The Properties and Uses of Zinc in Our Lives. Zinc is recognizable by its bluish-grey or sometimes bluish-white color. Its other name is mock-silver. Miners mine it because of its unique properties which are very useful in our industries. In fact, zinc is the fourth most used metal, after iron, aluminum, and copper.
It is found in quite a number of our day-to-day products. It is in white paint and watercolors in the form of zinc oxide, in deodorants in the form of zinc chloride, in toothpaste as zinc lactate, in sunscreen, anti-dandruff shampoo, and also in multivitamin supplements. In the industrial world, zinc is used in batteries and electrical products, for galvanizing iron and the preparation of some alloys, in building construction such as roofing material and facades, in miniature zinc castings, in the automotive, communications, and electronic industry.
Zinc is a useful metal chemical element in the industrial world because of its properties such as resistance to corrosion, its malleability at certain given temperatures, its brittleness at other temperatures, its ductility, its low boiling and melting point, low viscosity and therefore low working temperature, its good electrochemical potential, good thermal and electrical conductivity, good impact value, greater stability and durability, greater resistance at high temperatures, and superior electrical properties.
Because of all these properties, the metal is perfectly suitable in making miniature zinc castings. Zinc is fashioned into small parts as components of larger machines, gadgets, or devices. These small zinc parts are used in an unbelievably wide range of applications. From lead screws to panel nuts, from switches to connectors; computer and telecommunication hardware components, electrical hardware, security devices and industrial controls, lock components, fiber optics, sporting goods, all these might have small parts made of zinc.
