News: Metal Powders News

With only months to go before the opening ceremony in London, the Olympic Park is almost ready. Built in one of London's most underdeveloped areas at Lower Lea Valley, the park hopes to trigger positivity in the area by providing new transport facilities, employment, housing, a green park and cultural sports facilities.

London won the Games based on their "reduce, reuse, recycle" approach that promotes a greener city, country and world.

Mining was first carried out at the site in Hemerdon, Devon between 1919 and 1920, restarting again in 1934 and permanently closing in 1944. More than 60 years on since the closure, Australian company Wolf Minerals are reopening the tungsten mine. Tungsten was first found at the site in 1867, and Hemerdon is ranked as the 4th largest tungsten mine in the world.

Tin is rarely used as a metal on its own, but more commonly in association with other metals to form alloys such as pewter and white metal bearing alloys.

Scandinavian pewter is a mixture of tin, antimony, copper and bismuth, however English pewter are 91% tin, 7.5% antimony and 1.5% copper. The tin and copper combination is commonly used in tableware, and the tin and antimony combination in the production of flatware.

Daniel Shechtman first discovered these unusual crystals in 1982. Other scientists thought the idea of quasicrystals ridiculous as they break every rule of what a crystal is. His battle to prove their existence was long and drawn out, but throughout this time he continued his research to confirm that his discovery was real.

Firstly, he created quasicrystals under laboratory conditions - cooling molten metals by squirting the mixture onto a cold surface. Shechtman also sent electron waves through molten metal made up of aluminium and manganese to test how the wave diffracted according to the metals atoms.

Scientists continue to find out more of what lies 6,000km beneath the surface of the Earth through research and experimentation in laboratories across the world. The Earth's mantle is made up of a solid mixture of magnesium and iron oxide. The electronic link from between the core and mantle is formulate by iron oxide, and affects the magnetic field that we see on the Earth's surface.

Iron oxide is one of the main materials found at the centre of the earth, and research has indicated a change to iron oxide due to extreme pressures of 690,000 times sea level and temperatures of 1,650ºC. This has dramatically changed the way in which the metal conducts electricity, with no change to its structure.

Nickel is useful in many applications due to its numerous desirable properties including corrosion resistance, durability and availability.

Nickel is relatively important and a widely used constituent in alloy steels. It is best known to be a solid solution strengthener and is used in 300 different grades of stainless steels. It also provides the basics to create many extensive super alloys that are resistant to heat, oxidation and corrosion. Wrought steels, including stainless steel are responsible for the harden-ability agent. Nickel's presence in alloy steels also promotes toughness at lower temperatures.

Aluminium is a metal that plays a key role in the fuel, automotive and aerospace industry. It is an extremely lightweight metal, which is ideal for these industries as it ensures that the weight of the vehicle is dramatically reduced. A lighter vehicle results in reduced fuel consumption and reduced fuel emissions, making aluminium the metal of choice. Aluminium is also used in the construction industry; it has corrosive resistance properties that make it idyllic for use in the development of low maintenance buildings.

Leading Korean steel maker, POSCO have begun building a plant in the southern city of Suncheon that will produce sheets of magnesium to be used in cars. POSCO say that the plant will be completed by August 2012 and will have an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes of magnesium sheets. Due to the third biggest steel maker in the world and the Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology in Pohang, commercial production may not begin until 2013 as they are currently developing cast technology for wider magnesium sheets.

It has been reported that Anglo-American has discovered Europe's largest nickel deposit in the Sakattilampi district, north of the town Sodankylä in Finnish Lapland.

Test drillings have found ore samples with as much as 4% nickel content, but it is also reported that there is plenty of copper here too, as well as gold and palladium. The exploration of the area has already acquired a combined depth of 28km of drill holes. It is thought that the deposit stretches down almost a kilometre and contains pyrites; Anglo-American plan to employ 150 workers to double the number of drill holes to see just how wide / deep the deposit is.

Chromium is a high purity metal that can be used in various forms such as metal powders and ferro alloys, but it is never found in its pure chromium state. As soon as the metal is extracted from the earths crust it is oxidised. However chromium is an exceptionally hard metal with high corrosion resistance so can be used in a diverse range of applications across many industries.