Hi,
Indium is also used by the Vandervell Co. for their tri metal copper lead engine bearings as the overlay to the copper for the actual bearing surface. The US uses lead as the overlay but the English/Vandervell process used lead/indium and hold the patent for it. The lead/indium is a better bearing surface.
Jim O
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On December 2, 2018 at 11:37 PM Roy Thistle <roy.thistle@... mailto:roy.thistle@... > wrote:
hi:
Indium... at least mostly pure Indium (not an allow) is very shiny...it doesn't tarnish in air... they used to use it for the reflectors in headlights. At room temperature, it is soft, and it cuts¡ but, it isn't sticky. It also cries when you bend it.
There are Indium/lead solders, for soldering to gold...and alternative to tin/lead that leeches the gold plating.
Also, I seem to recall, Indium...or Indium/Gallium alloys wet glass, and leave a mirror like surface.
They use Indium in vacuum gaskets; but, usually those are shaped like O rings, or like copper gasket on spark plugs... the Indium flattens and seals under pressure.
Anyway, Indium won't melt in boiling water.
You can do a flame test... usually its a paste of the metal sample and hydrochloric acid, dipped onto a platinum wire, in a non-luminous flame...like a propane torch flame... natural gas in the lab.
Pure Indium isn't known to be toxic; but, the solder alloys (with lead) probably are.
I've seen rubber (Buna), fluoropolymers, silicone rubber, Teflon, gold, copper, and Indium gaskets, in vacuum systems.
