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Properties of various alloys

I'm a high school student doing an assignment and need to know what are the properties, uses and components of these alloys nichrome, alinco and woods metal.

Thank you,

Monty C.
- NSW Australia
2003

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Monty, I'll give you some hints, but then you'll have to do the work yourself. Nichrome is the common name for 80 % nickel - 20 % chromium alloys. Special Metals Corp makes these, and calls them by the trade name BRIGHTRAY. You'll also notice after doing your Google search, that a lot of the sites found talk about electrical resistance. Consider that another clue.

Alnico (note the spelling!) is short for aluminum-nickel-cobalt, which are the main ingredients added to iron to get this set of magnet alloys. There are many different alnicos. One of the COMpanies that make them is Group Arnold. The industry group that many of the manufacturers belong to is the Magnetic Materials Producers Association, or MMPA. The MMPA is an ORGanization. Hint, hint.

"Wood's metal" has devolved from a specific composition alloy to describing the family of what are called fusible alloys. Indium Corp makes them, as does Arconium, and a few other folks as well. Here I'll direct you to http://www.umadvancedmaterials.com/Indium/TDS/Fusible%20Alloys.pdf, and tell you that traditional Wood's Metal melts at 70 C. Why would anyone want a low melting metal- can you think of a reason?

Good luck!

Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York
2003