What is metal mainly used for?

The industrial revolution was made possible by using metals and advanced manufacturing techniques. This sparked exponential growth in human civilization, bringing us to our current state. Different kinds of metals are now present everywhere around us.

You likely come into contact with dozens of different metals every day. Here is a useful guide explaining some of these typical metals and where to find them.

Top 10 Different Types Of Metal

1. Iron (Wrought Or Cast)

Even though it was quite popular during the "iron era," this metal still has several modern applications. One reason is that it is the main component of steel. But in addition to that, below are some other uses for iron and a justification for their use:

• Certain cookware, such as skillets, have porous surfaces that allow cooking oils to absorb and produce a naturally non-stick finish.

• Wood stoves can withstand high temperatures because cast iron has a very high melting point.

• Heavy metal is used in the bases and frames of large machinery to offer rigidity and reduce vibration.

FUN FACT: Iron is the sixth most prevalent element in the universe.

2. Steel

This metal is, without a doubt, the most common in the modern world. By definition, steel is just carbon and iron (the element). The ratio is typically 99% iron and 1% carbon; however, it might vary somewhat.

In 2017, about 1.8 billion tonnes of steel were manufactured worldwide (half of which was produced in China). An African elephant typically weighs 5 tonnes. Elephants stacked one on the other to create an extremely bizarre bridge to the moon (which is not at all conceivable) would still not weigh as much as the steel produced each year.

Steel comes in a variety of forms. The major categories are as follows:

• Carbon

  Steel

• Alloy

  Steel

• Stainless

  Steel

   

3. Copper

Another vintage metal is copper. Today, you can get it in an alloy (more on that later) or a relatively pure state. Electronics, water pipes, and enormous liberty monuments are common applications. A patina, or oxidized layer, will develop on copper, stopping further corrosion. In essence, it will turn green, and corrosion will halt. This extends its lifespan to centuries.

4. Brass

In reality, brass is a copper and zinc alloy. The resulting yellow metal is quite beneficial for several purposes. Due to its goldish hue, it is extremely popular for decorating. Antique furniture frequently uses this metal for handles and knobs.

It may also be pounded out and shaped because it is quite pliable. It is used for brass instruments like tubas, trumpets, and trombones because of this. They are strong and easy to form with a hammer.

Brass also has the awesome quality of never sparking. For instance, if you strike a steel hammer in a specific way, it can flash. An iron hammer won't accomplish that. This means that situations where there may be flammable gases, liquids, or powders, are ideal for using brass tools.

5. Zinc

The usefulness of Zinc metal makes it intriguing. It has a rather low melting point on its own, which makes casting it relatively simple. When melted, the substance flows freely, and the resulting chunks are fairly sturdy. Additionally, recycling it by melting it back down is relatively simple.

Zinc is a very popular metal used as a protective covering for other metals. Galvanized steel, which is essentially just steel that has been dipped in zinc, is a popular example. This will prevent corrosion. A fun fact is that half of the 12 million tonnes of zinc produced yearly is utilized for galvanizing.

6. Nickel

Nickel is a very prevalent element that is found everywhere. It is most frequently used in producing stainless steel, which increases the metal's durability and resistance to corrosion. Stainless steel is produced using about 70% of the world's nickel. It's interesting to note that only 25% of the five-cent American coin is composed of nickel.

Another popular metal for plating and alloying is nickel. Equipment for chemistry and labs, as well as other objects that require a highly smooth, polished surface, can all be coated with it.

FUN FACT: The name nickel comes from a German legend from the Middle Ages. Although nickel ore resembles copper ore, the old miners blamed a naughty sprite called nickel when they couldn't extract copper from it.

7. TIN

Tin is very pliable and flexible. It is a component of alloys used to create items like bronze (1/8 tin and 7/8 copper). Pewter also contains a large portion of it (85%–99%).

Fun fact: You may hear a "tin cry" sound when you bend a tin bar. The crystal structure is rebuilding itself, producing a twanging sound (called twining).

FUN FACT: The earliest alloy created by humans was made of bronze.

8. Titanium

This new metal is truly wonderful. It was initially discovered in 1791, made in its purest form for the first time in 1910, and produced outside of a lab for the first time in 1932. Although titanium is the seventh most abundant metal on Earth, it is extremely difficult to purify. This explains why this metal costs so much. Additionally, it is very valuable.

