Glossary

A wrought alloy is a metal alloy designed to be mechanically worked into shape after it is cast into an initial form such as an ingot, billet, slab, rod, or bar. “Wrought” means the material has been worked by processes such as rolling, forging, extrusion, drawing, swaging, or cold forming, rather than being poured directly into a final mold shape like a casting.

The key idea is that a wrought alloy is not defined only by its chemistry, but also by how it is processed. After the alloy is melted and solidified into a basic starting shape, it is plastically deformed into a finished or semi-finished product. That deformation changes the internal grain structure of the metal, often improving strength, toughness, ductility, fatigue resistance, and consistency compared with many cast forms.

Common wrought product forms include sheet, plate, bar, rod, wire, tube, strip, extrusions, forgings, and cold-headed fastener blanks. In fastener manufacturing, many bolts, screws, pins, rivets, washers, and specialty parts begin as wrought wire, rod, or bar stock. The material may then be cold headed, hot forged, roll threaded, machined, heat treated, coated, or otherwise finished.

Wrought alloys are commonly contrasted with cast alloys. A cast alloy is formulated to flow well as molten metal and fill a mold. A wrought alloy is formulated to survive mechanical deformation without cracking. Because of that, wrought alloys generally need good ductility and controlled composition so they can be rolled, drawn, forged, or formed reliably.

For example, in aluminum metallurgy, alloys such as 6061, 7075, 2024, and 5052 are wrought aluminum alloys. They are typically rolled, extruded, or forged into usable shapes. Cast aluminum alloys, by contrast, include materials designed for foundry processes and die casting. Similarly, many steels, stainless steels, titanium alloys, nickel alloys, copper alloys, and aluminum alloys used in industrial components are supplied in wrought form.