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A metal product containing two or more elements (1) as a solid solution, (2) as an intermetallic compound, or (3) as a mixture of metallic phases. Alloys are frequently described on the basis of their technical applications. They may also be categorized and described on the basis of compositional groups. For example, See also Beryllium alloys; Iron alloys.

Except for native copper and gold, the first metals of technological importance were alloys. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, is appreciably harder than copper. This quality made bronze so important an alloy that it left a permanent imprint on the civilization of several millennia ago now known as the Bronze Age. Today the tens of thousands of alloys involve almost every metallic element of the periodic table.

Alloys are used because they have specific properties or production characteristics that are more attractive than those of the pure, elemental metals. For example, some alloys possess high strength; others have low melting points; others are refractory with high melting temperatures; some are especially resistant to corrosion; and others have desirable magnetic, thermal, or electrical properties. These characteristics arise from both the internal and the electronic structure of the alloy. An alloy is usually harder than a pure metal and may have a much lower conductivity.

Bearing alloys are used for metals that encounter sliding contact under pressure with another surface; the steel of a rotating shaft is a common example. Most bearing alloys contain particles of a hard intermetallic compound that resist wear. These particles, however, are embedded in a matrix of softer material which adjusts to the hard particles so that the shaft is uniformly loaded over the total surface. The most familiar bearing alloy is babbitt. Bearings made by powder metallurgy techniques are widely used because they permit the combination of materials which are incompatible as liquids, for example, bronze and graphite, and also permit controlled porosity within the bearings so that they can be saturated with oil before being used, the so-called oilless bearings. See also Antifriction bearing; Wear.

Certain alloys resist corrosion because they are noble metals. Among these alloys are the precious-metal alloys. Other alloys resist corrosion because a protective film develops on the metal surface. This passive film is an oxide which separates the metal from the corrosive environment. Stainless steels and aluminum alloys exemplify metals with this type of protection. The bronzes, alloys of copper and tin, also may be considered to be corrosion-resisting. See also Corrosion; Stainless steel.

Dental alloys contain precious metals. Amalgams are predominantly silver-mercury alloys, but they may contain minor amounts of tin, copper, and zinc for hardening purposes. Liquid mercury is added to a powder of a precursor alloy of the other metals. After being compacted, the mercury diffuses into the silver-base metal to give a completely solid alloy. Gold-base dental alloys are preferred over pure gold because gold is relatively soft. The most common dental gold alloy contains gold, silver, and copper. For higher strengths and hardnesses, palladium and platinum are added, and the copper and silver are increased so that the gold content drops. Vitallium and other corrosion-resistant alloys are used for bridgework and special applications. See also Silver alloys.

Die-casting alloys have melting temperatures low enough so that in the liquid form they can be injected under pressure into steel dies. Such castings are used for automotive parts and for office and household appliances which have moderately complex shapes. Most die castings are made from zinc-base or aluminum-base alloys. Magnesium-base alloys also find some application when weight reduction is paramount. Low-melting alloys of lead and tin are not common because they lack the necessary strength for the above applications. See also Metal casting.

In certain alloy systems a liquid of a fixed composition freezes to form a mixture of two basically different solids or phases. An alloy that undergoes this type of solidification process is called a eutectic alloy. A homogeneous liquid of this composition on slow cooling freezes to form a mixture of particles of nearly pure copper embedded in a matrix (background) of nearly pure silver.

The advantageous mechanical properties inherent in composite materials have been known for many years. Attention is being given to eutectic alloys as they are basically natural composite materials. See also Eutectics; Metal matrix composite.

Fusible alloys generally have melting temperatures below that of tin (449°F or 232°C), and in some cases as low as 122°F (50°C). Using eutectic compositions of metals such as lead, cadmium, bismuth, tin, antimony, and indium achieves these low melting temperatures. These alloys are used for many purposes, for example, in fusible elements in automatic sprinklers, forming and stretching dies, filler for thin-walled tubing that is being bent, and anchoring dies, punches, and parts being machined.