• Because titanium is biocompatible, your body won't rebel against it and reject it. Titanium is a common material for medical implants.

• It has a greater strength-to-weight ratio than any other metal. As a result, it has tremendous value for everything that flies.

• Resilient to corrosion

• Metal cutting tools are coated with titanium nitride, an incredibly stiff and low-friction material created when titanium reacts with nitrogen in a high-energy vacuum.

FUN FACT: Titanium resists corrosion because it reacts with oxygen immediately, forming a thin, tough barrier that shields the metal. A new barrier forms immediately when the old one is removed. It resembles self-healing in some ways.

BONUS INTERESTING FACT: Titanium does not occur naturally by itself. Another element always joins it.

9. Magnesium

Magnesium is a really interesting metal. It weighs about two-thirds as much as aluminum but is just as strong. As a result, it is becoming more and more common. This is most frequently seen as an alloy. The result is a hybrid material with particular qualities that they created by combining it with other metals and elements. It may also be simpler to use in production procedures as a result.

Magnesium is commonly used in the automobile industry. Magnesium is considered an improvement over aluminum regarding high-strength weight reduction and isn't significantly more expensive. In performance vehicles, magnesium is found in transmission cases, engine blocks, and wheel rims.

Magnesium does have some drawbacks, though. It will rust more quickly than aluminum. For instance, metal won't corrode but will rust when exposed to water. It costs nearly twice as much as aluminum, although it can work with it more quickly in manufacturing. Magnesium burns extremely hot and is highly flammable. Metal chips, filings, and powder must be disposed of carefully to avoid explosions.

10. Bronze

Although tin makes up about 12% of its composition, copper makes up most of it. The end product is a more durable and hardy metal than regular copper. Additionally, bronze may be an alloy containing other elements. For instance, common alloy components include aluminum, nickel, zinc, and manganese. Each of these can significantly alter the metal.

Bronze is a distinctive and significant historical significance (such as in the Bronze Age). Huge church bells are one typical example of where to witness it. Due to its strength and toughness, bronze doesn't bend or shatter when struck like other metals. It sounds good as well. Modern applications include guitar strings, springs, bearings, and works of art.

The earliest alloy created by humans was made of bronze.

Aluminum metal

Aluminum is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic, ductile metal in the boron group of chemical elements. The most remarkable properties of aluminum are its low density and resistance to corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation. It is the second most commonly produced metal after iron, with a global production of 31.9 million tons. Aluminum and its alloys are critical to the aerospace industry and widespread in the transportation and building industries. Additionally, packaging, food and beverage containers, household items, street lighting poles, ship masts, electrical transmission lines, and many other applications, use aluminum.

Cobalt metal

Cobalt is a chemical element found in the Earth’s crust only in a chemically combined form, except for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal. Since ancient times, jewelry and paints creators have used Cobalt-based blue pigments to render a distinctive blue tint to the glass. The main application of cobalt is the production of high-performance alloys employed for their magnetic, wear-resistant, and high-strength properties. Additionally, manufacturers of batteries, catalysts, pigments, coloring, and radioisotopes utilize cobalt.

Cast Iron metal

Cast iron is a group of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content greater than 2%, particularly beneficial for its relatively low melting temperature. Although cast iron tends to be brittle, its relatively low melting point, good fluidity, castability, excellent machinability, and deformation and wear resistance have made it an engineering material used in a broad spectrum of applications, including pipes, structural, and machine, and automotive industry parts. It is also resistant to destruction and weakening by oxidation. Carbon, silicon, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, titanium, vanadium, nickel, and copper are among the numerous alloying elements.

Cast steel metal

Cast steel defined as steel made by melting wrought iron in crucibles with charcoal. It is similar to cast iron, with the main difference in carbon content. Cast steel typically contains between 0.1–0.5% carbon compared to cast iron, typically with more than 2% carbon. Cast steel exhibits greater shrinkage than cast iron and is more difficult to pour. Its shrinkage makes it more susceptible to stresses, which requires a comprehensive inspection process throughout the casting process and makes it more resource-intensive.

Ferrous alloys metal

Ferrous alloys, also known as ferroalloys, are iron-based alloys with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese, aluminum, or silicon. The production of steels and alloys uses it. The iron and steel industry’s leading consumer of ferrous alloys employs them for their distinctive qualities and essential functions during production.
 

