Malleability
Malleability is a property of materials having a relatively large plastic region that can be deformed, worked and reworked many times before it is likely to fail or become brittle. It is defined by the degree to which a material can sustain plastic deformation specifically under compressive stress before it fails.
A malleable material has the capacity to be pounded or beaten into a flat elements or sheets without fracturing or tearing. Many metals are malleable, such as zinc, iron, aluminium, copper, gold, and silver. It is a different characteristic to ductility, where a materials has the capacity to be drawn into a wire without fracturing, such as aluminium, copper and magnesium alloys.
Strong metals such as tungsten and high-carbon steel tend not to be malleable or ductile because they fail through brittleness, as does cast iron.
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