Variations on the theme of copper alloys
Though the strength characteristics of copper and not too high, but in combination with other elements, such material can be used even in the arms business. For example, the combination of copper and zinc called brass have long taken note of the artillery troops. So most deadly of shells for artillery are made of durable and resistant to damage brass. To give the products greater hardness and strength of the original composition of the material for the shells may legirovanija some amount of aluminum, manganese, magnesium and other chemical elements.
How to explain such a choice of raw materials, because some materials like aluminum or ferrous metals are much cheaper than brass, the answer is quite simple. Alloy based on copper responds well to pressure treatment and has a high viscosity, and therefore capable of good enough to resist the loads of a shock nature, which arise in the instrument under action of a propellant gas. By the way another important advantage of the sleeves are made of brass — the possibility of their repeated use. Even in wartime, each division was attached to the special person who was supposed to collect spent shell casings for subsequent charging and the new use. The copper content of the material used for the production of artillery shells is estimated at sixty-eight percent.
Another important group in the environment of copper containing alloys is the community of the marine brass. High corrosion-resistant properties of such materials and their resistance to the damaging effect of sea salt determined the main purpose of such raw materials, reflected in the title of the material. Most persistent in this respect, is an alloy called «tombac» which though belongs to the brass, but for the most part consists of copper (copper may reach 97 percent). A distinctive feature of the marine brass is the obligatory presence of tin in them.
In General, the range of alloys based on copper, produced in modern industry is very large. If you work hard, that among such a variety of copper products, you can find a solution to almost every problem of the industrial complex. After all, with a small addition of necessary alloying substances copper alloy can be given virtually any properties required for the solution of important industrial problems.