Gold metal

Gold is a precious metal that is a bright, slightly reddish-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal in its purest form. Its main industrial use is an electrical connector in computers and electrical devices thanks to its high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, and electrical conductivity. Infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, and tooth restoration also uses gold. Additionally, jewelry utilizes often it. Certain gold salts and radioisotopes are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine and as alloys in restorative dentistry.
 

H Steel metal

H Steel is a European steel-grade, specifically optimized for “High Tensile Strength Flat products.”
 

Low melting alloys metal

Low melting alloys, also called fusible alloys, are easily meltable at relatively low temperatures. Low melting alloys are most commonly used as coolants because of their stability under heat. They can give much higher thermal conductivity than most other coolants, particularly with alloys made with a high thermal conductivity metal such as indium or sodium. They are also used for cooling nuclear reactors and in automatic fire sprinklers.
 

Molybdenum metal

Molybdenum is a chemical element that is gray metallic gray in appearance. It exists not as a free metal but in various states of oxidation in minerals and has the sixth-highest melting point of any element. Because it rapidly forms hard, stable carbides in alloys, 80% of the world’s molybdenum production is used in steel alloys, including high-strength alloys and superalloys. Its application is most prevalent in structural steel, stainless steel, chemicals, tools, high-speed steels, cast iron, molybdenum elemental metal, and superalloys. In its pure elemental state, molybdenum is also used as a fertilizer, as a pollution analyzer in power plants, and in mammography and medical imaging.
 

Nickel metal

Nickel is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge and is hard and ductile. Predominantly an alloy metal, the main use of nickel is in nickel steels and nickel cast irons for its tensile strength and toughness properties as well as its elastic limit. Manufacturers also use it as an alloy in nickel brasses and bronzes and alloy it with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold. Popular Nickel alloys include Inconel, Incoloy, Monel, and Nimonic. Commonly used in coins both historically and in modern times, nickel is also used as a stainless steel alloy in everyday consumer and industrial products such as alnico magnets, rechargeable batteries, electric guitar strings, microphone capsules, plating on plumbing fixtures, and special alloys such as permalloy, elinvar, and invar. It is also used for plating and as a green tint in glass.
 

Niobium metal

Niobium, formerly known as columbium, is a soft, grey, ductile transition metal often found in pyrochlore and columbite. Brazil is the leading producer of niobium and ferroniobium, an alloy of niobium and iron with a niobium content of 60–70%. Niobium is used mainly in alloys, mainly in special steel as used in gas pipelines. Although these alloys contain a maximum of 0.1% niobium, the small percentage enhances the strength of the steel. It is also an essential superalloy for jet and rocket engines because of its temperature stability. Additionally, various superconducting alloys containing titanium and tin have niobium, for example, in the superconducting magnets of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners. Other applications of niobium include welding, nuclear industries, electronics, optics, numismatics, and jewelry.
 

Non-ferrous alloys metal

Non-ferrous alloys are alloys that do not contain iron in appreciable amounts. Although they are more expensive than ferrous (iron) alloys, well known for their lightweight, higher conductivity, non-magnetic property, or corrosion resistance. The most important non-ferrous metals include aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin, titanium, zinc, and brass alloys. Precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum and exotic or rare metals such as cobalt, mercury, tungsten, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cadmium, niobium, indium, gallium, germanium, lithium, selenium, tantalum, tellurium, vanadium, and zirconium are also non-ferrous.
 

Platinum metal

Platinum is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its scarcity and use in essential applications make it an expensive precious metal commodity. Platinum is one of the least reactive metals and has remarkable corrosion resistance, even at high temperatures; therefore, it is a noble metal. Platinum applications include catalytic converters, laboratory equipment, electrical contacts and electrodes, platinum resistance thermometers, dentistry equipment, and jewelry.
 

Silver metal

Silver is a soft, white, lustrous transition metal that exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. Although it is more abundant than gold, it has a longstanding classification as a precious metal. Historically used in coinage, today, silver is commonly used to produce bullion coins. Solar panels, water filtration, jewelry, ornaments, tableware are examples of silver applications. The industrial sector utilizes silver to make electrical contacts and conductors, specialized mirrors, window coatings, and for catalysis of chemical reactions. Photography, X-rays, disinfectants, catheters, and other medical instruments contain silver compounds.
 

