Application of bronze in electrical engineering
By combining various metals, metallurgists obtained bronze and brass, which is effectively used in electrical engineering.
Bronze is a combination of tin, aluminum, copper and other impurities that are introduced to form certain properties of the final product. Initially, tin type bronzes were used.
Such an alloy is very expensive, since the tin component is very scarce today. Consequently, they are trying to bring the 25mm BrAZhMts sheet to compositions with similar characteristics.
Benefits of Bronze
The main advantage of this material was the largest shrinkage during alloying compared to other steels. Therefore, the most complex and precise parts must be cast in bronze. Other properties of this material are:
- Elasticity compared to copper.
- High hardness.
- Wear resistance.
- Prevents corrosion.
Thanks to this composition, this metal is effectively used by automobile manufacturers to invent springs, gears, bushings and other key parts of the car.
What types of bronzes are there?
As a rule, such material is of casting type. Special parts are made from it using casting and a certain pressure. In electrical equipment, bronzes are used with characteristics that are very similar to copper.
We are talking about cadmium-tin and simply cadmium bronze. High safety cables are made from this material, including contacts, springs and other components of electronic equipment.
Duralumin type bronzes have a good degree of elasticity. They are very durable, do not wear out and do not oxidize in air for a long time.
In order to work with a material such as brass, cutting is usually used. Such materials are not afraid of weathering, but if the room is damp, then corrosion cannot be avoided. In order to prevent this, it (brass) is alloyed with components such as nickel, aluminum and other materials.
This allows electrical equipment to operate significantly longer, even in unacceptable humidity conditions, without being destroyed by corrosion.
Source: http://euroelectrica.ru/primenenie-bronzyi-v-elektrotehnike/
What is more expensive: brass or bronze? Differences between brass and bronze, copper and silumin. What is bronze - Legitimate advice
There are a number of ways that will tell you how to distinguish bronze from brass. In the presented material I would like to consider the simplest and most accessible solutions for implementing this task. Let's find out how to distinguish bronze from brass at home.
What is bronze?
Before we figure out how to distinguish bronze from brass, let's find out what each alloy is. Let's start with bronze. So, bronze is an alloy of tin and copper, with admixtures of silicon, aluminum, beryllium and lead. It is the quality of the tin used that largely determines the nature of the future alloy.
There is a special type of bronze, in the manufacture of which tin is replaced with nickel or zinc. This alloy is known as spiatr. Essentially, the material is a cheap version of bronze, which is not of the best quality.
According to the above manufacturing principles, bronze is divided into tin and tin-free. At the beginning of the last century, metallurgists produced arsenic bronze. However, due to its high toxicity, the material was never widely used.
What is brass?
Brass is practically the same alloy as bronze. But instead of the alloying composition in the form of tin, zinc is used here in combination with copper. Sometimes lead, iron, nickel, manganese, and other elements are added to the alloy.
The ancient Romans knew how to produce brass. They were the first to learn how to combine molten copper with zinc ore. Pure zinc began to be used for the production of brass only at the end of the 18th century in Britain. The British often used the alloy to create fake gold, because brass, like a noble metal, has an attractive sunny shine.
Today the material is widely used to create the so-called bimetal - an alloy where steel is combined with brass. This solution contributes to the production of metal that is resistant to corrosion and abrasion. At the same time, bimetal products have good ductility.
Defining Differences Between Bronze and Brass
How to distinguish bronze from brass? The difference between the presented alloys is as follows:
- Brass is produced by combining zinc with copper. In turn, bronze is produced by alloying copper with tin.
- Bronze can be in contact with sea and salt water for a long time without destroying the structure of the material. Brass requires additional processing in the form of alloying.
- Bronze has increased resistance to mechanical wear and is a durable material. For this reason, the alloy is widely used to create all kinds of sculptures and monuments. Brass is not suitable for these purposes, although it is used as elements of artistic products.
- How to distinguish copper from brass and bronze? Copper has a reddish tint. At the same time, bronze has a dark brown color and a coarse-grained structure. Brass has a yellow tint and is a fine-grained material.
Differences between bronze and brass according to weight
How to distinguish bronze from brass based on the weight of the materials? It is worth noting that bronze is a fairly heavy alloy. In equal volumes of workpieces, bronze will be clearly heavier than brass. Therefore, you can distinguish products from individual alloys by weighing them on your palms.
You need to try to distinguish between materials using the thermal effect method. However, the results in this case will be more reliable.
What do we have to do? It is necessary to heat both alloys using a gas burner to a temperature of more than 600°C.
