Glossary

  1. Home
  2. Glossary

  1. Tolerance

Tolerance is the allowable deviation from a standard, especially the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece.

  1. Temper

Synonyms: Tempering

Tempering is 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

  1. Hot Rolled

Synonyms: Tempering

In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through a pair of rolls. Rolling is classified according to the temperature of the metal rolled. If the temperature of the metal is above its recrystallization temperature, then the process is termed as hot rolling.

  1. Annealed

Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment that alters a material to increase its ductility and to make it more workable. It involves heating material to above its critical temperature, maintaining a suitable temperature, and then cooling. Annealing can induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses, refine the structure by making it homogeneous, and improve cold working properties.

  1. Alloy

Alloys are mixtures of a metal with other elements, the precise combination being governed by the required properties. Alloys can be manufactured by various routes, the most widely used being to melt the constituents together and to cool the resultant mixture to form a single or multi-phase solid.

  1. UNS

The unified numbering system (UNS) is an alloy designation system widely accepted in North America. It consists of a prefix letter and five digits designating a material composition. A prefix of S indicates stainless steel alloys, C for copper, brass, or bronze alloys, T for tool steels, etc. The first three digits often match older three-digit numbering systems, while the last two digits indicate more modern variations. For example, Copper Alloy No. 377 (forging brass) in the original three-digit system became C37700 in the UNS System. The UNS is managed jointly by the ASTM International and SAE International. A UNS number alone does not constitute a full material specification because it establishes no requirements for material properties, heat treatment, form, or quality.

  1. ASTM

ASTM International, known until 2001 as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services.

  1. Hardness

Hardness is a measure of how resistant solid matter is to various kinds of permanent shape change when a force is applied. Macroscopic hardness is generally characterized by strong intermolecular bonds, but the behavior of solid materials under force is complex; therefore, there are different measurements of hardness: scratch hardness, indentation hardness, and rebound hardness.

  1. Tantalum Capacitor

A tantalum capacitor is a type of electrolytic capacitor, a component of electronic circuits. It typically consists of a pellet of tantalum metal as anode, covered by an insulating oxide layer that forms the dielectric, surrounded by conductive material as a cathode. Tantalum capacitors are the main use of the element tantalum.

  1. Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain materials when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature.

  1. Crucible

A crucible is a container that can withstand very high temperatures and is used for metal, glass, and pigment production as well as a number of modern laboratory processes.

  1. Tensile Strength

Tensile strength measures the force required to pull something such as rope, wire, or a structural beam to the point where it breaks.

  1. Flange

A flange is an external or internal ridge, or rim (lip), for strength, as the flange of an iron beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam; or for attachment to another object, as the flange on the end of a pipe, steam cylinder, etc., or on the lens mount of a camera; or for a flange of a rail car or tram wheel.

  1. Refractory Metal

A metal or alloy that is heat-resistant, having a high melting point. Typical examples are tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, tantalum, and rhenium.

  1. Transition Metal

Any of the metallic elements within Groups 3 to 12 in the Periodic Table that have an incomplete inner electron shell and that serve as transitional links between the most and the least electropositive in a series of elements. They are characterized by multiple valences, colored compounds, and the ability to form stable complex ions.

  1. Yield Strength

The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and materials science as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically. Prior to the yield point the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed. Once the yield point is passed, some fraction of the deformation will be permanent and non-reversible.

  1. Elongation

Elongation is the percentage increase in original length (strain) of a rubber specimen as a result of tensile force (stress) being applied to the specimen. Elongation is inversely proportional to hardness, tensile strength, and modulus.

  1. HSLA

Those steel alloys known as high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels provide increased strength-to-weight ratios over conventional low-carbon steels for only a modest price premium. Because HSLA alloys are stronger, they can be used in thinner sections, making them particularly attractive for transportation-equipment components where weight reduction is important. HSLA steels are available in all standard wrought forms — sheet, strip, plate, structural shapes, bar-size shapes, and special shapes.

  1. Anisotropic Magnet

A magnet having a preferred direction of magnetic orientation, so that the magnetic characteristics are optimum in that direction.

  1. Coercive force, Hc

The demagnetizing force, measured in Oersted, necessary to reduce observed induction, B to zero after the magnet has previously been brought to saturation.

  1. Curie temperature, Tc

The temperature at which the parallel alignment of elementary magnetic moments completely disappears, and the materials is no longer able to hold magnetization.