High-temperature alloys have high strengths at high temperatures. In addition to having strength, these alloys must resist oxidation by fuel-air mixtures and by steam vapor. At temperatures up to about 1380°F (750°C), the austenitic stainless steels serve well. An additional 180°F (100°C) may be realized if the steels also contain 3% molybdenum. Both nickel-base and cobalt-base alloys, commonly categorized as superalloys, may serve useful functions up to 2000°F (1100°C). Nichrome, a nickel-base alloy containing chromium and iron, is a fairly simple superalloy. More sophisticated alloys invariably contain five, six, or more components; for example, an alloy called René-41 contains Cr, Al, Ti, Co, Mo, Fe, C, B, and Ni. Other alloys are equally complex. A group of materials called cermets, which are mixtures of metals and compounds such as oxides and carbides, have high strength at high temperatures, and although their ductility is low, they have been found to be usable. One of the better-known cermets consists of a mixture of titanium carbide and nickel, the nickel acting as a binder or cement for the carbide. See also Cermet.

Metals are bonded by three principal procedures: welding, brazing, and soldering. Welded joints melt the contact region of the adjacent metal; thus the filler material is chosen to approximate the composition of the parts being joined. Brazing and soldering alloys are chosen to provide filler metal with an appreciably lower melting point than that of the joined parts. Typically, brazing alloys melt above 750°F (400°C), whereas solders melt at lower temperatures. See also Brazing; Soldering.

Aluminum and magnesium, with densities of 2.7 and 1.75 g/cm³, respectively, are the bases for most of the light-metal alloys. Titanium (4.5 g/cm³) may also be regarded as a light-metal alloy if comparisons are made with metals such as steel and copper. Aluminum and magnesium must be hardened to receive extensive application. Age-hardening processes are used for this purpose. See also Aluminum; Magnesium.

Low-expansion alloys include Invar, the dimensions of which do not vary over the atmospheric temperature range, and Kovar, which is widely used because its expansion is low enough to match that of glass.

Soft and hard magnetic materials involve two distinct categories of alloys. The former consists of materials used for magnetic cores of transformers and motors, and must be magnetized and demagnetized easily. For alternating-current applications, silicon-ferrite is commonly used. This is an alloy of iron containing as much as 5% silicon. Permalloy and some comparable cobalt-base alloys are used in the communications industry. Ceramic ferrites, although not strictly alloys, are widely used in high-frequency applications because of their low electrical conductivity and negligible induced-energy losses in the magnetic field. Permanent or hard magnets may be made from steels which are mechanically hardened, either by deformation or by quenching. The Alnicos are also widely used for magnets. Since these alloys cannot be forged, they must be produced in the form of castings. The newest hard magnets are being produced from alloys of cobalt and the rare-earth type of metals. See also Magnetic materials.

In addition to their use in coins and jewelry, precious metals such as silver, gold, and the heavier platinum metals are used extensively in electrical devices in which contact resistances must remain low, in catalytic applications to aid chemical reactions, and in temperature-measuring devices such as resistance thermometers and thermocouples. The unit of alloy impurity is commonly expressed in karats, where each karat is a ¹/₂₄ part. The most common precious-metal alloy is sterling silver (92.5% Ag, with the remainder being unspecified, but usually copper). The copper is very beneficial in that it makes the alloy harder and stronger than pure silver.

Metallic implants demand extreme corrosion resistance because body fluids contain nearly 1% NaCl, along with minor amounts of other salts, with which the metal will be in contact for indefinitely long periods of time. Type 316 stainless steels resist pitting corrosion but are subject to crevice corrosion. Vitallium and other cobalt-base alloys have orthopedic applications. Titanium alloys gained wide usage in Europe during the early 1970s for pacemakers and for retaining devices in artificial heart valves. While excellent for corrosion resistance, this alloy is subject to mechanical wear; therefore, it is not satisfactory in hip-joint prostheses and applications with similar frictional contacts. See also Prosthesis.

