Thieves Target Children’s Metal Play Areas

Sounds crazy maybe, but after the sheer amount of thefts regarding metal in the last 12 months nothing is that supring any longer.

They have targeted churches, manhole covers and now they have began to steal parts of childrens play areas that have been constructed using metal.

Alot of children’s play areas have been put forward by the community so that their children have somewhere fun to play and be safe too and now thieves are stealing not only the metal away from the playground they are also stealing the fun away from the children.

Councillor Dick Wraith said: “It’s a despicable crime. It seems these metal thieves will stop at nothing. There has been a lot of investment in to facilities at the park, but nothing is left alone. It’s soul-destroying for the people who work hard to provide a good amenity for people in this area to use.”

Anyone who may have witnessed some unusual activity at the park between June 8 and 12, or heard anything that might be linked to the theft, is asked to contact South Yorkshire police on their 101 non-emergency number.

Tantalum Fabricators At SMF

Tantalum is generally made from sintering the powdered ore to produce a metal with an extremely high melting point of approximately 2990°C.

It has an excellent resistance to corrosion against molten metals and liquids, is biocompatible and has very high conductivity.

Applications include; heat exchanger tubes, charge carriers, capacitors, electrodes and grounding rings, jet engine parts, missile parts and vacuum furnace parts.

Why Choose Special Metals?

Delivering an unbeatable service to all of our valued customers.

We will not be beaten on price, expert workmanship or delivery times.

We aim to deliver a unique experience at Special Metals Fabrication which means our customers come back time and time again.

Molybdenum.. Whats that?

Molybdenum is a very hard, pure element with an extremely high melting point of around 2620°C, it has a high thermal conductivity and is corrosive resistant to glass and other metals.

Applications include; sintering trays and boats, charge carriers, aerospace parts, plasma spraying nozzles and electrodes, sputtering targets, furnace components, glass stirrers, and medical parts.

Titanium Overtaking Gold

In recent years, many people have been shunning stocks and investing in gold, usually thought to be a safe play for troubled times.

Other metals have followed a similar downward trend similar to how gold has been slowly decreasing.

“Gold is a bubble, and I think the bubble continues to unwind,” said John Mothersole, the lead nonferrous metals analyst with IHS Global Insight’s Pricing and Purchasing Service. “Unless you believe in the Mayan calendar cycle, gold is a bad decision.”

“The price of gold has just shot up dramatically for someone in India, and in the consumption market basket, that means a big decline in demand,” Mothersole explained.

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, underground “veins” and in alluvial deposits. It is one of the coinage metals. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most malleable and ductile substance known. Pure gold has a bright yellow color traditionally considered attractive.

Gold formed the basis for the gold standard used before the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. The ISO currency code of gold bullion is XAU.

Missing Tungsten In Canada

It has come to the attention of the public in Waterloo, Canada that tungsten metal has been going missing, over the last 12 months.

“Sometime over the past year, a large amount of tungsten carbide metal used in the manufacture of industrial machinery had been taken from the company’s location,” North Division Staff Sergeant Paul Driedger said.

He added “Tungsten carbide is a very dense and heavy metal.”

Police confirm as many as 100,000 pieces of tungsten carbide have been stolen.

Tungsten has the highest melting point of these refractory metals at 3422°C. It is very robust and has an extremely high tensile strength; it has the ability to be drawn into very thin wires. Tungsten’s corrosion resistance is also very good.

Applications include; lighting elements, X-ray targets, heating elements, missile components, and due to its high density is used as counter weights.

Toxic metal fears after flooding

Due to the high volume of rain that most of us if not all of us have experienced lately, in some areas it could be more dangerous than others due to toxins from metals being in the water.

It is Wales that has been affected by this, and that is because of the unused mines they have, when the flooding occurred it disrupted the abandoned mines which may have contaminated the water with themetal toxins.

Mark Macklin, a professor of physical geography at Aberystwyth University, said “the force of the flood waters could have eroded river banks which stored harmful metals, including lead and zinc”.

Mr Macklin told BBC Wales: “Much of Ceredigion was affected by metal mining, but most of it finished before the start of World War One.

“As a result of the mining, rivers and river banks in the area have been contaminated from the mines themselves right the way down to the sea. We’re starting a survey of the flood plains on Tuesday.

“There are concerns that farmland has been contaminated and this could pose a risk to animals and crops.

“We’ll take fresh flood deposits, such as silt, and they will be chemically analysed. We will, hopefully, have some answers in a month or so.”

London Metal Exchange sale to Hong Kong

The Hong Kong stock exchange has settled a deal to buy the London Metal Exchange for £1.39 billion pound, it is the world’s largest exchange trading nonferrous metals, including copper and aluminium.

“The acquisition of LME Holdings represents a unique opportunity for us to acquire in one stroke a position of global leadership in the commodities market,” HKEX chief executive Charles Li stated.

“This is consistent with our strategy to expand beyond equities and equity derivatives and offers significant opportunities for revenue growth.