With this exposure, an ashen-colored coating forms on the surface of the brass product, which is zinc oxide. At the same time, the bronze will remain in its original form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgzSJPhY590
After heating, the brass will become more ductile. Bronze does not change its physical properties when exposed to high temperatures. If you try to bend a brass workpiece, the structure of the latter will not be damaged. As for bronze, it will definitely break at the bend.
How to distinguish brass from bronze with a magnet?
As noted above, bronze contains tin and lead. These materials can be attracted by a magnet. The only thing required to carry out the experiment is to find a fairly strong magnet. When using it, the bronze will slightly stick to the surface. The magnet will not have any effect on brass.
Finally
As you can see, there are a number of ways that allow you to distinguish bronze from brass at home. In most cases, there are pronounced visual differences between products made from these alloys. Therefore, to cope with the task, sometimes it is enough just to carefully consider both materials.
Source: https://zaksovet.ru/chto-dorozhe-latun-ili-bronza-otlichija-latuni-ot-bronzy-medi-i-silumina-chto-takoe-bronza.html
What is bronze made of?
· 09.09.2019
Since time immemorial, humanity has been mining bronze. Many archaeological excavations, in which the most ancient artifacts were found - bronze products, confirm the spread of this alloy in the distant past.
It was used both for military purposes - to make bladed weapons, cannons and cannonballs for them, and to create beautiful works of art - jewelry and sculptures.
Story
One of the most famous places where bronze items were found was located in the Kuban River area. In this place, archaeologist Nikolai Veselovsky in 1897 excavated the so-called Maykop culture, which existed in the second half of the 4th millennium BC.
Bronze artifacts found in the Maikop burial mounds were made mainly from an alloy of copper and arsenic, so it is believed that historically these alloys, called arsenic bronzes, .
It was in no way inferior in its properties to alloys of copper with tin or lead, and even surpassed them in a number of characteristics . It was widely used in various areas of human activity of those times, from the manufacture of critical parts to jewelry.
Bronze composition
Bronze is an alloy of copper with metals such as tin, aluminum, lead, beryllium, and non-metals arsenic, silicon and phosphorus. In addition, such alloys can be additionally alloyed with phosphorus, zinc, manganese, iron and nickel.
The composition of bronze depends on the grade of the alloy and is indicated in its designation. For example, the composition of an alloy labeled BrAMts7−1 includes 7% aluminum, 1% manganese and 92% copper .
Thus, the main component of this metal is copper (from 35% to 90% and above). The second component can be either arsenic, or tin or beryllium, lead, aluminum, silicon and other components. To impart special properties, additional components can be added - zinc, iron, nickel, manganese, phosphorus and others.
Features of bronze and properties
The main properties of all bronze alloys are ductility and hardness. Depending on the ratio of the main and additional components, a wide variety of new properties can be obtained. In addition, the amount of copper in the alloy determines its color.
So, golden bronze will be obtained if the alloy contains about 85% copper, and if its amount is reduced to 50%, an alloy will be obtained that has a silvery color. Reducing the amount of copper to 35% and below will lead to the output of gray and even black bronze, and increasing the amount of copper to 90% and above will lead to the formation of red bronze.
One of the old brands of bronze alloys is bell bronze , which is still used today for casting bells. It contains 20% tin and 80% copper. Its disadvantage is increased fragility due to the high tin content in the alloy.
As mentioned above, the most commonly used are alloys of copper and tin with the addition of a small amount of other components. The widespread use of such alloys is due, first of all, to historical reasons that led to the displacement of arsenic bronze from production.
Such reasons are the following:
- the development over many centuries of deposits of tennantite and other faded ores rich in copper and arsenic. Such ores were most convenient for the production of arsenic bronze, since they did not lie very deep, which made the production process cheaper compared to other sources of copper and arsenic;
- the high toxicity of the production of such bronze, caused by the presence of arsenic in the deposits, which inevitably led to loss of health and further ability to work for experienced metallurgists and blacksmiths;
- unsuitability of metallurgical defects and broken products made of arsenic bronze for further remelting into high-quality metal. At best, such products were used to make jewelry or non-essential parts.
The alloys of copper and tin that replaced arsenic bronzes, although they were more expensive to produce, were economically preferable , since the development of horse-drawn transport and the resulting establishment of trade relations between cities and countries led to an increase in the import of non-arsenic bronze.
Types of bronze and characteristics
The development of large-scale industrial production generally led to the fact that tin bronzes became almost the most widespread type of bronze. And only in the last hundred years this type began to be replaced by copper alloys with tin substitutes, such as aluminum, silicon and, especially, beryllium bronzes.
