Alnico describes a family of materials, which is comprised of aluminum, nickel, cobalt and iron with varying additions of other elements. By varying the composition it is possible to tailor the magnetic properties to meet the needs of a wide variety of end use applications. There are two different manufacturing processes for Alnico: Cast Alnico can be made into many sizes and shapes, whereas Sintered Alnico is usually restricted to smaller sizes. However, both processes lead themselves to complex geometries and configurations. Standard Sintered Alnico has tighter dimensional tolerances due to its processing. It also has slightly lower magnetic properties, but better mechanical strength than Cast Alnico products which possess the lowest reversible temperature coefficient magnetism in permanent magnet materials but have widely used in all kinds of meters and other applications.