“HKEX brings a unique ability to help the LME grow its business in Asia and, particularly, China and we will capitalise on this to deliver value for all our stakeholders,” he said.

Opening Times

For those of you who are unsure about when we are open and when we are not, then please see the times below.

We close for bank holidays too.

Monday – Thursday       8.00am – 5.30pm

Friday                           8.00am – 2.30pm

Any questions please contact us.

SMF Extends

So we posted before that we were planning to extend our premises..

Which we are really looking forward to doing, as it means we can take on more work with the more space that we have available.

We will be increasing our floor space by 3 fold and that means we can increase our capacity and capability.

More information coming soon!

No cancer rise in hip implant patients

“There is no evidence that metal-on-metal hip replacements increase the risk of cancer,” the BBC reported today.

The story was based on a study that found that patients with metal-on-metal hip replacements did not have a higher risk than the general population of developing cancer up to seven years after surgery, or than patients with hip replacements made of other materials.

It has been apparent in the hard research that has been carried out that there is no link that would cause the patients to have cancer years later after their operation.

The study was carried out by University of Bristol, University of Exeter and Wrightington Hospital, Wigan.

It was funded by the National Joint Registry for England and Wales.

According to Ripley and Heanor news the study comes in the wake of recent concerns about metal-on-metal hip implants, including high failure rates and the possible risks of small amounts of metal (ions) being released into the body. While the findings are reassuring, this type of study has limitations. In particular, it only looked at the risk of cancer within a few years of having hip replacement surgery. Given that several cancers can take many years to develop, a study of longer-term outcomes of metal-on-metal implants is required and recommended by the researchers.

Materials

Specialist Stockist, Suppliers & Manufacturers of Machined and Fabricated products in; Molybdenum, Tantalum, Tungsten, Niobium, Zirconium, Titanium, Gold, Silver and Platinum

Molybdenum

Molybdenum is a very hard, pure element with an extremely high melting point of around 2620°C, it has a high thermal conductivity and is corrosive resistant to glass and other metals.

Applications include; sintering trays and boats, charge carriers, aerospace parts, plasma spraying nozzles and electrodes, sputtering targets, furnace components, glass stirrers, and medical parts.

Tantalum

Tantalum is generally made from sintering the powdered ore to produce a metal with an extremely high melting point of approximately 2990°C. It has an excellent resistance to corrosion against molten metals and liquids, is biocompatible and has very high conductivity.

Applications include; heat exchanger tubes, charge carriers, capacitors, electrodes and grounding rings, jet engine parts, missile parts and vacuum furnace parts.

Niobium

Niobium has a similar structure to Tantalum and is produced in a similar method. It too has a very high melting point of around 2470°C. It has excellent corrosive resistance and has good cold ductility. It is however half as dense as Tantalum.

Applications include; sintering trays and boats, special chemical applications, superconductors, medical components, jet engine parts and is used in the lighting industry.

Tungsten

Tungsten has the highest melting point of these refractory metals at 3422°C. It is very robust and has an extremely high tensile strength; it has the ability to be drawn into very thin wires. Tungsten’s corrosion resistance is also very good.

Applications include; lighting elements, X-ray targets, heating elements, missile components, and due to its high density is used as counter weights.

Zirconium

Zirconium is a lustrous, greyish-white, soft, ductile, and malleable, it is highly resistant to corrosion by alkalis, acids, salt water, and other agents. The melting point of zirconium is approx 1855°C

Applications include; laboratory crucibles, metallurgical furnaces, surgical appliances, missile components and vacuum tube filaments.

Closed Today – Bank Holiday

We were closed yesterday (Monday 4th June) and we are closed again today (Tuesday 5th June) due to the bank holidays.

We hope that you are all enjoying the long weekend and we will be open as usual again tomorrow!

Gold Being Sold In India

Gold consumers in India, the world’s biggest importer, are “aggressively” selling the metal after prices surged to a record, an industry group said.

“In some areas consumers are selling more than jewelers,” Bachhraj Bamalwa, chairman of the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation, said today in a phone interview. “They are selling aggressively.”

According to Bloomberg.com “Futures for August-delivery rose 0.6 percent to 30,104 rupees ($540) per 10 grams on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. at 3:52 p.m. in Mumbai, near last week’s record 30,156 rupees. Global prices for spot gold traded at $1,619.27 an ounce, down from an all-time high of $1,921.15″.

“Physical buying is not there, because prices are very high,” said Ketan Shroff, a director with Pushpak Bullions Pvt. in Mumbai. “Everybody is selling. Even retail investors, who had invested at lower levels, are sellers right now.”

Bank Holiday Weekend Closure

As we blogged about last week, we will be open today but as from tomorrow (Saturday 2nd June) until Tuesday (5th June) we will be closed for the bank holiday Jubilee celebrations.

We will reopen on Wednesday 6th June, normal hours.

If you require anything from SMF whilst we are closed then please drop us an email and we will be able to contact you when we are back in.

Hoping that you all have a lovely long weekend and the weather stays lovely and sunny for you all.