Zinc and its alloys

Zinc
Zinc is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes. The most exploited zinc ore is sphalerite, a zinc sulfide. The largest exploitable deposits are found in Australia, Asia, and the United States. Zinc production includes froth flotation of the ore, roasting, and final extraction using electricity (electro winning).

Alloys of Zinc and their Applications

A widely used alloy which contains zinc is brass, in which copper is alloyed with anywhere from 3% to 45% zinc, depending upon the type of brass. Brass is generally more ductile and stronger than copper and has superior corrosion resistance. These properties make it useful in communication equipment, hardware, musical instruments, and water valves. Other widely used alloys that contain zinc include nickel silver, typewriter metal, soft and aluminium solder, and commercial bronze. Zinc is also used in contemporary pipe organs as a substitute for the traditional lead/tin alloy in pipes .Alloys of 8588% zinc, 410% copper, and 28% aluminium find limited use in certain types of machine bearings.

Superloy
The hot-chamber zinc alloy Superloy allows the production of thin-walled die castings with excellent tolerances. The alloys mechanical properties also show advantages over traditional zinc alloys for die casting. This alloy shows excellent creep resistance properties due to its special chemical composition (zinc with 6.6% to 7.2% Al and 3.0% to 3.6% Cu). In the ternary diagram, Superloy is situated close to the eutectic point. Although the alloy is composed of two elements with a higher melting point, the solidify temperature is smaller than that of e.g. ZL5. There are varied uses of Superloy. Superloy is a suitable material for a compromise between thin walled structure and high mechanical properties demand. It enables designers to design zinc alloy parts that could not be made out of other materials (due to different parameters such as casting techniques, mechanical and physical conditions). Moreover, Superloy is an ideal casting alloy for electronic parts, connectors, adapters and small precision parts.

Calamine brass
Calamine brass is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using the zinc ore calamine directly,

rather than first refining it to metallic zinc. Zinc smelting is difficult and the pure metal was largely unknown historically, even though the alloyed calamine brass was in use for centuries. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and, when it was first developed, methods for producing metallic zinc were unknown. Metallurgists wishing to produce brass thus used calamine (actually a mixture of the virtually indistinguishable zinc ores smith sonite and hemimorphite) as the zinc component of brass. The resulting brasses, produced by heating a mixture of copper and calamine to a high temperature for several hours (allowing zinc vapor to distill from the ores and permeate the metallic copper), contained a significant amount of slag material resulting from the non-zinc components of calamine. The use of ore rather than metallic zinc also made it difficult to accurately produce the desired final proportion of copper to zinc. This process is known as cementation.

Pot metal
Pot metal, also known as monkey metal, white metal or die-cast zinc, is a slang term that refers to alloys that consist of inexpensive, low-melting point metals used to make fast, inexpensive castings. There is no scientific metallurgical standard for pot metal; common metals in pot metal include zinc, lead, copper, tin, magnesium, aluminium, iron, and cadmium. The primary advantage of pot metal is that it is quick and easy to cast. Due to its low melting temperature no sophisticated foundry equipment is needed and specialized molds are not necessary. It is sometimes used to experiment with molds and ideas before using metals of higher quality. Examples of items created from pot metal include toys, furniture fittings, tool parts, electronics components, and automotive parts.[

Mag-Thor
Mag-Thor is the common name for a range of magnesium alloys containing thorium that are used in aerospace engineering. These alloys commonly contain manganese and zinc, but there are other combinations known. Some common alloys are named HK31, HM21, HM31, HZ32, ZH42, ZH62; where the "H" indicates that the alloy contains thorium. Magnesium alloy names are often given by two letters following by two numbers. The two letters indicate the main elements present in the alloy where A = aluminum, Z = zinc, M = manganese, S = silicon, etc. the numbers tell percentage compositions of the two elements. So, AZ45 would indicate that there is 4% aluminum and 5% zinc in the alloy.

Magnesium-thorium alloys have been used in several military applications, particularly in missile construction. The most noted example of this is the CIM-10 Bo marc missile, which implemented thoriated magnesium in its construction. This is due to thoriated magnesium compounds being lightweight, having high strength, and creep resistance up to 350 C. But, these alloys are no longer used due to radiation concerns involving thorium's radioactivity. This has resulted in several missiles being removed from public display.

7075 aluminium alloy

Aluminium alloy 7075 is an aluminium alloy, with zinc as the primary alloying element. It is strong, with a strength comparable to many steels, and has good fatigue strength and average machinability, but has less resistance to corrosion than many other Al alloys. Its relatively high cost limits its use to applications where cheaper alloys are not suitable.

Zinc aluminium
Zinc-aluminium (ZA) alloys are named as such because the main constituents are zinc and aluminium. Other alloying elements include magnesium and copper. This type of alloy was originally developed for gravity casting. Noranda, New Jersey Zinc Co. Ltd., St. Joe Mineral Co. and ILZRO were the main companies that pioneered the ZA alloys between the 1950s and the 1970s. They were designed to compete with bronze, cast iron and aluminium using sand and permanent mold casting methods. Distinguishing features of ZA alloys include high as-cast strength, excellent bearing properties, as well as low energy requirements (for melting).

Zamak:
Zamak (formerly trademarked as ZAMA and also known as Zamac) is a family of alloys with a base metal of zinc and alloying elements of aluminium, magnesium and copper. Zamak alloys are part of the zinc aluminium alloy family; they are distinguished from the other ZA alloys because of their constant 4% aluminium composition.The most common zamak alloy is zamak 3, but zamak 2, zamak 5 and zamak 7 are still commercially used.These alloys are most commonly die cast. Zamak alloys are frequently used in the spin casting industry.

Zinag
Zinag Is an alloy of three metallic materials Zinc, Aluminum and Silver, the composition of the alloy gives excellent mechanical and anticorrosive properties, this is an alloy of low density that can be used for many process such as automotive area, medical, aerospace, construction industry, etc., the silver gives the super plasticity which makes this alloy can be deformed without losing its mechanical properties. With this alloy can be made different process such as: Zinagizado, Metal Foams.

Zinc-copper couple
Zinc-copper couple is an alloy of zinc and copper that is employed as a reagent in organic synthesis. The couple was popularized after the report by Simmons and Smith in 1959 of its application as an activated source of zinc required for formation of an organozinc reagent in the Simmons-Smith cyclopropanation of alkenes. The couple has been widely applied as a reagent in other reactions requiring activated zinc metal. Zinc-copper couple does not refer to a rigorously defined chemical structure or alloy composition. The couple may contain varying proportions of copper and zinc; the zinc content is typically greater than 90%, although an alloy containing similar proportions of zinc and copper is used in some cases. The couple is frequently prepared as a darkly-colored powder and is slurried in an ethereal solvent prior to being used in slight excess relative to the substrate. Activation of zinc by copper is essential to the couples utility, but the origin of this effect is poorly documented. It is speculated that copper enhances reactivity of zinc at the surface of the alloy.
References

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=zinc+and+its+alloys www.google.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc-copper_couple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_metal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc#Alloys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_concentrate