ABSTRACT
Metals have been traditionally classified as ferrous and nonferrous, i.e., those whose base metals are iron and those whose base metals are iron free. This distinction arose for two reasons. First, the iron-base alloys have been used in quantities exceeding all others combined, and thus to some extent warrant a separate category. Production of iron and steel on a weight basis is about seven times the total quantity of all other metals combined. Second, the process of extracting iron from its ore is a complex process and somewhat different from the processes used, for example for copper, nickel and aluminum extraction. It was these extractive metallurgists that first separated metals into the ferrous and nonferrous categories. The physical metallurgy of alloys, which includes the composition and processing of such alloys, is basically the same in principal for all metals.
