I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around classifying metals. So far, I’ve seen two divisions:
1. Pure metals and Alloys
2. Ferrous and Non-ferrous
But I haven’t exactly seen a source that takes both classification divisions into account. Sources keep saying ferrous metals contain iron, so is iron the only pure metal that’s ferrous? Is iron even a ferrous metal? What about the other magnetic metals like nickel and cobalt?
In: Chemistry
Pure metals is made of 1 element, alloys are made of more than 1 element.
Ferrous materials are based on iron, non-ferrous materials are not based on iron.
1. Non-ferrous pure metal: any metal on the periodic table except iron.
2. Ferrous pure metal: iron. This “category” doesn’t make sense because there’s only 1 thing in it. Just say “iron” if you want iron.
3. Non-ferrous alloy: any alloy which is not primarily iron.
4. Ferrous alloy: any alloy which is primarily iron or has enough iron to behave like steel.
The reason for the ferrous vs non-ferrous alloy dichotomy is that steel is one of the most common and most important materials. It also tends to behave differently than other alloys because they have different metallurgical mechanisms.
>What about the other magnetic metals like nickel and cobalt?
You may be confusing “ferrous” with “ferromagnetic.” Technically all materials are magnetic, but only some are magnetic enough to easily detect. These are said to be “magnetic similar to iron,” hence the name ferromagnetic.
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