Importance of Metals
An important
metal to us is alloy steel mostly made of iron. Iron is a much known metal.
The process of making steel is complicated. In order to get pure there
has to be a procedure performed called smelting, which separates the iron
of oxygen and silicon in so it is thoroughly pure. Smelting is used for
all metals because smelting extracts extra elments out and gets the pure
element that is trying to be obtained. Even though the melting point melts
the metal, in order for it to smelted, the temperature has to be higher
than the melting point. Steel is made by mixture of lime, oxygen and iron.
Scrap is placed inside a huge vat which molten iron is poured in and then
it is taken from the ladle where it is hardened.
figure 2 - diagram of metals are allowed
Shaping and Converting Alloy Metals into Tools
In order to shape these metals and mold them into tools, a few things have to be done if the metal is hot. First the metal is poured in to a mold where it gets solid, this called a cast. The second thing that has to be done, is that metal can be forged meaning it can pressed or flattened. The third way if hot it van rolled to make rods, pipes, and even metal sheets. When the metal is cooled and cold it can be manipulated three ways. One of the ways is that It can drawn which means it goes through a die till it gets really then and that can make it in to wires. Another ways when soft medals like lead can be made into pipes by a process called extrusion, because the ram forces the metal to separate and form a tube. The last way that metals can be shaped is by machines cutting and shaping them to the desired shape.
figure 3 - a man casting metals in vat