Shape memory alloys have a very interesting and desirable property. In a typical case, a metallic object of a given shape is cooled from a given temperature T₁ to a lower temperature T₂ where it is deformed so as to change its shape. Upon reheating from T₂ to T₁ the shape change accomplished at T₂ is recovered so that the object returns to its original configuration. This thermoelastic property of the shape memory alloys is associated with the fact that they undergo a martensitic phase transformation (that is, a reversible change in crystal structure that does not involve diffusion) when they are cooled or heated between T₁ and T₂. Shape memory alloys are capable of being employed in a number of useful applications. One example is for thermostats; another is for couplings on hydraulic lines or electrical circuits.

Superconducting alloys, with zero resistivity, are of great interest in the design of certain fusion reactors which require very large magnetic fields to contain the plasma in a closed system. The advantage of the use of a material with a resistivity approaching zero is obvious. However, two significant problems are involved in the use of superconducting alloys in large electromagnetics: the critical temperature, and the fact that above a certain critical current density the superconducting materials tend to become normal conductors with a finite resistance. Serious materials problems still have to be solved before these materials can be used successfully. See also Superconductivity.

Thermocouple alloys include Chromel and Alumel. These two alloys together form the widely used Chromel-Alumel thermocouple, which can measure temperatures up to 2200°F (1204°C). Another common thermocouple alloy, constantan, is used to form iron-constantan and copper-constantan couples, employed at lower temperatures. See also Steel.

As discussed here, prosthetic alloys are alloys used in internal prostheses, that is, surgical implants such as artificial hips and knees. External prostheses are devices that are worn by patients outside the body; alloy selection criteria are different from those for internal prostheses. Alloy selection criteria for surgical implants can be stringent primarily because of biomechanical and chemical aspects of the service environment. The most widely used prosthetic alloys therefore include high-strength, corrosion-resistant ferrous, cobalt-based, or titanium-based alloys: for example, cold-worked stainless steel; cast Vitallium; a wrought alloy of cobalt, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, and titanium; titanium alloyed with aluminium and vanadium; and commercial-purity titanium. See also Prosthesis.

An alloy of niobium and titanium (NbTi) has a great number of applications in superconductivity; it becomes superconducting at 9.5 K (critical superconducting temperature, T_c). This alloy is preferred because of its ductility and its ability to carry large amounts of current at high magnetic fields, represented by J_c(H) [where J_c is the critical current and H is a given magnetic field], and still retain its superconducting properties. Novel high-temperature superconducting materials may have revolutionary impact on superconductivity and its applications. These materials are ceramic, copper oxide-based materials that contain at least four and as many as six elements. Typical examples are yttrium-barium-copper-oxygen (T_c 93 K); bismuth-strontium-calcium-copper-oxygen (T_c 110 K); and thallium-barium-calcium-copper-oxygen (T_c 125 K). These materials become superconducting at such high temperatures that refrigeration is simpler, more dependable, and less expensive. See also Ceramics; Superconductivity.

A mixture of two or more metals or a mixture of metal and some other substance in order to alter the end product to fit a particular requirement. For example, solder is an alloy of tin and lead.

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Definition: adulterate
Antonyms: clean, clear, purify

v

Definition: mix metals
Antonyms: clear, not mix, purify

A composition of two or more metals fused together, usually to obtain a desired property.

Tutor's tip: An "ally" is a close friend or supporter; an "alloy" is a substance made of two or more metals.

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A material made of two or more metals, or of a metal and another material. For example, brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Alloys often have unexpected characteristics. In the examples given above, brass is stronger than either copper or zinc, and steel is stronger than either iron or carbon.

1. a solution composed of two metals dissolved in each other when in the liquid state. n 2. the product of the fusion of two or more metals.

