Printer's metal called "Type"

[BudRow]

I have a friend who is in the printing business and he gave me some linotype and a little box of block metal that he labeled "TYPE". Would anybody happen to know what the composition of this metal is? I am assuming it is a alloy that is a standard in the printing field, but don't know for sure. It is fairly heavy and hard.
TIA, Bud

[blysmelter]

It probably is Monotype, a alloy with very high antimony content. Mix 50/50 with pure lead and you have approx Linotype.

[wiljen]

There are a whole series of "Type" metals. The most commonly found in the printing business is linotype but the series includes:



Type Sn Sb Pb BHN Melting Freezing
Point Temp

LinoType 4 12 84 20 467 464
MonoType 9 19 72 28 546 464
FoundryType 15 23 62 33 626 464
StereoType 6 14 80 23 509 464
ElectroType 3 2 94 12 590 525


Please understand that all the alloys with at least 4/12 Sn/Sb are going to behave like linotype in that they begin melting at 464. The excess Sn/Sb will cause varying slush phases in the melt depending on how much above 4/12 is present and this accounts for what I have labeled as melting point and Freezing temp. At the freezing temp, the alloy is solid (all frozen), at the listed melting point, the alloy is out of the slush phase and into the lowest possible casting temperature with that alloy.

Between the hardness of the air quenched metal, and the Temperatures involved, you should be able to get a pretty good guess what your mystery ingot's composition is.

Good luck!

Wiljen