Metal Properties and Characteristics

Definition of the material property of malleability.

Over 50 additional metal properties resources from your About.com Guide.

Locate metal standard from any country and receive free chemical compositions. Search for ferrous and non-ferrous metals by standard, grade or society. ASTM, SAE, DIN, EN, WNR, GOST, JIS, ISO and more.

Get the full chemical and physical properties of hundreds of aluminum alloys: chemical composition, tensile strength, elongation, hardness, shear strength, fatigue strength, modulus of elasticity.

Get information on over 6,000 metals and alloys from MaterialNet's technical property database. Search by alloy or trade name, chemical composition or properties required.

Information on the rare earth metals, their markets and a list of their common applications.

Profile of mischmetal with physical properties, history, industrial information and applications.

What is lead? Lead is a soft, grey, lustrous metal with a high density and low melting point. Although hazardous to our health, humans have been extracting and using lead for over 6000 years

What is iron? Iron's use by humans dates back about 5000 years. It is the second most abundant metal element in the earth's crust and is primarily used to produce steel, one of the most important structural materials in the world.

What is tungsten? Tungsten is a dull silver-colored metal with the highest melting point of any pure metal. Also known as wolfram, from which the element takes its symbol, W, tungsten is more resistant to fracturing than diamond and is much harder than steel.

What is tin? Tin is a soft, silvery-white metal that is very light and easy to melt. Being so soft, tin is rarely used as a pure metal; instead, it is combined with other metals in order to make alloys that possess tin's numerous beneficial properties.

What is aluminum? Aluminum (also known as aluminium) is the most abundant metal element in the earth's crust. And it's a good thing too, because we use a lot of it. About 41 million tons are smelted each year and employed in a wide arrange of applications. From auto bodies to beer cans, and from electrical cables to aircraft skins, aluminum is a...

Who discovered aluminum? How is iron produced? What is tungsten used for? Learn everything you need to know about the history, properties, production and applications of individual metals in the Metal Profiles section.

What is nickel? Nickel is a strong, lustrous, silvery-white metal that was not isolated by scientists until the mid-18th century, but is now a staple of our daily lives and can be found in everything from the batteries that power our television remotes to the stainless steel that is used to make our kitchen sinks.

What is magnesium? Magnesium is the lightest of all the metal elements and is primarily used in structural alloys due to its light weight, strength and corrosion resistance.

What is molybdenum? Molybdenum (often referred to as 'Moly') metal is valued as an alloying agent in structural and stainless steels because of its strength, corrosion resistance and ability to hold shape and operate at high temperatures.

The PGMs are the densest known metal elements. Exceptionally rare, the six metals naturally occur in the same ore bodies. They are highly durable and, due to their high value, often recycled, giving them long life cycles.

Platinum is a dense, stable and rare metal that is often used in jewelry for its attractive, silver-like appearance, as well as in medical, electronic and chemical applications due to its various and unique chemical and physical properties.

What is silver? Silver is a soft, lustrous metal that has a long history as a medium of exchange in coins and currency, and as a store of wealth (silver bullion). A precious metal, silver has been used in jewellery and as a decorative metal for millennia, while, more recently, it has become an important metal for electronic, industrial and...

What is cobalt? Cobalt is a shiny, brittle metal that is used to produce strong, corrosion and heat resistant alloys, permanent magnets and hard metals.

What are minor metals? The term 'minor metals' is used to describe about 40 elemental metals that are normally produced as by-products and not traded on any major exchanges.

What is uranium? Uranium is a dense, radioactive element that is primarily extracted and refined as a fuel source for nuclear energy. In its metal form, uranium is used as a radioactive shield as well as in military armor and ammunition.

What is mercury? Mercury, or 'quicksilver' as it is otherwise known, is a dense, toxic metal element that exists in liquid form at room temperature. Produced and studied for millennia, mercury's use has steadily declined since the 1980s as a result of greater attention to the negative health impacts that it has on humans and the environment.

