Nickel has become so popular as a major alloying component that companies have trademarked a host of proprietary names for the nickel compositions they’ve developed. Inconel is the Special Metals Corporation’s name for their nickel-chromium alloy, Kovar is Carpenter Technology Corporation’s nickel-cobalt ferrous alloy and Monel is another of SMC’s alloys, which is composed mainly of nickel and copper. The demand for these and other nickel-based materials knows no bounds, and nickel suppliers sometimes struggle to meet the demand for them. Nickel rods, nickel sheets and other simple nickel shapes are prepared and supplied to customers in the metalworking and fabrication industries; from there emerge the more complex nickel products that are bought and sold in end-user markets. A few examples of these products include magnets, guitar strings, electronics components like microphone capsules, window tinting and, especially in recent decades, batteries. Perhaps the most well-known use of nickel, however, is as coinage.