  1. Intrinsic Coercive Force, Hci

An intrinsic ability of a material to resist demagnetization. Its value is measured in Oersted and corresponds to zero intrinsic induction in the material after saturation. Permanent magnets with high intrinsic coercive force are referred as “Hard” permanent magnets, which usually associated with high temperature stability.

  1. Gauss, Gs

A unit of magnetic flux density in the GCS system; the lines of magnetic flux per square inch. 1 Gauss equals 0.0001 Tesla in the SI system.

  1. Flux

The condition existing in a medium subjected to a magnetizing force. This quantity is characterized by the fact that an electromotive force is induced in a conductor surrounding the flux at any time the flux changes in magnitude. The unit of flux in the GCS system is Maxwell. One Maxwell equals one volt x seconds.

  1. Oersted, Oe

A unit of magnetizing force in GCS system. 1 Oersted equals 79.58 A/m in SI system.

  1. Hysteresis Loop

A closed curve obtained for a material by plotting corresponding values off magnetic induction, B (on the abscissa), against magnetizing force, H (on the ordinate).

  1. Induction, B

The magnetic flux per unit area of a section normal to the direction of flux. The unit of induction is Gauss in the GCS system Intrinsic Coercive Force, Hci: An intrinsic ability of a material to resist demagnetization. Its value is measured in Oersted and corresponds to zero intrinsic induction in the material after saturation. Permanent magnets with high intrinsic coercive force are referred as “Hard” permanent magnets, which usually associated with high temperature stability.

  1. Irreversible Loss

Defined as the partial demagnetization of a magnet caused by external fields or other factors. These losses are only recoverable by remagnetization. Magnets can be stabilized to prevent the variation of performance caused by irreversible losses.

  1. Isotropic Magnets

A magnet material whose magnetic properties are the same in any direction, and which can therefore be magnetized in any direction without loss of magnetic characteristics.

  1. Magnetic Flex

The total magnetic induction over a given area.

  1. Magnetizing Force

The magnetomotive force per unit length at any point in a magnetic circuit. The unit of the magnetizing force is Oersted in the GCS system.

  1. Maximum Energy Product, (BH)max

There is a point at the Hysteresis Loop at which the product of magnetizing force H and induction B reaches a maximum. The maximum value is called the Maximum Energy Product. At this point, the volume of magnet material required to project a given energy into its surrounding is a minimum. This parameter is generally used to describe how “strong” this permanent magnet material is. Its unit is Gauss Oersted. One MGOe means 1,000,000 Gauss Oersted.

  1. Permeability, Recoil

The Average slope of the minor hysteresis loop.

  1. Rare Earths

A family of elements with an atomic number from 57 to 71 plus 21 and 39. They are lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.

  1. Remenance, Bd

The magnetic induction which remains in a magnetic circuit after the removal of an applied magnetizing force. If there is an air gap in the circuit, the remenance will be less than the residual induction, Br.

  1. Reversible Temperature Coefficient

A measure of the reversible changes in flux caused by temperature variations.

  1. Residual Induction, Br

A value of induction at the point at Hysteresis Loop, at which Hysteresis loop crosses the B axis at zero magnetizing force. The Br represents the maximum magnetic flux density output of this material without an external magnetic field.

  1. Saturation

A condition under which induction of a ferromagnetic material has reach its maximum value with the increase of applied magnetizing force. All elementary magnetic moments have become oriented in one direction at the saturation status.

  1. Sintering

The bonding of powder compacts by the application of heat to enable one or more of several mechanisms of atom movement into the particle contact interfaces to occur; the mechanisms are: viscous flow, liquid phase solution-precipitation, surface diffusion, bulk diffusion, and evaporation-condensation. Densification is a usual result of sintering.

  1. Surface Coatings

Unlike Samarium Cobalt, Alnico and ceramic materials, which are corrosion resistant, Neodymium Iron Boron magnets, are susceptible to corrosion. Based upon of magnets’ applications, following coatings can be chosen to apply on surfaces of Neodymium Iron Boron magnets.

  1. Stability

An ability to resist to demagnetizing influences expected to be encountered in operation. These demagnetizing influences can be caused by high or low temperatures or by external magnetic fields.

  1. Tesla

The S.I. unit for magnetic induction (flux density), One Tesla equals 10,000 Gauss.