Much of ht supply of tin powders is used in making sintered bronze or sintered iron parts. However, tin powders are also increasingly employed in making paste solders and creams used in plumbing and electronic manufacturing industries. Tin and tin alloy powders find minor uses in sprayed coatings for food handeling equipment, metallizing of non conductors and bearing repairs. The manufacture of inorganic and organic chemicals containing tin constitures one of the major uses of metallic tin. The use of tin compounds has grown so rapidly over the past quarter century that the tin chemicals industry has been transformed from one based mainly on recovered secondary tin to one that consumes significant amounts of primary ingot tin.
Solders account for the largest use of tin in the United States.
Tin is an important constituent in solders because it wets and adheres to many common base metals at temperatures considerably below their melting points. Tin is alloyed with lead to produce solders with melting points lower than those of either tin or lead. Solder compositions and the applications of joining by solder ing are many and varied. Commerically pure tin is used for soldering side seams of cans for special food products and aerosol sprays. High tin solders are also used where lead may be a hazard, for example, in contact with food stuffs or in potable water plumbing applications.