• Materials, Formations, and Substances - alloy: two or more metals, or a metal and nonmetal, fused together when molten
• Alloys - alloy: two or more metals, or a metal and nonmetal, fused together when molten
• Substances, Particles, and Atomic Architecture - alloy: combination of two or more metals or metal and nonmetal
• Stones, Bricks, Tiles, Glass, and Metals - alloy: metal that is a mixture of two or more metals or a metal and nonmetal
• Sculpture Tools and Techniques - alloy: mixture of two or more metals or a metal and nonmetal, such as bronze or brass

This article is about the type of material. For the specification language, see Alloy (specification language). For lightweight auto wheels, see alloy wheel.

Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon content between 0.02% and 2.14% by mass.

Photomicrograph of annealed steel. The heterogeneous, lamellar microstructure, called pearlite, consists of the phases cementite (light) and ferrite (dark).

An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements.^[1] Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal (heat treatment) history. Alloys usually have different properties from those of the component elements.

Alloy constituents are usually measured by mass. Alloys are usually classified as substitutional or interstitial alloys, depending on the atomic arrangement that forms the alloy. They can be further classified as homogeneous, consisting of a single phase, heterogeneous, consisting of two or more phases, or intermetallic, where there is no distinct boundary between phases.

Contents 1 Theory 2 Terminology 3 History 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Theory

Alloying a metal is done by combining it with one or more other metals or non-metals that often enhance its properties. For example, steel is stronger than iron, its primary element. The physical properties, such as density, reactivity, Young's modulus, and electrical and thermal conductivity, of an alloy may not differ greatly from those of its elements, but engineering properties such as tensile strength^[2] and shear strength may be substantially different from those of the constituent materials. This is sometimes a result of the sizes of the atoms in the alloy, because larger atoms exert a compressive force on neighboring atoms, and smaller atoms exert a tensile force on their neighbors, helping the alloy resist deformation. Sometimes alloys may exhibit marked differences in behavior even when small amounts of one element occur. For example, impurities in semi-conducting ferromagnetic alloys lead to different properties, as first predicted by White, Hogan, Suhl, Tian Abrie and Nakamura.^[3][4] Some alloys are made by melting and mixing two or more metals. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was the first alloy discovered, during the prehistoric period now known as the bronze age; it was harder than pure copper and originally used to make tools and weapons, but was later superseded by metals and alloys with better properties. In later times bronze has been used for ornaments, bells, statues, and bearings. Brass is an alloy made from copper and zinc.

Unlike pure metals, most alloys do not have a single melting point, but a melting range in which the material is a mixture of solid and liquid phases. The temperature at which melting begins is called the solidus, and the temperature when melting is just complete is called the liquidus. However, for most alloys there is a particular proportion of constituents (in rare cases two)—the eutectic mixture—which gives the alloy a unique melting point.

Terminology

The term alloy is used to describe a mixture of atoms in which the primary constituent is a metal. The primary metal is called the base, the matrix, or the solvent. The secondary constituents are often called solutes. If there is a mixture of only two types of atoms, not counting impurities, such as a copper-nickel alloy, then it is called a binary alloy. If there are three types of atoms forming the mixture, such as iron, nickel and chromium, then it is called a ternary alloy. An alloy with four constituents is a quaternary alloy, while a five-part alloy is termed a quinary alloy. Because the percentage of each constituent can be varied, with any mixture the entire range of possible variations is called a system. In this respect, all of the various forms of an alloy containing only two constituents, like iron and carbon, is called a binary system, while all of the alloy combinations possible with a ternary alloy, such as alloys of iron, carbon and chromium, is called a ternary system.^[5]

Substitutional alloy

Interstitial alloy

When a molten metal is mixed with another substance, there are two mechanisms that can cause an alloy to form, called atom exchange and the interstitial mechanism. The relative size of each atom in the mix plays a primary role in determining which mechanism will occur. When the atoms are relatively similar in size, the atom exchange method usually happens, where some of the atoms composing the metallic crystals are substituted with atoms of the other constituent. This is called a substitutional alloy. Examples of substitutional alloys include bronze and brass, in which some of the copper atoms are substituted with either tin or zinc atoms. With the interstitial mechanism, one atom is usually much smaller than the other, so cannot successfully replace an atom in the crystals of the base metal. The smaller atoms become trapped in the spaces between the atoms in the crystal matrix, called the interstices. This is referred to as an interstitial alloy. Steel is an example of an interstitial alloy, because the very small carbon atoms fit into interstices of the iron matrix. Stainless steel is an example of a combination of interstitial and substitutional alloys, because the carbon atoms fit into the interstices, but some of the iron atoms are replaced with nickel and chromium atoms.^[6]

