non lead casting

[dahermit]

This is confusing. When a solid melts, it's not 'frozen', but liquid. Is there another state between 'frozen' and 'liquid' that brass goes through?

What I was trying to get across is that Lead melts as such a low temperature that it can be removed from the mold almost as soon as it is poured. Brass however, will remain liquid (and "mushy")longer than lead (especially linotype), and must be allowed to cool before removing it from the mold.
You can explor this further by searching on: Eutectic alloys and the word "mushy".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder

Eutectic alloys melt at a single temperature. Non-eutectic alloys have markedly different solidus and liquidus temperature, and within that range they exist as a paste of solid particles in a melt of the lower-melting phase. The pasty state causes some problems during handling; it can however be exploited as it allows molding of the solder during cooling, e.g. for ensuring watertight joint of pipes, resulting in a so called wiped joint.

 

[Unclenick]

We always called it the slush zone when working with non-eutectic phase change materials for keeping things warm or cool.