Stainless steel metal

Stainless steel, also known as inox steel, is a steel alloy with at least 10.5% chromium content by mass. The most remarkable property of stainless steel is its corrosion resistance. The alloy is milled into coils, sheets, plates, bars, wire, and tubing before it goes on to be applied in the production of food-handling equipment, cookware, cutlery, surgical instruments, industrial equipment, major appliances, architecture, firearms, 3D printing, and many other products.
 

Steel metal

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, and other elements. Thanks to its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. There are several categories of steel, including long steel, flat carbon steel, weathering steel (COR-TEN), stainless steel, and low-background steel.
 

Tantalum metal

Tantalum, formerly known as tantalium, is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant. Thanks to its chemical inertness, it is a valuable substance for laboratory equipment and a substitute for platinum. Today, tantalum capacitors in electronic equipment such as mobile phones, DVD players, video game consoles, and computers use it. Manufacturers also utilize it to produce alloys and superalloys for jet engine components, chemical process equipment, nuclear reactors, and missile parts.
 

Titanium metal

Titanium is a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength. Its resistance to corrosion in seawater, aqua regia, and chlorine makes it one of the strongest but costly metals used in manufacturing metalwork. The vast majority of titanium ore is used for pigments, additives, and coatings after being refined into titanium dioxide. Additionally, the aerospace and marine industries utilize titanium alloys because of their solid and resistant properties, making them suitable for aircraft, armor plating, naval ships, spacecraft, and missiles. Due to its superior corrosion resistance, industrial applications of titanium include welded piping and process equipment (heat exchangers, tanks, process vessels, valves) in the chemical and petrochemical industries. The pulp and paper industry also utilize titanium, ultrasonic welding, wave soldering, and sputtering targets.

Additionally, titanium is particularly favorable in automotive and motorcycle racing applications for its lightweight and high strength and rigidity are essential. Consumer items produced with titanium include sporting goods, eyewear, and jewelry. Specialized implementation of titanium includes the medical and nuclear waste storage industries.
 

Tool steel metal

Tool steel refers to various carbon and alloy steels that are particularly well suited for making tools. Their suitability is based on their exceptional hardness, resistance to abrasion and deformation, as well as their ability to hold a cutting edge at elevated temperatures. Consequently, tool steels are suited for shaping other materials, for example, for cutting, pressing, extruding, and coining metals and other materials. They are also commonly used in the production of injection molds for their resistance to abrasion, which is an important criterion for a mold that will be essential to produce hundreds of thousands of moldings of a product or part.
 

Tungsten metal

Tungsten is a free element, and rare metal found naturally on Earth, almost exclusively in chemical compounds. The robustness of tungsten is truly remarkable; it has the highest melting point of all elements, the second-highest boiling point, and is 19.3 times denser than water. Tungsten is mainly used to produce hard materials, most notably tungsten carbide, as well as in alloys and steel. Manufacturers of electronics, nanowires, and armaments use it. There are also applications such as weights, counterweights, ballasts in yachts and aircraft, Formula One and NASCA race cars.
 

Zinc metal

Zinc is a chemical element that exhibits only one normal oxidation state and features a bluish-white, lustrous color. It is classified as a diamagnetic metal and is hard and brittle at most temperatures but becomes malleable between 100 and 150 °C. Zinc is also a fair conductor of electricity. One of its major applications is iron plating (hot-dip galvanizing) because of its corrosion resistance. Electrical batteries, small non-structural castings, and alloys such as brass use it also. Zinc is a standard alloy of brass. Industrial sector produces it as a compound. Likewise, it is an essential mineral for health in humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms.
 

Zirconium metal

Zirconium is a lustrous, grey-white, soft, ductile, and malleable transition metal that is solid at room temperature, though it is hard and brittle at lesser purity. It is highly resistant to corrosion by alkalis, acids, saltwater, and other agents. Mainly used as a refractory and opacifier, small amounts of zirconium are also used as an alloying agent for its strong corrosion resistance. High-temperature and biomedical applications could use zirconium as a compound. Nuclear, space, and aeronautics industries could utilize it as a metal. Medical imaging employs its isotopes.