At present, the global use of nickel accounts for 68% in stainless steel, 10% in non-ferrous metal alloy, 9% in electroplating, 7% in alloy steel, 3% in casting, and 4% in others (including batteries).
Nickel is used in many recognizable industries and consumer goods, including stainless steel, aluminum-nickel and cobalt magnets, coinage, rechargeable batteries (such as nickel iron), electric guitar strings, microphone capsules, coatings on pipe devices, and special alloys such as slope alloy, elinvar and invar. It is used in green tones in electroplating and glass.
Because nickel is corrosion resistant, it is occasionally used as a substitute for decorative silver. After 1859, nickel was occasionally used as a coinmetal, but in the later 20th century it was replaced by cheaper stainless steel (i. e., iron) alloys, except in the United States and Canada.
Nickel is naturally magnetostrictive: the length of the materials changes slightly in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetostriction magnitude of nickel is 50 ppm and is negative, indicating that it contracts.
Nickel is used as an adhesive in sintered tungsten carbide or carbide carbide industry at 6% to 12% (weight). Nickel makes tungsten carbide magnetic and increases the corrosion resistance to the cemented parts, but the hardness is lower than the cobalt adhesive.
With a half-life of 100.1 years, Ni can be used as a β particle (high-speed electron) emitter in fast transformer tube equipment, making the ionization of the active electrodes more reliable. Is studying it as a power source for beta-volt batteries.
Approximately 27% of nickel production is for engineering, 10% for construction, 14% for tubular products, 20% for metal