Also called nickel 99.2, nickel 200 refers to wrought nickel that is commercially pure (99.6%). Offering good mechanical properties, nickel 200 is corrosion-resistant, has a wide temperature range, low gas content, low vapor pressure and fairly low electrical resistivity.
Nickel 200 is also ferromagnetic, meaning that it has extremely high magnetic permeability, thus it is able to become magnetized easily. With the overall combination of characteristics, nickel 200 is advantageous for a wide range of industries including: electronics, where it is highly popular for applications such as conducting leads and terminals; marine, for equipment parts such as fasteners, shafts and pipes; food and beverage, for material handling and processing equipment; industrial manufacturing, for machine components such as bolts, rods, plates and coils; chemical, for use in processing and storage applications due to its high resistance to caustic alkalies; and medical, for use in implants and prostheses. Best suited for use in environments with temperatures below 600ºF (315°C), nickel 200 can become embrittled at higher temperatures. An extremely tough metal, nickel 200 is also utilized in the semiconductor, research, oil and gas, power generation and aerospace industries.
Although nickel 200 is mainly composed of pure nickel, it does contain minute amounts of other elements including iron, silicone, manganese, copper, carbon and sulphur. Another type of nickel, known as nickel 201, was formed by improving the content of nickel 200 by reducing and controlling the level of carbon content. Often held to standards set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), nickel 200 is a soft and gummy metal to machine, but can be fabricated using standard tooling and a wide variety of methods including both hot and cold working. Cold working nickel 200 is very similar to cold working plain carbon steels, and the same type of tooling may be used. Additionally, for hardening nickel 200 only responds to cold working processes. When hot working nickel 200, the temperature must stay within a range of 1200ºF to 2200ºF (648°C to 1204°C) for optimal results. As an example of a hot working process, most conventional welding processes work well with nickel 200. However, shield metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding and gas metal arc melding are particularly recommended when welding nickel 200. Additional examples of hot working processes that are commonly used to fabrication nickel 200 into various parts and shapes include brazing, soldering and annealing.
