Flanges (stainless steel / Carbon steel)
Nickel (Ni)Nickel is a silvery white metal that takes on a high polish. It belongs to the iron group, and is hard, malleable, and ductile. It occurs combined with sulfur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral niccolite, and with arsenic and sulfur in nickel glance.
On account of its permanence in air and inertness to oxidation, it is used in the smaller coins, for plating iron, brass, etc., for chemical apparatus, and in certain alloys, as German silver. It is magnetic, and is very frequently accompanied by cobalt, both being found in meteoric iron. It is chiefly valuable for the alloys it forms.
Nickel is one of the five ferromagnetic elements. However, the US "nickel" coin is not magnetic, because it actually is mostly copper, but old Canadian nickels minted until 1958 were.
The most common oxidation state of nickel is +2, though 0, +1 and +3 Ni complexes are observed.
The unit cell of nickel is an FCC with a lattice parameter of 0.356 nm giving a radius of the atom of 0.126 nm.
Nickle-58 is one of the most stable nuclides of all the existing elements, second in stability only to Iron-56.
Applications:
About 65 percent of the nickel consumed in the Western World is used to make austenitic stainless steel. Another 12 percent goes into superalloys. The remaining 23% of consumption is divided between alloy steels, rechargeable batteries, catalysts and other chemicals, coinage, foundry products, and plating. The five-cent Canadian and US coin is only 25% nickel. The largest consumer of nickel is Japan, which uses 169,600 tonnes per year (2005) 1.
Applications include but are not limited to:
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Stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant alloys.
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Nickel steel is used for armour plates and burglar-proof vaults.
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The alloy Alnico is used in magnets.
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Mu-metal has an especially high magnetic permeability, and is used to screen magnetic fields.
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Monel metal is a copper-nickel alloy highly resistant to corrosion, used for ship propellers, kitchen supplies, and chemical industry plumbing
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Smart wire, or shape memory alloys, are used in robotics.
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Rechargeable batteries, such as nickel metal hydride batteries and nickel cadmium batteries.
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Coinage. In the United States and Canada, nickel is used in five-cent coins called nickels. See also clad.
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In electroplating.
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In crucibles for chemical laboratories.
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Finely divided nickel is a catalyst for hydrogenating vegetable oils.
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Rocket engines and Gas Turbines.