Understanding Metals

thanks to curiositystream for sponsoring this video engineering materials are normally split into four categories metals polymers ceramics and composites understanding the different types of materials their properties and how to use them effectively is a crucial part of engineering in this video we'll explore metals their microstructure and different techniques like alloying and heat treatment that can be used to

improve their properties around two-thirds of the elements in the periodic table are metals although for engineering purposes we're particularly interested in just a handful of them [Music] iron is probably the most important of them all because it's used to create steel a high strength material with a wide range of engineering applications aluminum is commonly used because its

alloys have high strength to weight ratios it has a relatively low melting temperature which makes it easier to process and use for casting and it's relatively inexpensive like aluminum titanium has excellent strength to weight properties although it is even stronger making it a popular choice for aerospace applications its high melting point makes it suitable

for applications at high temperatures but makes processing more difficult it's also much more expensive than aluminum other important metals include magnesium copper and nickel the key to using these metals effectively lies in understanding how they're structured at the atomic level the atoms of a pure metal are packed together closely and are arranged in a very regular grid

because of this regular structure metal is what we call a crystalline material and the grid the atoms are arranged in is called the crystal lattice not all materials have a regular structure like this in glass for example the atoms are arranged randomly so it's an amorphous material not a crystalline one [Music] we can think of the crystal lattice as a