An alloy based on one of the precious metals and composed of other elements. Precious metal alloys have the main characteristics of precious metals, and have better physical, chemical and mechanical properties, high reliability, stability and long life than single precious metals for their specific USES. Platinum alloy made in 1763. In 1802, the invention of hydrogen and oxygen blowing pipe, to provide a high temperature means of smelting precious metal alloy. By 1847 precious metals could be smelted with the exception of osmium and ruthenium. After 1892, electric arc furnace and induction furnace appeared one after another, and the smelting technology of precious metal and its alloy got great development. These furnaces are still the main smelting equipment for precious metals. By the end of 1930s, there were more than 50 pGE alloy series available for application. Since then precious metal alloys have been widely used in various industrial sectors. Since the 1970s, continuous ingot casting, extrusion, composite (including coating) and other technologies have been gradually applied in the precious metal alloy industry. China has a long history of gold, silver and their alloys (see history of metallurgy); Small batch production of pGE alloys began in 1964. Since then, the scale and variety of research and production have gradually expanded. By the end of the 1970s, there were about 200 kinds of precious metal alloys and more than 1,000 kinds of profiles of various specifications produced in China.
Precious metal alloys are almost always used as functional materials. There are many kinds of classification methods for precious metal alloys: according to the base metal can be divided into silver base alloy, gold base alloy, platinum base alloy and palladium base alloy. According to the application can be divided into electric contact alloy, alloy, resistance alloy, resistance strain alloys, elastic alloys, magnetic alloys, catalyst, hydrogen through material, tube leakage cathode materials and glass fiber board, vessels and crucible materials, decoration materials, filler metals alloy, dental materials and metal COINS (see metal coin), etc. Applications of precious metal alloys are characterized by: small (small batch and quantity), small (small volume of individual articles and components), fine (high technical requirements, often used in key positions), wide (almost all modern scientific and technological fields and industrial production sectors need) and expensive (high price). Precious metal alloy.
