Copper: Varieties, Properties, and Practical Applications

Copper is utilized in the form of a wide variety of metals, alloys and compounds, and has deeply penetrated into all aspects of production and life, becoming an indispensable and important metal for mankind's rapid development into the 21st century.

Pure Copper

Pure copper is a rose-red metal, the surface is purple by the formation of copper oxide film, so the industrial pure copper is often called purple copper or electrolytic copper. Pure copper conductivity is very good, which make it be the raw material for wires, cables, brushes, etc.; Pure copper is often used to manufacture magnetic instruments beacuse of its good thermal conductivity, such as compasses, aviation instrumentation, etc.; good plasticity of this type of copper make it easy to hot press and cold processing, which can be made into tubes, rods, wires, strips, boards, foils, and other copper materials.

The electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of pure copper is second only to silver, which is widely used in the production of electrical and thermal conductivity equipment. Copper has good corrosion resistance in the atmosphere, seawater and certain non-oxidizing acids, alkalis, salt solutions and a variety of organic acids , which is suitable for the chemical industry. In addition, purple copper has good weldability, can be cold, thermoplastic processing into a variety of semi-finished and finished products.

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. We can get different mechanical properties of brass by Changing the content of zinc in brass. The higher the zinc content in brass, the higher its strength and lower plasticity. The zinc content of brass used in industry is less than 45%, and a higher zinc content will produce brittleness and make the alloy performance worse. Brass can be divided into casting products and pressure processing products.

Bronze

Bronze is the earliest historical application of a kind of alloy, originally refers to the copper-tin alloy, because the color is greenish gray, so called bronze. In order to improve the process performance and mechanical properties of the alloy, most of the bronze within the addition of other alloying elements, such as lead, zinc, phosphorus, etc.. Because tin is a scarce element, so the industry still use many tin-free bronze, they are not only cheap, but also has the required special properties. Bronze is also divided into two categories of pressure processing and casting products.

White Bronze

Nickel, as the primary alloying element in copper-based alloys, gives them a silver-white appearance, commonly known as white copper. Copper-nickel binary alloy called ordinary copper, plus manganese, iron, zinc and aluminum and other elements of copper-nickel alloy called complex copper, pure copper plus nickel can significantly improve the strength, corrosion resistance and thermoelectricity. Industrial white copper are divided into structural white copper and electrical white copper according to the performance characteristics and different uses, which can meet a variety of corrosion resistance, special electrical and thermal properties.

Copper boasts excellent electrical and thermal conductivity through copper sheet fabrication, ranking highest among all engineering metals. This is the primary reason for its crucial role in today's electrified and information-driven society. In addition to its outstanding conductivity, copper possesses a range of exceptional properties: it exhibits strong corrosion resistance against atmospheric exposure, seawater, soil, and various chemical environments. Structurally, it strikes a balance between strength and flexibility, offering elasticity, friction resistance, and wear resistance. Furthermore, its rich and diverse appearance makes it a beloved symbol of antiquity and elegance. In addition to the above performance, it has a series of good processing, casting, welding, easy cutting and other process performance, so that it has gained economic and wide range of applications.

A.Housing construction accounts for 48%: including: piping systems (water, heat, gas, fire sprinkler, etc.); housing facilities (air conditioning, refrigerators, etc.); building decoration (roofing, gutters, decorative, etc.); communication lines (sound, image, data, etc.); power systems.

B.Equipment production accounts for 41%: including: industrial equipment (motors, transformers, etc.); transportation (automobiles, railroads, airplanes, etc.); electronic devices; light industrial goods (household appliances, meters, tools, etc.)

C. Basic facilities accounted for 11%: including: large-scale projects (transportation facilities, petrochemical industry, mining and metallurgical industry, etc.); electric power utilities (power transmission, distribution, etc.); communication networks.

Copper is the first metal used by human ancestors. It has many excellent properties and wonderful functions, which have not only made indelible contributions to the progress of human society, but also continuously developed new uses with the development of human civilization. Copper is both an ancient metal and a modern engineering material full of vitality and vigor. At present, mankind has entered into a colorful, highly civilized society characterized by electrification and electronic information, which opens up a broader field for the application of copper. Yixing Technology provides a full range of sheet metal fabrication services worldwide, As a professional sheet metal fabrication company, we can optimize copper's properties to meet your specific needs.