Brass
 The range of copper alloys known as brasses cover machining alloys,
bending alloys, riveting alloys, deep drawing alloys and spinning alloys
to name but a few. These descriptions again signify the wide range of
applications for which the metal is used.
The addition of aluminium, iron, manganese and silicon
to the alloy mixture gives added strength or hardness, whilst the
addition of elements such as aluminium, tin and arsenic give improved
corrosion resistance.
The addition of a controlled amount of lead to brass
alloys produces what is known “free machining” brass. Free machining
brass is designed specifically for high speed, efficient component
manufacture.
Alloy specifications
During the late 1990s a new series of BS EN standards was brought in for
all copper based alloys. The new series of standards brought with it a
new system for describing products.
The system described products in two ways, one using
symbols the other using numbers. The symbol system follows the ISO
compositional system and a brass made up of a 63/37 ratio of copper and
zinc is shown as CuZn37.
The numbering system is a six-character alpha numeric
system with two characters (the first of which will be ‘C’ for copper)
followed by three numbers and a letter. Using this system CZ121 has
become CW614.
This catalogue displays the old and the new numbering
systems.
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