Ingot facts for kids
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.
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'. These are then cut up and polished to provide wafers on which semiconductor devices, ranging from microprocessors to light-emitting diodes can be fabricated.
Images for kids
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Pouring molten gold into a mold at the La Luz Gold Mine in Siuna, Nicaragua about 1959.
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Re-melted tin affected with tin pest is poured into ingot molds at Rock Island Arsenal Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center, Rock Island, Illinois.
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Ancient copper oxhide ingot from Zakros, Crete. The ingot is shaped in the form of an animal skin, a typical shape of copper ingots from these times.
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Lead ingots from Roman Britain on display at the Wells and Mendip Museum.
See also
In Spanish: Lingote para niños