations of peritectic alloy systems. It describes the processes involved with equilibrium and nonequilibrium freezing, the mechanisms of peritectic formation, and the resulting microstructures. It also discusses the formation of peritectic structures in iron-base alloys and multicomponent systems.

Liquid metals are frequently used as a heat-transfer medium because of their high thermal conductivities and low vapor pressures. Containment materials used in such heat-transfer systems are subject to molten metal corrosion as well as other problems. This chapter reviews the corrosion behavior of alloys in molten aluminum, zinc, lead, lithium, sodium, magnesium, mercury, cadmium, tin, antimony, and bismuth. It also discusses the problem of liquid metal embrittlement, explaining how it is caused by low-melting-point metals during brazing, welding, and heat treating operations.

Copper is often used in the unalloyed form because pure copper is more conductive than copper alloys. Alloying elements are added to optimize strength, ductility, and thermal stability, with little negative effect on other properties such as conductivity, fabricability, and corrosion resistance. This chapter covers the classification, composition, properties, and applications of copper alloys, including brasses, bronzes, copper-nickel, beryllium-copper, and casting alloys. It also examines wrought copper alloys and pure coppers. The chapter begins with an overview of the copper production process and concludes with a discussion on corrosion resistance.

This article discusses the general purpose of alloying and identifies some of the material properties and behaviors that can be improved by adding various elements to the base metal. It explains how alloying can make metals stronger and more resistant to corrosion and wear as well as easier to cast, weld, form, and machine. It also discusses some of the alloying techniques that have been developed to address problems stemming from dissimilarities between the base metal and alloying or inoculate material.

This article discusses the composition and morphology of compacted graphite (CG) iron relative to that of gray and ductile iron. It explains that the graphite in CG iron is intermediate in shape between the spheroidal graphite found in ductile iron and the flake graphite in gray iron, giving it distinct advantages in a number of applications. The article also discusses the role of melt treatment elements and explains how alloying and heat treatment affect tensile strength, hardness, toughness, and ductility.