2080 – 13 – Summary

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Developed for highly-specialized projects, superalloys and exotic metals pick up when traditional metals are not adequate. These very complex alloys were developed for applications in industries like energy and aerospace that are rapidly progressing and in need of extremely durable metal.

Because of their complexity, superalloys are organized using their base metal, often iron, nickel, or cobalt. Each superalloy combination has unique characteristics based on its composition.

Exotic Metals have key characteristics that make them valuable for advanced jobs. For example:

Titanium is highly suitable for aerospace and medical jobs because of its lightweight, and low coefficient of thermal expansion, and has its fantastic strength-to-weight ratio. And because tantalum has such a high resistance to corrosion, it’s the ideal metal for the metal industry.
Other exotic metals like tungsten, vanadium, and molybdenum are grouped with alloyed metals because they have specific characteristics. Molybdenum, for instance, will not expand under high temperatures, which is useful when building a jet engine.