Type metal

In printing, type metal refers to the metal alloys used in traditional typefounding and hot metal typesetting. Historically, type metal was an alloy of lead, tin and antimony in different proportions depending on the application, be it individual character mechanical casting for hand setting, mechanical line casting or individual character mechanical typesetting and stereo plate casting. The proportions used are in the range: lead 50‒86%, antimony 11‒30% and tin 3‒20%. Antimony and tin are added to lead for durability while reducing the difference between the coefficients of expansion of the matrix and the alloy. Apart from durability, the general requirements for type-metal are that it should produce a true and sharp cast, and retain correct dimensions and form after cooling down. It should also be easy to cast, at reasonable low melting temperature, iron should not dissolve in the molten metal, and mould and nozzles should stay clean and easy to maintain. Today, Monotype machines can utilize a wide range of different alloys. Mechanical linecasting equipment uses alloys that are close to eutectic.

History

Although the knowledge of casting soft metals in moulds was well established before Johannes Gutenberg's time, his discovery of an alloy that was hard, durable, and would take a clear impression from the mould represents a fundamental aspect of his solution to the problem of printing with movable type. This alloy did not shrink as much as lead alone when cooled. Gutenberg's other contributions were the creation of inks that would adhere to metal type and a method of softening handmade printing paper so that it would take the impression well.

Required characteristics

Cheap, plentifully available as galena and easily workable, lead has many of the ideal characteristics, but on its own it lacks the necessary hardness and does not make castings with sharp details because molten lead shrinks and sags when it cools to a solid.

After much experimentation it was found that adding pewterer's tin, obtained from cassiterite, improved the ability of the cast type to withstand the wear and tear of the printing process, making it tougher but not more brittle.

Despite patiently trying different proportions of both metals, solving the second part of the type metal problem proved very difficult without the addition of yet a third metal, antimony.

Alchemists had shown that when stibnite, an antimony sulfide ore, was heated with scrap iron, metallic antimony was produced. The typefounder would typically introduce powdered stibnite and horseshoe nails into his crucible to melt lead, tin and antimony into type metal. Both the iron and the sulfides would be rejected in the process.

The addition of antimony conferred the much needed improvements in the properties of hardness, wear resistance and especially, the sharpness of reproduction of the type design, given that it has the curious property of diminishing the shrinkage of the alloy upon solidification.

Composition of type metal

Type metal is an alloy of lead, tin and antimony in different proportions depending on the application, be it individual character mechanical casting for hand setting, mechanical line casting or individual character mechanical typesetting and stereo plate casting.

The proportions used are in the range: lead 50‒86%, antimony 11‒30% and tin 3‒20%. The basic characteristics of these metals are as follows:

Lead

Type metal is an alloy of lead (Pb). Pure lead is a relatively cheap metal, is soft thus easy to work, and it is easy to cast since it melts at . However, it shrinks when it solidifies making letters that are not sharp enough for printing. In addition pure lead letters will quickly deform during use; a direct result of the easy workability of lead.

Lead is exceptionally soft, malleable, and ductile but with little tensile strength.

Lead oxide is a poison, that primarily damages brain function. Metallic lead is more stable and less toxic than its oxidized form. Metallic lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, so may be handled, carefully, with far less risk than lead oxide.

Tin

Tin (Sn) promotes the fluidity of the molten alloy and makes the type tough, giving the alloy resistance to wear. It is harder, stiffer and tougher than lead.

Antimony

Antimony (Sb) is a metalloid element, which melts at . Antimony has a crystalline appearance while being both brittle and fusible.

When alloyed with lead to produce type metal, antimony gives it the hardness it needs to resist deformation during printing, and gives it sharper castings from the mould to produce clear, easily read printed text on the page.

Typical type metal proportions

The actual compositions differed over time, different machines were adjusted to different alloys depending on the intended uses of the type. Printers had sometimes their own preferences about the quality of particular alloys. The Lanston Monotype Corporation in the United Kingdom had a whole range of alloys listed in their manuals.

Alloys for mechanical composition

Most mechanical typesetting is divided basically into two different competing technologies: line casting ( Linotype and Intertype) and single character casting (Monotype).

The manuals for the Monotype composition caster (1952 and later editions) mention at least five different alloys to be used for casting, depending the purpose of the type and the work to be done with it.

Although in general Monotype cast type characters can be visually identified as having a square nick (as opposed to the round nicks used on foundry type), there is no easy way to identify the alloy aside from an expensive chemical assay in a laboratory.

Apart from this the two Monotype companies in the United States and the UK also made moulds with 'round' nicks. Typefounders and printers could and did order specially designed moulds to their own specifications: height, size, kind of nick, even the number of nicks could be changed.

Type produced with these special moulds can only be identified if the foundry or printer is known.

In Switzerland the company "Metallum Pratteln AG", in Basel had yet another list of type-metal alloys. If needed, any alloy according to customer specifications could be produced.

Dross

Regeneration-metal was melted into the crucible to replace lost tin and antimony through the dross.

Every time type metal is remelted, tin and antimony oxidise. These oxides form on the surface of the crucible and must be removed. After stirring the molten metal, grey powder forms on the surface, the dross, needing to be skimmed. Dross contains recoverable amounts of tin and antimony.

Dross must be processed at specialized companies, in order to extract the pure metals in conditions that would prevent environmental pollution and remain economically feasible.

