ingot

Mass of metal cast into a size and shape such as a bar, plate, or sheet convenient to store, transport, and work into a semifinished or finished product. The term also refers to a mold in which metal is so cast. Steel ingots range in size from small rectangular blocks weighing a few pounds (or kilograms) to huge, tapered, octagonal masses weighing more than 500 tons (450 metric tons).

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An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. It requires a second procedure of shaping, by means of cold/hot working to produce the final product. They involve relatively simple procedures. However, this only works for simple objects, such as shaping a bar ingot into a mallet tip. The advantages are low initial costs for producing the moulds. If cold worked, it can also improve hardness in the second procedure, an advantage for such things as the mallet tip. However, more input energy is required for the final object if hardness (by cold working) is not required.

Types of ingots

Metal

Metal heated past its melting point and molded into a bar or block. Additionally, the molds from which metal objects are cast may be called ingots. After the ingots are created they are sold in that form mainly to industries to be melted into another form.

Semiconducting material

In the semiconductor industry single crystal ingots (often called boules) of semiconductor materials can be grown by methods such as the Czochralski process or Bridgeman technique. These are then cut up and polished to provide wafers on which semiconductor devices, ranging from microprocessors to light-emitting diodes can be fabricated. Single crystal ingots can be created with single dendrite formation. Such is done for single crystal turbine blades.

Historical ingots

Cultural references

• The Chinese New Year food Jau gok was made to symbolize the ingot.
• The eighth letter in the Ogham alphabet is Tinne meaning "ingot".

See also

• Gold bar
• Ductile iron
• Gray iron
• Tin ingot

References

• Introduction to Materials, B.R. Schlenker, Jacaranda Press 1974
• Chalmers, Bruce (1977). Principles of Solidification, Huntington, New York: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company. ISBN 0-88275-446-7

Notes