Ingot



An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. It requires a second procedure of shaping, by means of cold/hot working to produce the final product. They involve relatively simple procedures. However, this only works for simple objects, such as shaping a bar ingot into a mallet tip. The advantages are low initial costs for producing the moulds. If cold worked, it can also improve hardness in the second procedure, an advantage for such things as the mallet tip. However, more input energy is required for the final object if hardness (by cold working) is not required.

Metal
Metal heated past its melting point and molded into a bar or block. Additionally, the molds from which metal objects are cast may be called ingots. After the ingots are created they are sold in that form mainly to industries to be melted into another form.

Semiconducting material
In the semiconductor industry single crystal ingots (often called boules) of semiconductor materials can be grown by methods such as the Czochralski process or Bridgeman technique. These are then cut up and polished to provide wafers on which semiconductor devices, ranging from microprocessors to light-emitting diodes can be fabricated. Single crystal ingots can be created with single dendrite formation. Such is done for single crystal turbine blades.

Cultural references

 * The Chinese New Year food Jau gok was made to symbolize the ingot.
 * The eighth letter in the Ogham alphabet is Tinne meaning "ingot".