1. Properties of Metals The Basics

2. Brittleness A property of a metal that does not allow movement of material or distortion before it will break.

3. Tensile Strength A measurement of how much a metal can stretch before breaking or failing.

4. Toughness A property required for many tools, as it allows materials to withstand impacts without breaking or chipping.

5. Hardness A material’s resistance to permanent deformation after facing a force exerted by another object.

6. Malleability A property that allows materials to be continuously reshaped and formed without breaking.

7. Ductility A property that allows materials to be easily formed after experiencing a force via another object.

8. Elasticity A material’s ability to return to its original shape after a force acting upon it has been removed.

9. Hardening A process in which metals increase their resistance to penetration by an object imposing a force upon them. Hardening can be achieved by cold working or most commonly by heating a material by various means to a given temperature and rapidly cooling it to form a finer internal grain structure.

10. Tempering A process of heat treating, which is used to increase the toughness of iron-based alloys. Tempering is usually performed after hardening, to reduce some of the excess hardness, and is done by heating the metal to a much lower temperature than was used for hardening. The exact temperature determines the amount of hardness removed, and depends on both the specific composition of the alloy and on the desired properties in the finished product

11. Annealing A heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as hardness and ductility Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses, refine the structure by making it homogeneous and improve cold working properties.

12. Annealing Cont’d….(Normalizing) An annealing process in which a metal is cooled in air after heating in order to relieve stress. It is used to refine grains which have been deformed through cold work, and can improve ductility and toughness of the steel.