Metals

Metals play a major role in the industrial as well as day-to-day life of human beings. We see hundreds of metal objects and parts, which find engineering applications.

In general metals possess the following important characteristics.

• Hardness                             
• Low specific heat
• Strength                              
• Ductility
• Malleability                         
• Stiffness
• Rigidity                             
• Formability
• Machinability                                     
• Deformability, and so on.
• Good thermal and electrical conductivity

In this unit, some mechanical properties and physical properties of metals & non-metallic materials are illustrated in Tables 1 & 2.

Table 1 : Typical Mechanical Properties of several Metals and Non-metals at Room Temperature

Table 2 : Physical Properties of Various Materials at Room Temperature