What is titanium? Titanium is a strong and lightweight refractory metal. Alloys of titanium are critical to the aerospace industry but, due to their numerous unique properties, are also used in medical, chemical and military applications, as well as in sporting goods.

What is chromium? Chromium metal is most widely recognized for its use in chromium plating (which is often referred to simply as 'chrome'), but its largest use is as an ingredient in stainless steels. Both applications benefit from chromium's hardness, resistance to corrosion and ability to be polished for a lustrous appearance.

What is manganese? Manganese is a key component in the production of steel. Although classified as a minor metal, the quantity of manganese produced worldwide each year falls behind only iron, aluminum, copper and zinc.

The term 'base metals' commonly refers to the industrial, non-ferrous metals: copper, lead, nickel and zinc.

Until fairly recently, the lanthanide - or rare earth - elements (REEs) were a little known group of industrial metals. Locked away at the bottom of the periodic table, REEs were often overlooked, perhaps due in part to their limited uses and difficult to pronounce names.

The development of steel can be traced back 4000 years to the beginning of the Iron Age. Proving to be harder and stronger than bronze, which had previously been the most widely used metal, iron began to displace bronze in weaponry and tools.

The growth of railroads during the 19th century in both Europe and America put great pressure on the iron industry, which still struggled with inefficient production processes. Yet steel was still unproven as a structural metal and production was slow and costly. That was until 1856, when Henry Bessemer came up with a more effective way to...

By the 17th century, iron's properties were well understood, but increasing urbanization in Europe demanded a more versatile structural metal. And by the 19th century, the amount of iron being consumed by expanding railroads provided metallurgists with financial incentive to find a solution to iron's brittleness and inefficient production...

What is steel used for? Steel is both the most widely used and most recycled metal material on earth. From stainless and high temperature steels to flat carbon products, steel's various forms and alloys offer different properties to meet a wide range of applications. For these reasons, as well as the metal's combination of high strength and a...

What is bismuth? Bismuth is a silvery and brittle metal that is frequently found in low-melt alloys. Demand for bismuth metal has grown over the past 20 years in large part due to its effective use as a substitute for lead.

What is steel?

According to the World Steel Association, there are over 3,500 different grades of steel, encompassing unique physical, chemical and environmental properties. In essence, steel is composed of iron and carbon, although it is the amount of carbon, as well as the level of impurities and additional alloying elements that determines the properties of...

The following table lists the properties of steels at room temperature (25°C).

What is scandium? Scandium is a lightweight, silvery metal that is produced and used in limited quantities as an alloying element and a component in halide lamps.

How is steel made? Methods for manufacturing steel have evolved significantly since industrial production began in the late 19th century. Modern methods, however, are still based the same premise as the Bessemer Process, namely, how to most efficiently use oxygen to lower the carbon content in iron.

What is palladium? Palladium is a soft, rare platinum group metal (PGM) that is valued for its catalytic properties.

Indium is a lustrous, silver metal that is predominantly used in the production of flat panel display screens.

Galinstan® is a eutectic alloy composed of gallium, indium and tin (hence its name, which is derived from the gallium, indium and stannum, the latin name for tin).

What is rhodium? Rhodium is a rare platinum group metal (PGM) that is chemically stable at high temperatures, resistant to corrosion and mainly used in the production of automobile catalytic converters.

What is tellurium? Tellurium is a heavy and rare minor metal that is used in steel alloys and as a light-sensitive semiconductor in solar cell technology.

What is germanium? Germanium is a rare, silver-colored semiconductor metal that is used in infrared technology, fibre optic cables and solar cells.

What is ruthenium? Ruthenium is a brittle and rare platinum group metal (PGM) that is widely used in the electronics industry due to its conductive properties and durability.

What is rhenium? Rhenium is a rare metal that is highly resistant to heat and wear, making it ideal for use in superalloys, such as those used in the manufacture of jet engines.