Alloys are often made to alter the mechanical properties of the base metal, to induce hardness, toughness, ductility, or other desired properties. Most metals and alloys can be work hardened by creating defects in their crystal structure. These defects are created during plastic deformation, such as hammering or bending, and are permanent unless the metal is recrystallized. However, some alloys can also have their properties altered by heat treatment. Nearly all metals can be softened by annealing, which recrystallizes the alloy and repairs the defects, but not as many can be hardened by controlled heating and cooling. Many alloys of aluminium, copper, magnesium, titanium, and nickel can be strengthened to some degree by some method of heat treatment, but few respond to this to the same degree that steel does.^[6]

At a certain temperature, the base metal of steel, iron, undergoes a change in the arrangement of the atoms in its crystal matrix, called allotropy. This allows the small carbon atoms to enter the interstices of the crystal. When this happens, the carbon atoms are said to be in solution, or mixed with the iron. If the iron is cooled slowly, the carbon atoms will no longer be soluble with the iron, and will be forced out of solution; into the spaces between the crystals. If the steel is cooled quickly, a diffusionless (martensite) transformation occurs, in which the carbon atoms become trapped in solution. This causes the iron crystals to deform intrinsically when the crystal structure tries to change to its low temperature state, inducing great hardness. However, most heat-treatable alloys are precipitation hardening alloys, which produce the opposite effects that steel does. When heated to form a solution and then cooled quickly, these alloys become much softer than normal and then harden as they age. The solutes in these alloys will precipitate over time, forming intermetallic phases, which are difficult to discern from the base metal. These intermetallic alloys appear homogeneous in crystal structure, but tend to behave heterogeneous, becoming hard and somewhat brittle.^[6]

In practice, some alloys are used so predominantly with respect to their base metals that the name of the primary constituent is also used as the name of the alloy. For example, 14 karat gold is an alloy of gold with other elements. Similarly, the silver used in jewelry and the aluminium used as a structural building material are also alloys.

The term "alloy" is sometimes used in everyday speech as a synonym for a particular alloy. For example, automobile wheels made of an aluminium alloy are commonly referred to as simply "alloy wheels", although in point of fact steels and most other metals in practical use are also alloys.

History

A meteorite is shown below a hatchet that was forged from meteoric iron.

Bronze axe 1100 BC

The use of alloys by humans started with the use of meteoric iron, a naturally occurring alloy of nickel and iron. As no metallurgic processes were used to separate iron from nickel, the alloy was used as it was.^[7] Meteoric iron could be forged from a red heat to make objects such as tools, weapons, and nails. In many cultures it was shaped by cold hammering into knives and arrowheads. They were often used as anvils. Meteoric iron was very rare and valuable, and difficult for ancient people to work.^[8]

Iron is usually found as iron ore on Earth, except for one deposit of native iron in Greenland, which was used by the Inuit people.^[9] Native copper, however, was found worldwide, along with silver, gold and platinum, which were also used to make tools, jewelry, and other objects since Neolithic times. Copper was the hardest of these metals, and the most widely distributed. It became one of the most important metals to the ancients. Eventually, humans learned to smelt metals such as copper and tin from ore, and, around 2500 BC, began alloying the two metals to form bronze, which is much harder than its ingredients. Tin was rare, however, being found mostly in Great Britain. In the Middle East, people began alloying copper with zinc to form brass.^[10] Ancient civilizations took into account the mixture and the various properties it produced, such as hardness, toughness and melting point, under various conditions of temperature and work hardening, developing much of the information contained in modern alloy constitution diagrams.^[11]

