Indium Metal
Indium Corporation is a three-time recipient of the Frost & Sullivan Marketing Excellence Award for Customer Service and Product Innovation. We bring this energy and expertise to our extraction, refining, purification, and fabrication of indium metal products.
We maintain close contacts with market conditions to assure you of the best service. Contact us for information on pricing and availability of your indium metal requirements. We offer a full range of indium ingot (in all purities, shapes, and quantities) and indium fabrications (available in all shapes and sizes): AskUs@indium.com
The Indium Corporation is confident of the sustained indium metal supply.
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Indium Metal Information Center
Indium was first discovered in Germany in 1863 and was added to the Periodic Table as the 49 th element. However, the real research with the material did not begin until 1934 when the first practical applications for indium were identified at the Indium Corporation.
The name indium comes from its indigo blue spectral lines but the metal is actually a lustrous silver-white color. It is very malleable and ductile and can be easily formed into a wide variety of fabrications. It retains its softness to temperatures approaching absolute zero, making it ideal for cryogenic and vacuum applications.
Some of the other significant characteristics of indium include:
- Cold Welding: Oxide free indium has the unique ability to cold weld or attach to itself. Parts coated with indium can be bonded together without the addition of heat or chemicals.
- Metal Vitamin: When small amounts of indium are added to other pure metals or alloy systems, the resulting alloys can be stronger or harder. For example, one of the first (and current) applications of indium was as an additive in dental alloys.
- Improve Resistance to Thermal Fatigue: When indium is added to standard solder alloys, the joint is less likely to fail due to thermal fatigue.
- Reduce Gold Scavenging: When soldering to gold or gold-plated surfaces, solder has a tendency to dissolve gold into the joint. The addition of indium to the solder will reduce this tendency.
- Low Melting Point Alloys: Indium is often used to produce low melting point alloys which are used as fuses or temperature indicators. Low melting point alloys are also used in the optical industry to hold or "block" lenses during the polishing process. The polishing machine tool grips the alloy, not the lens, allowing the lens to be polished with minimized distortion. The alloy’s low melting point then allows it to be removed from the lens with a minimum of heat, avoiding damaging the lens.
- Join Materials with Different CTEs: Many times, materials being joined have different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). Traditional solder joints can crack during the expansion/contraction process because of this. Indium, when added to a solder alloy, provides ductility which can enable the materials to expand and contract at their individual rates while absorbing the CTE difference of the other material, all without cracking the bond.
- Bond Glass, Quartz and Ceramics: These materials cannot be bonded with traditional solders. Indium’s unique cold welding properties allow it to produce a bond in a variety of non-metal applications. For more information, click on Use of Indium and High Indium Alloys for Bonding Non-Metallic Materials.
- Reduce or Eliminate The Use of Lead and Mercury: The use of indium in most of today’s alkaline dry cell batteries allows them to be more environmentally friendly by eliminating mercury and by delivering more energy per battery. In the soldering arena, indium-containing alloys are candidates for replacing lead-bearing alloys.
- Transparent Electrical Conductor: When indium (in the form of indium-tin oxide) is coated onto various materials such as glass or plastic films, it acts as a transparent electrical conductor and an infrared reflector. When architectural or photovoltaic glass is coated with indium-tin oxide (ITO) it keeps the harmful infrared rays of the sun from passing through. When coated onto automotive or aircraft windshields, it allows the glass to be electrically deiced or demisted as well as reducing the air conditioning requirement by reducing heat gain.
- Malleable: Because indium is so soft and pliable (malleable), it can easily fill voids between two surfaces, even at cryogenic temperatures.
For details of the physical attributes of indium, take a look at Physical Constants of Pure Indium.
New uses are continually being found for this versatile metal. Although it can be initially more expensive than traditional solders, its many important physical characteristics ultimately make it a cost-effective solution to many of today’s soldering and bonding challenges.
If you have questions about how indium can work for you, email us at askus@indium.com or call us at the facility nearest you.
