Throughout history, metals have been used in a variety of ways. With the growing demand for manufacturing goods, metal products have become increasingly diverse: in the industrial trade, these products range from simple alloys to specific wires and wire products. Serving medical, electrical, and even military needs, metals enable the mass production of parts such as bolts, and production processes like welding.
Individual categories of metal and metal products offer industrial buyers and manufacturers with access to appropriate materials needed to fuel specific application production. The chromium heading, for example, provides a comprehensive list of the various kinds of chromium and the subsequent manufacturing companies. The category Copper and Copper Alloys, however, not only includes a list of companies that provide raw copper materials, but also companies that specialize in certain copper products and fabrication processes, like perforated copper and cold-formation copper.