The addition of aluminium on brass makes it increase its hardness hence become resistant to corrosion. Aluminium establishes a hard layer (aluminium oxide) that is self-healing, transparent, thin and beneficial on the surface of brass. Steel is an alloy that is obtained from the combination of iron and other elements like carbon. In this respect, carbon and other elements in steel have a function of hardening the component hence preventing the crystal lattice of the iron atom from dislocating and sliding past another (Dieter 4). The extent of the hardness of steel is controlled by varying the quantities of the alloying elements and their present from inside the steel. Steel that has a high amount of carbon content is harder than iron, but it may have less ductility than iron. In this respect, cast iron is an alloy having a carbon content that is higher than 2.1%. In this experiment, cast iron was found to be harder than the other 1018 steel, aluminium and brass because of its amount of carbon. The quantity of carbon in cast iron made it have a high hardness score in the Rockwell Scale test. This implies that the content of carbon in cast iron was higher than that of 1018 steel.The experiment established that cast iron had the highest harness score compared to the other metals. All the objectives of the experiment were achieved. Aluminium was found to have a minimum score of hardness compared to the other metals. The experimental values were found to be different to the published values due the errors during the experiment. Some of the experimental errors came about due to air resistance, the heterogeneous trait of the calibration plate, faultiness of the Rockwell scale, and wrong calculation. The experimental errors due to parallax were minimised by conducting the experiment five times. The other errors could be reduced by conducting the experiment in a room that has vacuum conditions, and ensuring that the testing scale is accurate before beginning the experiment.
Anyalebechi, A. Materials Science and Engineering. New York: Oxford publishers. 2007. Print.
Dieter, E. Mechanical Metallurgy. New: York: McGraw-Hill. 2008.Print.
Zhang, S. Frankel: Transitions Between Pitting and Intergranular hardness in metals, Electrochimica Acta. 2005. pp. 1193-1210.
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