Thus, the following types exist:
- tin-free. It includes bronze, in which the second components are aluminum, silicon, beryllium and other metals and non-metals. Each of these components gives it special properties. For example, aluminum gives the alloy increased anti-friction properties and high corrosion resistance, beryllium increases strength and hardness, and silicon and zinc improve its fluidity and abrasion resistance;
- tin. A copper-tin alloy in which copper predominates. It is one of the first to be mastered by man. It has high hardness and strength compared to pure copper, and is also more fusible. In such alloys, tin is always the second most abundant after copper and the main alloying component.
The third in quantity are additional components such as arsenic, zinc and lead . Due to its very low shrinkage, this metal is mainly intended for casting, as it is difficult to work with pressure, cutting and sharpening. Even the tendency to segregation and low fluidity do not prevent the use of this alloy for the manufacture of configurationally complex castings, including in artistic casting.
Bronze with the addition of zinc is called “Admiralty ” and is used for the manufacture of parts that have frequent or constant contact with sea water (shipbuilding). This feature is due to the fact that zinc gives the alloy increased corrosion resistance in the specified environment.
However, to make bronze resistant to corrosion in salty seawater, it is increasingly being enriched with aluminum and nickel . Such alloys, often called “marine”, are used to manufacture elements of oil platforms operating on sea and ocean shelves.
To give bronze additional characteristics, of phosphorus, silver, zinc, arsenic, manganese and other components are alloyed into it Thus, adding a small amount of silver increases the electrical conductivity of bronze and makes it comparable to the electrical conductivity of copper.
Applications and markings
There are special tables that provide markings and descriptions of all bronze alloys produced by industry. However, even without referring to such tables, you can determine the type and chemical composition if you know how its labeling is deciphered.
By simple labeling you can find out their composition. Its characteristic feature in the designation is the letters “Br”, which means “Bronze ”.
Source: https://vi-pole.ru/chto-izgotavlivajut-iz-bronzy.html
Metal art casting business
In the modern world there is no longer a need to make household items from bronze. The time when the alloy of copper and tin was used everywhere has flown away like molten metal from a crucible. Today, this low-melting and easily processed alloy is used mainly for the manufacture of highly artistic products.
Artistic casting of bronze products can be done at home. You can become a master of bronze casting if you have the initial capital to purchase equipment and a small time investment in acquiring the necessary skills in working with metal.
After purchasing everything you need, when your hand is full, this hobby can be turned into a highly profitable business.
Our business assessment:
Starting investments - from 200,000 rubles.
Market saturation is low.
The difficulty of starting a business is 6/10.
Where to begin?
To organize a small business of your own, you will need to purchase equipment for bronze casting. To set up a small workshop you will need to buy devices and tools such as:
- Melting furnace.
- Crucible.
- Forceps.
- Horn.
You will also need to purchase charcoal and metal for smelting. All materials and tools can be purchased in specialized stores or online. You can make a smelting furnace yourself, but only if you use materials that are resistant to high temperatures for this purpose.
Once the necessary equipment has been purchased, you can begin making artistic bronze castings with your own hands immediately, but to obtain high-quality products you need to correctly follow all the norms of the technological process.
Bronze casting: process
Bronze casting at home is carried out in several stages:
- Sketch development.
- Making a casting model.
- Melting metal.
- Filling the form.
- Knockout of finished products.
- Trimming defects.
Preparation of the sketch is usually carried out by professional artists, but if you plan to cast simple-shaped products, then this function can be performed independently. Based on the drawn sketch, a model of the future bronze masterpiece is made from dense wood, ivory or plastic. Then you will need to prepare the mold for casting.
At home, non-separable plaster molds are most often used. It is not difficult to make such a form yourself, and after the metal has hardened and cooled, use a fairly hard tool to carefully break the plaster product so that a new bronze object appears.
There is also a molding compound for bronze casting on sale, with which you can cast a mold of any configuration.
Melting the metal is the simplest procedure, but at this stage you need to correctly calculate the amount of copper and tin to obtain an alloy with optimal characteristics. When the metal is completely melted, it is poured into pre-prepared molds for casting bronze.
At home, this procedure is performed using a special large spoon or ladle. After the workpiece has completely cooled, if the mold was made of plaster, then it must be carefully broken.
When using metal molds to cast a product, a bronze blank is knocked out.
When pouring bronze products, it is impossible to avoid various growths and sagging of metal, therefore, when the workpiece is removed, it is necessary to cut off the sagging of metal at the points of contact between the halves of the mold and the point of pouring molten metal into the mold.
To obtain products with minimal allowances for additional machining, it is recommended to carry out centrifugal casting of bronze. To implement this method of manufacturing bronze products, you will need to purchase a centrifugal casting machine.
Such equipment is not cheap, but the result from using such technology is worth spending a significant amount of money.
