Monel® is a trademark of Special Metals Inc, applied to a family of nickel-copper alloys. The name is so well recognised that it is used generically to describe such alloys, even when they are produced by another manufacturer.
The most widely used Monel alloys are Alloy 400 (Monel 400, UNS N04400, 2.4360) and Alloy K500 (Monel 500, UNS N05500, 2.4375), the higher-strength of the two. Both are widely used in marine and chemical process industries for their corrosion resistance in selected media. Monel is a solid-solution binary alloy, with nickel and copper mutually soluble in all proportions, making it a single-phase alloy.
When was Monel created?
Monel was created in 1901 by Robert Crooks Stanley, an employee of the International Nickel Company (INCO), and named after the company president Ambrose Monell. It was patented by 1906. One "l" was dropped because family names could not be used as trademarks at the time.
How is Monel fabricated?
This group of nickel alloys is primarily nickel (typically 52-67%) and copper, with small amounts of silicon, carbon, manganese and iron. Monel alloys are fabricated by hot and cold working, machining and welding. They resist corrosion from many agents, including rapidly flowing seawater and acids, and can withstand a fire in pure oxygen.