The first known smelting of iron began in Anatolia, around 1800 BC. Called the bloomery process, it produced very soft but ductile wrought iron and, by 800 BC, the technology had spread to Europe. Pig iron, a very hard but brittle alloy of iron and carbon, was being produced in China as early as 1200 BC, but did not arrive in Europe until the Middle Ages. These metals found little practical use until the introduction of crucible steel around 300 BC. These steels were of poor quality, and the introduction of pattern welding, around the 1st century AD, sought to balance the extreme properties of the alloys by laminating them, to create a tougher metal.^[11]

Mercury had been smelted from cinnabar for thousands of years. Mercury dissolves many metals, such as gold, silver, and tin, to form amalgams (an alloy in a soft paste, or liquid form at ambient temperature). Amalgams have been used since 200 BC in China for plating objects with precious metals, called gilding, such as armor and mirrors. The ancient Romans often used mercury-tin amalgams for gilding their armor. The amalgam was applied as a paste and then heated until the mercury vaporized, leaving the gold, silver, or tin behind.^[12] Mercury was often used in mining, to extract precious metals like gold and silver from their ores.^[13]

Many ancient civilizations alloyed metals for purely aesthetic purposes. In ancient Egypt and Mycenae, gold was often alloyed with copper to produce red-gold, or iron to produce a bright burgundy-gold. Silver was often found alloyed with gold. These metals were also used to strengthen each other, for more practical purposes. Quite often, precious metals were alloyed with less valuable substances as a means to deceive buyers.^[14] Around 250 BC, Archimedes was commissioned by the king to find a way to check the purity of the gold in a crown, leading to the famous bath-house shouting of "Eureka!" upon the discovery of Archimedes' principle.^[15]

While the use of iron started to become more widespread around 1200 BC, mainly because of interruptions in the trade routes for tin, the metal is much softer than bronze. However, very small amounts of steel, (an alloy of iron and around 1% carbon), was always a byproduct of the bloomery process. The ability to modify the hardness of steel by heat treatment had been known since 1100 BC, and the rare material was valued for use in tool and weapon making. Because the ancients could not produce temperatures high enough to melt iron fully, the production of steel in decent quantities did not occur until the introduction of blister steel during the Middle Ages. This method introduced carbon by heating wrought iron in charcoal for long periods of time, but the penetration of carbon was not very deep, so the alloy was not homogeneous. In 1740, Benjamin Huntsman began melting blister steel in a crucible to even out the carbon content, creating the first process for the mass production of tool steel. Huntsman's process was used for manufacturing tool steel until the early 1900s.^[16]

With the introduction of the blast furnace to Europe in the Middle Ages, pig iron was able to be produced in much higher volumes than wrought iron. Because pig iron could be melted, people began to develop processes of reducing the carbon in the liquid pig iron to create steel. Puddling was introduced during the 1700s, where molten pig iron was stirred while exposed to the air, to remove the carbon by oxidation. In 1858, Sir Henry Bessemer developed a process of steel making by blowing hot air through liquid pig iron to reduce the carbon content. The Bessemer process was able to produce the first large scale manufacture of steel.^[16] Once the Bessemer process began to gain widespread use, other alloys of steel began to follow, such as mangalloy, an alloy of steel and manganese, which exhibits extreme hardness and toughness.^[17]

In 1906, precipitation hardening alloys were discovered by Alfred Wilm. Precipitation hardening alloys, such as certain alloys of aluminium, titanium, and copper, are heat-treatable alloys that soften when quenched (cooled quickly), and then harden over time. After quenching a ternary alloy of aluminium, copper, and magnesium, Wilm discovered that the alloy increased in hardness when left to age at room temperature. Although an explanation for the phenomenon was not provided until 1919, duralumin was one of the first "age hardening" alloys to be used, and was soon followed by many others. These alloys became widely used in many forms of industry, including the construction of modern aircraft.^[18]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alloys