Behaviour of bipolar alloys

Pure metal melts and solidifies in a simple manner at a specific temperature. This is not the case with alloys. There we find a range of temperatures with all kinds of different events. The melting temperature of all mixtures is considerably lower than the pure components.

Antimony/Lead mixture examples

The addition of a small amount of antimony (5% to 6%) to lead will significantly alter the alloy's behavior compared to pure lead: although the melting point of pure antimony is 630 °C, this mixture will be completely molten and a homogeneous fluid even at temperatures as low as 371 °C. Letting this mixture cool the alloy will remain liquid even through 355 °C, the melting point of pure lead. Once the temperature reaches 291 °C, lead crystals will start to form, increasing the cohesion of the liquid alloy. At 252 °C, the mixture will start to fully solidify, during which the temperature will remain constant. Only when the mixture has fully solidified will the temperature start to decrease again.

Using a 10% antimony, 90% lead mixture delays lead crystal formation until approximately 260 °C.

Using a 12% antimony, 88% lead mixture prevents crystal formation entirely, becoming a '' eutectic''. This alloy has a clear melting point, at 252 °C.

Increasing the antimony content beyond 12% will lead to predominantly antimony crystallization.

Tri-polar mixtures

Adding tin to this bipolar-system complicates the behaviour even further. Some tin enters into the eutectic. A mixture of 4% tin, 12% antimony, and 84% lead solidifies at 240 °C.

Depending from the metals in excess, compared with the eutectic, crystals are formed, depleting the liquid, until the eutectic 4/12 mixture is formed once more.

The 12/20 alloy contains many mixed crystals of tin and antimony, these crystals constitute the hardness of the alloy and the resistance against wear.

Raising the content of antimony cannot be done without adding some tin too. Because the fluidity of the mixture will dramatically diminish when the temperature goes down somewhere in the channels of the machine. Nozzles can be blocked by antimony crystals.

Metals used on typecasting machines

Eutectic alloys are used on Linotype-machines and Ludlow-casters to prevent blockage of the mould and to ensure continuous trouble-free casting.

Alloys used on Monotype machines tend to contain higher contents of tin, to obtain tougher character. All characters should be able to resist the pressure during printing. This meant an extra investment, but Monotype was an expensive system all the way.

Present usage of type metal

The fierce competition between the different mechanical typecasting systems like Linotype and Monotype has given rise to some lasting fairy tales about typemetal. Linotype users looked down on Monotype and vice versa.

Monotype machines however can utilize a wide range of different alloys; maintaining a constant and a high production meant a strict standardization of the typemetal in the company, so as to reduce by all means any interruption of the production. Repeated assays were done at regular intervals to monitor the alloy used, since every time the metal is recycled, roughly half a per cent of tin content is lost through oxidation. These oxides are removed with the dross while cleaning the surface of the molten metal.

Nowadays this "battle" has lost its importance, at least for Monotype. The quality of the produced type is far more important. Alloys with a high-content of antimony, and subsequently a high content of tin, can be cast at a higher temperature, and at a lower speed and with more cooling at a Monotype composition or supercaster.

Although care was taken to avoid mixing different types of type metal in shops with different type casting systems, in actual practice this often occurred. Since a Monotype composition caster can cope with a variety of different metal alloys, occasional mixing of Linotype alloy with discarded typefounders alloy has proven its usefulness.

Contamination of type metals

Copper

Copper has been used for hardening type metal; this metal easily forms mixed crystals with tin when the alloy cools down. These crystals will grow just below the exit opening of the nozzle in Monotype machines, resulting in a total blockage after some time. These nozzles are very difficult to clean, because the hard crystals will resist drilling.

Zinc

Brass spaces contain zinc, which is extremely counterproductive in type metal. Even a tiny amount — less than 1% — will form a dusty surface on the molten metal surface that is difficult to remove. Characters cast from contaminated type metal such as this are of inferior quality, the solution being to discard and replace with fresh alloy.

Brass and zinc should therefore be removed before remelting. The same applies to aluminium, although this metal will float on top of the melt, and will be easily discovered and removed, before it is dissolved into the lead.

Magnesium

Magnesium plates are very dangerous in molten lead, because this metal can easily burn and will ignite in the molten lead.

Iron

Iron is hardly dissolved into type metal, although the molten metal is always in contact with the cast iron surface of the melting pot.

Historic references to type metals

Joseph Moxon, in his ''Mechanick Exercises'', mentions a mix of equal amounts of "antimony" and iron nails.

The "antimony" here was in fact stibnite, antimony-sulfide (Sb₂S₃). The iron was burned away in this process, reducing the antimony and at the same time removing the unwanted sulfur. In this way ferro-sulfide was formed, that would evaporate with all the fumes.

The mixture of stibnite and nails was heated red hot in an open-air furnace, until all is molten and finished. The resulting metal can contain up to 9% of iron. Further purification can be done by mixing the hot melt with kitchen-salt, NaCl. After this red hot lead from another melting pot is added and stirred thoroughly.

Some tin was added to the alloy for casting small characters and narrow spaces, to better fill narrow areas of the mould. The good properties of tin were well known. The use of tin was sometime minimized to save expenses.

Much of this toxic work was done by child labour, a labor force that includes children.

As a supposed antidote to the inhaled toxic metal fumes, the workers were given a mixture of red wine and salad oil:Joseph Moxon, ''Mechanick Exercises'', page 168, Sect. XVIII, reprint of the 1896-edition, Thoemmes Press, Bristol, UK.

References

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Alloys
Printing