Brass properties

For example,copper has relatively good corrosion resistance under non-oxidizing conditions. It can be alloyed with zinc to yield a stronger material (brass), but with lowered corrosion resistance. Flowever, by alloying copper with a passivating metal such as nickel, both mechanical and corrosion properties are improved. Another important alloy is steel, which is an alloy between iron (>50%) and other alloying elements such as carbon. 

ALkylamines are corrosive to copper, copper-containing alloys (brass), aluminum, 2inc, 2inc alloy, and galvani2ed surfaces. Aqueous solutions of aLkylamines slowly etch glass as a consequence of the basic properties of the amines in water. Carbon or stainless steel vessels and piping have been used satisfactorily for handling aLkylamines and, as noted above, some aLkylamines can act as corrosion inhibitors in boiler appHcations. 

Latex compound viscosity obviously forms an important aspect of dipped product manufacture. Accurate measurement by a Brookfield or similar viscometer is desirable to estabhsh the fundamental viscosity of a compound, but Flow-Cup viscometers (Ford B.3 Cup) are more commonly used for day-to-day control of latex compounds during compounding and product manufacture. It is necessary to ensure that only stainless steel flow cups are used, if the measured latex is allowed to return to the production tanks brass cups yield an unacceptable level of copper contamination, which adversely affects aging properties of products made from copper-contaminated mbber compound. 

Selenium has also been shown to act synergistically with bismuth to improve the machinabifity of brasses (113). The machining properties are similar to those of the leaded brasses used in plumbing appfications. Environmental concerns arising from the leaching of lead brasses necessitates a replacement of the lead. 

Antimony may be added to copper-base alloys such as naval brass. Admiralty Metal, and leaded Muntz metal in amounts of 0.02—0.10% to prevent dezincification. Additions of antimony to ductile iron in an amount of 50 ppm, preferably with some cerium, can make the graphite fliUy nodular to the center of thick castings and when added to gray cast iron in the amount of 0.05%, antimony acts as a powerflil carbide stabilizer with an improvement in both the wear resistance and thermal cycling properties (26) (see Carbides). 

Metal or metal oxides may be added to perform specific functions. Brass chips and copper powder are frequently used in heavy-duty organics where these metaUics act as scavengers to break up undesirable surface films. Zinc chips used in Class A organics contribute significantly to recovery of normal performance following fade. Aluminum is also used. Most of these inorganic materials tend to detract from antinoise properties and mating surface compatibihty. 

Alloy selection is not made fiom only consideration of strength and conductivity. For example, the cupronickels have about the same strength as do copper—2inc brasses, and also have much lower conductivity. However, the corrosion resistance of the cupronickels far exceeds that of brass and is worth the higher cost if needed in the appHcation. Similar trade-offs exist between these properties and formabiUty, softening resistance, and other properties. 

Table 16 illustrates the property enhancements and tradeoffs seen when tin is added to a copper—zinc brass base composition. The most commonly used alloys for electrical connectors are the Cu—10 Zn—Sn brasses, such as C411, C422, and C425. These lower level zinc—tin alloys offer good corrosion resistance along with the good formabiHty, conductivity, and strength levels of brass. 

This computation is also referred to as calculating the zinc equivalent of the alloy. The increase in strength in this alloy series is caused by increased amounts of beta phase in the stmcture. The silicon brasses show similar hardening effects accompanying a second phase. Typical mechanical properties and electrical conductivity for various cast alloys are shown in Table 2. 

Properties of red brass alloys are given in Table 9. The members of this group are cast using the centrifugal, continuous, investment, and sand molding methods. General tensile strengths vary from 170 to 210 MPa (25,000—30,000 psi) minimum as cast in sand molds. 

Table 11. Properties of High Strength Yellow Brass ...

Table 13. Properties of Silicon Bronze and Silicon Brass Alloys...

Table 14. Properties of Copper-Nickel Alloys and Leaded Nickel Bronze and Brass...

Bronzes are somewhat similar to brasses in mechanical properties and to high-zinc brasses in corrosion resistance (except that bronzes are not affected by stress cracking). Aluminum and silicon bronzes are very popiilar in the process industries because they combine good strength with corrosion resistance. 

As you can see from the tables in Chapter 1, few metals are used in their pure state -they nearly always have other elements added to them which turn them into alloys and give them better mechanical properties. The alloying elements will always dissolve in the basic metal to form solid solutions, although the solubility can vary between <0.01% and 100% depending on the combinations of elements we choose. As examples, the iron in a carbon steel can only dissolve 0.007% carbon at room temperature the copper in brass can dissolve more than 30% zinc and the copper-nickel system - the basis of the monels and the cupronickels - has complete solid solubility. 

Nitrile rubber adhesives. The main application corresponds to laminating adhesives. PVC, polyvinyl acetate and other polymeric films can be laminated to several metals, including aluminium and brass, by using NBR adhesives. NBR adhesives can also be used to join medium-to-high polarity rubbers to polyamide substrates. The adhesive properties of NBR rubbers can be further improved by chemical modification using polyisocyanate or by grafting with methyl methacrylate. 

The outstanding properties of copper-base materials are high electrical and thermal conductivity, good durabihty in mildly corrosive chemical environments and excellent ductility for forming complex shapes. As a relatively weak material, copper is often alloyed with zinc (brasses), tin (bronzes), aluminum and nickel to improve its mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. 

These annealed brasses are used for fabrication of pressure vessels. They are cliaracterizcd by the following physical properties ... 

There is a lively controversy concerning the interpretation of these and other properties, and cogent arguments have been advanced both for the presence of hydride ions H" and for the presence of protons H+ in the d-block and f-block hydride phases.These difficulties emphasize again the problems attending any classification based on presumed bond type, and a phenomenological approach which describes the observed properties is a sounder initial basis for discussion. Thus the predominantly ionic nature of a phase cannot safely be inferred either from crystal structure or from calculated lattice energies since many metallic alloys adopt the NaCl-type or CsCl-type structures (e.g. LaBi, )S-brass) and enthalpy calculations are notoriously insensitive to bond type. 

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