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A Tour of a Steel Mill

If you have never experienced the wonder of a steel plate mill, you are missing out. The manufacturing of steel is a fascinating process that starts with the melting of the steel into ingots and ends with the completed steel plate, which is used for a variety of uses, from building construction, to road work, to ship-making. Travel along with this virtual journal of steel plate manufactures to discover just how steel plates are created.

Clever Uses for Titanium Foil

Titanium foil is just like any other metal foil. It is a thin layer of metal made from pure titanium. Because titanium is such an expensive metal, titanium foil is also expensive. The foil can come in a variety of different thicknesses for different projects, from 0.0762 mm to under 0.0100 in thickness. Each thickness has its own set of uses in the industrial world. Generally, titanium is thinned out using a series of presses and rollers and the finished foil is wound around a large tube for packaging. Some of the most common uses for foil made from titanium include:

Potential Dangers for Titanium

Titanium distributors sell titanium products to different companies around the world. Titanium has uses in nearly every industry in the world, from custom pipe creation, to jewelry, to mechanical components, to spaceship bodies. Titanium as a whole provides few dangers to humans or the environment, but under certain conditions, the metal can pose a health hazard to humans and the world around us. Explore some of the potential dangers of working with titanium before using the metal supplied by titanium distributors in close proximity to your workers:

How Does the Hole Get Inside Hypodermic Needles?

Did you know that suppliers for hypodermic needles use a very special process to create the small, but strong needles? Each needle must contain a narrow, hollow center inside the needle for collecting blood or administering medication. The process of creating these tiny, hollow metal pieces made from stainless steel is quite interesting, and most companies will use a similar process to create their own needles. If you have ever wondered how hypodermic needles are created, look no further.

Aluminum Alloy Advantages

It has been nearly one month since the announcement of the Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation Institute (LM3I) and the market has already responded in impressive ways. The goal of the LM3I Institute is to research and design the most energy efficient lightweight metals which will be utilized in a wide range of industries. The price of certain aluminum alloys hasn’t been this high since early 2012 and price continues to fluctuate. Many companies and organizations are responding to this new era of metals in a big way. A number of aluminum alloy manufacturing facilities are now under construction throughout the world and it is estimated that these newer aluminum alloys will result in massive substantial savings in fuel consumption. These facilities are aiming to have aluminum capacities of 900,000 tons.

Tungsten Carbide vs. Titanium

Although Tungsten was originally used for light bulbs in the early 1900’s we know today that Tungsten is a highly versatile and necessary metal for many industrial tasks. Over the years we have expanded Tungsten’s uses to include sharpening other metals, plastics, ceramics, mining operations and construction. One factor that makes this metal particularly unique is Tungsten has the highest boiling point of all metals and second highest of all elements second to Carbon. This is a metal of choice for many military applications due to Tungsten’s durability and high resistance to corrosion. This metal is used in missiles, rockets, anti-tank armor piercing rounds, micro-shrapnel and more. By utilizing carbon in the manufacturing process engineers are able to create Tungsten Carbide. This product is significantly harder than Tungsten. On the Mohs hardness scale Tungsten is 7.5 while Tungsten Carbide is 9.

Embossing Machines for Varying Applications

Many different industries use embossing machines in a variety of applications. For this reason, there are several different types of embossing machines to suit each specific application in the best way. The type used usually depends on the material or the surface that is being embossed. Rigid and hard surfaces like aluminum or steel usually require heavy duty machines; where as other embossing machines may be better suited for flexible and/or soft materials and surfaces such as leather and cardboard. There are also hand held embossing machines that are often used by bookstores, government offices and schools. Ideal for seals of authenticity, hand held embossing machines work by two plates pressing together to make a single design.

A Brief History of Titanium

Titanium was first discovered in 1791 by an English pastor named William Gregor. The substance was discovered accidentally when Gregor noticed that the sand was attracted to a black substance by a stream like a magnet. This led to the discovery that this metal is its own unique element, which is one of the strongest and toughest metals in the world today; and is used in many variations such as titanium wire.

Steel Service Centers Benefits to the Steel Manufacturing Industry

Do you know what steel service centers actually are? A steel service center is actually a facility that purchases raw steel materials from a steel manufacturing company and sells it to a customer. Often, steel service centers will process the steel into a usable product that the customer can use directly out of the box or that only requires a small amount of modification before the final pieces are finished. A steel service center acts as a facilitator between steel manufacturing companies and the factories and companies that actually use the steel parts to create new products.

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