• Blue – Blue Elgiloy is initially the softest of the tempers. It can be welded with low heat, and soldered without embrittling. Blue Elgiloy is recommended when the wire to be used is over .020” (0.508mm) or when the wire requires considerable bending, welding or soldering. Excellent for edgewise arches, lingual arches, retainers and removables.
• Yellow – Yellow Elgiloy is initially ductile and slightly harder than Blue. Using caution, you can spot-weld and solder to large Yellow Elgiloy wires, .021” x .025”; .030”; .036” (0.533mm x 0.635mm; 0.762mm; 0.914mm), without embrittling them. Some practitioners use Yellow as furnished, but it can be heattreated if greater resiliency or spring performance is required. After heat-treating, Yellow can be adjusted slightly, but should not be adjusted sharply. It is excellent for flat wire techniques. Yellow Elgiloy is recommended where greater spring qualities are needed than those provided by Blue Elgiloy.
• Green – Green Elgiloy is initially semi-resilient and will temper comparable to high springtempered steel wires. It can be shaped easily with the fingers and can be plier-manipulated before heat-treating.
• Red – Red Elgiloy is initially “hard” with exceptionally high spring qualities. It is not recommended for heat-treating. Use where adjustments will not be required after heat-treating.