• List of alloys
• Intermetallics
• Heat treatment
• CALPHAD (method)

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Adelbert Phillo Mills, (1922) Materials of Construction: Their Manufacture and Properties, John Wiley & sons, inc, originally published by the University of Wisconsin, Madison
3. ^ Hogan, C. (1969). "Density of States of an Insulating Ferromagnetic Alloy". Physical Review 188 (2): 870. Bibcode 1969PhRv..188..870H. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.188.870. 
4. ^ Zhang, X.; Suhl, H. (1985). "Spin-wave-related period doublings and chaos under transverse pumping". Physical Review A 32 (4): 2530–2533. Bibcode 1985PhRvA..32.2530Z. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.32.2530. PMID 9896377. 
5. ^ Michael Bauccio (2005) ASM metals reference book, ASM International 2005
6. ^ ^{a b c} Jon L. Dossett, Howard E. Boyer (2006) Practical heat treating, ASM International, pp. 1-14
7. ^ T. A. Rickard (1941). "The Use of Meteoric Iron". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) 71 (1/2): 55–66. doi:10.2307/2844401. JSTOR 2844401. 
8. ^ Vagn Fabritius Buchwald Iron and steel in ancient times, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab 2005 pp. 13–22
9. ^ Vagn Fabritius Buchwald Iron and steel in ancient times, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab 2005 pp. 35-37
10. ^ Vagn Fabritius Buchwald Iron and steel in ancient times, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab 2005 pp. 39–41
11. ^ ^{a b} Cyril Smith (1960) History of metallography, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-69120-5 pp. 2–4
12. ^ George Rapp (2009) Archaeomineralogy, Springer, p. 180 ISBN 3-540-78593-0
13. ^ Harry A. Miskimin (1977) The economy of later Renaissance Europe, 1460–1600, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29208-5, p. 31
14. ^ Paul T. Nicholson, Ian Shaw (2000) Ancient Egyptian materials and technology, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-45257-0 pp. 164–167
15. ^ Melvyn Kay (2008) Practical Hydraulics, Taylor and Francis, ISBN 0-415-35115-4 p. 45
16. ^ ^{a b} George Adam Roberts, George Krauss, Richard Kennedy, Richard L. Kennedy (1998) Tool steels, ASM International, ISBN 0-87170-599-0 pp. 2–3
17. ^ Cast steel: Austenitic Manganese Steels
18. ^ http://www.slideshare.net/corematerials/talat-lecture-1204-precipitation-hardening-2318135

External links

Look up alloy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Surface Alloys
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alloys". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - legering, iblanding
v. tr. - legere, iblande

Nederlands (Dutch)
legering, allooi, vermengen (metalen), minder waard maken (door vermenging), temperen

Français (French)
n. - alliage
v. tr. - allier, faire un alliage de (métal)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Legierung
v. - legieren, sich mischen, verfälschen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (χημ., μτφ.) κράμα

Italiano (Italian)
lega

idioms:

• gold alloy    lega d'oro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - liga (f) (Quím.)

idioms:

• gold alloy    liga de ouro

Русский (Russian)
сплав

idioms:

• gold alloy    золотой слиток

Español (Spanish)
n. - aleación, amalgama
v. tr. - alear, amalgamar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - legering, blandning, tillsats

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
合金, 掺杂物, 杂质, 成色, 混合, 使...成合金, 使变硬, 使降低成色, 损害, 影响

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 合金, 摻雜物, 雜質, 成色, 混合
v. tr. - 使...成合金, 使變硬, 使降低成色, 損害, 影響

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 합금, 합금용 비금속, 혼합물
v. tr. - 합금하다, 손상하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 合金, 純度
v. - 合金にする, そぐ, 損なう

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) خليط من معدننين او اكثر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סגסוגת, מסג, נתך‬
v. tr. - ‮ערבב (מתכות), מיתן, פגם בטהרה או באיכות (של חומר) ע"י ערבוב‬

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