The above bronze casting technology is used at home. To organize a large enterprise with automation of many production processes, you will need to purchase special equipment.
Opening a large enterprise
If you have experience working with metal and the initial capital to purchase equipment, then you can open a large enterprise for casting bronze products. A sample business plan for a plant will necessarily contain the following points:
- Purchase of a reverberatory furnace - the equipment is used for melting metal. The following fuels can be used: gas, electricity, diesel fuel. Approximate energy consumption is 30 kW/h. furnaces - up to 1 ton. The productivity of a reverberatory furnace is up to 600 kg/h.
- Chill machine - used for casting bronze products. For the production of artistic products on an industrial scale, 2 types of machines can be used:
- Single-position - used for the manufacture of bronze objects that do not have reverse angles. The mold in this type of machine opens only in one direction.
- Multi-position - the mold in such devices can open in different directions, so such equipment is more suitable for casting complex bronze products. The power consumption of both types of machines is about 2.5 kW.
- Renting premises is a significant expense item. Taking into account the specifics of using the equipment, it is recommended to independently build a room where the casting equipment will be installed.
- Salaries to employees - In a large enterprise for the production of bronze art products, it is impossible to do without attracting competent specialists, so the volume of monthly contributions to the wage fund will also be significant.
- Registration of an LLC or individual entrepreneur - before starting a business activity, you will need to complete the necessary documents. You can register an enterprise for a small amount of money if you deal with this issue yourself, but with a legal way of doing business you will also need to pay income tax and various social contributions to the pension fund and compulsory medical insurance.
- Utility costs - a large amount of energy is spent in the process of artistic casting, so payment of utility costs for a factory for the production of bronze products will amount to tens of thousands of rubles per month.
- Purchase of metal - The purchase of metal for smelting will be the main expense item during the entire operation of the enterprise for the production of artistic products, but it should be understood that the price of consumables will be included in the final cost of the product and with a properly established sales process, income from the sale of such products will also be significant. You can buy bronze for casting from suppliers involved in the sale of raw materials. It is possible to purchase both wholesale quantities and small amounts of metal for home production.
The cost of a set of equipment consisting of a reverberatory furnace and a chill mold is about 6 million rubles; in addition to the cost of purchasing equipment, you will also need to build or rent premises.
Based on rough calculations, opening a large enterprise will require a one-time expenditure of at least 7 million rubles. Monthly costs for maintaining the production process will also be high and amount to at least 500,000 rubles.
Despite the high costs, full payback of the enterprise is possible within 2 - 3 years, but only if there is a well-developed strategy for selling finished products.
:
Selecting equipment for bending reinforcement.
Which CNC laser engraver to buy?
Do-it-yourself powder painting technology at home.
If products are poured by hand at home, then such products, if made with high quality, are always valued above factory products. For small production volumes, product sales can be organized through specialized stores.
Significant volumes of bronze products can be sold seasonally if there is a resort town in the immediate vicinity.
If the bronze products are thematically close to the given area and made with high quality, then within a few months you can sell thousands of bronze souvenirs at the highest price. Bronze crafts can be sold year-round through specialized online stores.
As a rule, a commission is charged on such sites, but given the convenience of this method of selling finished products, the “tax” on the sale of an artistic product will not be too burdensome for a home business.
An equally attractive way for a master to make a profit from this type of activity is artistic bronze casting to order.
This option for interaction between the buyer and the seller is convenient because before starting to manufacture a bronze product, the master is confident that his product will be sold as a cut after the smelting process is completed. The price of custom bronze casting will always be higher due to the development of an individual sketch for the product.
Orders for a master working with bronze can also come for the production of three-dimensional products, for example, monuments and memorial plaques are most often made from copper alloys.
Other areas of working with metal are also possible for the home craftsman. Sculptures of various mythical characters or real people who lived in past centuries are often made from bronze. Despite the fact that significantly more time will be spent when making three-dimensional figures, the payment for performing this type of work is always high.
Icons can also be made from this type of copper alloy, which can be sold through church shops. If a craftsman has mastered fine bronze jewelry casting, then he can start making jewelry on his own, both to order and for sale through retail outlets.
For large enterprises, the most convenient form of selling products is wholesale sales to intermediaries. It is also possible to carry out large orders for bronze products for other types of production.
Conclusion
Services for the production of artistic products are in great demand on the market, so the master will not sit idle, even during a financial crisis. Despite the high level of initial costs, if you want to engage in this type of activity, you should not put off starting such an interesting and promising business in terms of making a profit.
Source: https://tecboom.ru/biznes-na-xudozhestvennom-lite-iz-metalla.html
