What type of metal is copper

However, pure copper is too soft to have structural value, but copper alloys with zinc and tin to form harder brasses and bronzes. Brass and bronze were essential components of the earliest metal tools.

Copper is the most heavily used of the coinage metals due to its electrical properties, its abundance compared to silver and gold , and the properties of its brass and bronze alloys. Until aluminum became commonplace, copper was second only to iron in production among the metals.

Copper is easy to identify due to its reddish color. Soluble copper compounds are easily identified by their distinctive blue-green color. The zinc family consists of zinc, cadmium, mercury, and copernicum. Neither of these two metals appears uncombined in nature. Zinc is used in alloys with copper to create a harder metal known as brass.

In galvanization, zinc coats iron by oxidizing to form a protective layer of zinc oxide ZnO that protects the iron from oxidation. Zinc oxide is much safer than lead oxide, and it is often used in white paint.

These metals do not possess any magnetic properties. Examples include but are not limited to aluminium, lead, brass, copper and zinc. They may also be classified based on their atomic structure according to the periodic table. When done, a metal may be known as alkaline, alkaline earth, or a transition metal. Metals belonging to the same group behave similarly when reacting with other elements. Thus, they have similar chemical properties.

Another way to differentiate metals is by looking how they interact with magnets. It is possible to divide metals as magnetic and non-magnetic on that basis.

While ferromagnetic metals attract strongly to magnets, paramagnetic ones only show weak interactions. Lastly, there is a group called diamagnetic metals that rather show a weak repulsion to magnets. All the metals share some similar mechanical properties of materials. But when judged closely, one metal will have a slight edge over another in certain properties. It is possible to tweak the properties when creating alloys by mixing pure elements. These factors include melting point, cost, ease of machining, sufficient safety factor, space available, temperature coefficient, thermal and electrical conductivity, density, etc.

Let us take a look at some of the popular metals and why they are chosen for their applications. It would not be an exaggeration to refer to iron as the lifeblood of our civilisation.

Thus, it is an incredibly easy metal to find. Pure iron is an unstable element though. At the first opportunity, it reacts with the oxygen in the air to form iron oxide. Extracting iron from its ores uses a blast furnace.

Pig iron is achieved from the first stage of the blast furnace which can be further refined to obtain pure iron. This iron often ends up in steels and other alloys.

Almost 90 per cent of manufactured metals are ferrous metals. Steel, for instance, is a ferrous metal that finds a variety of applications. We cannot comprehend the true potential of iron without learning about steel. Pure iron is stronger than other metals but it leaves much to be desired. For one, pure iron is not resistant to corrosion. To keep iron from corroding, a lot of money and energy must be spent.

Secondly, it is also extremely heavy due to its high density. These disadvantages can make structures harder to build and maintain. Adding carbon to iron alleviates these weaknesses to a certain extent. This mixture of iron and carbon up to specified limits is known as carbon steel. Adding carbon to iron makes the iron much stronger along with imparting other great characteristics.

Other elements may be added in trace amounts to incorporate their properties. Steel is a popular building material thanks to its excellent properties. Over grades of steel are available today. It has high tensile strength and a high strength-to-weight ratio.

This means more strength per unit mass of steel. This allows usage of steel parts and components that are small in size but still strong. Steel is also extremely durable. This means a steel structure can last longer and withstand external factors better than other alternatives.

It is also ductile and can be shaped into required forms without compromising its properties. Further information on this subject can be found later in this article. The following are the popular types of wrought copper, each suitable for a variety of applications. A few comparable alloys of cast copper are also produced but will not be discussed here owing to the far greater commercial importance of the wrought alloys.

High conductivity HC electrolytically refined copper is used for most electrical applications such as wire and cable, busbars and windings. High conductivity copper is very readily worked, both hot and cold. It has excellent ductility, which means that it can be easily drawn to fine wire sizes, and it is available in all other fabricated forms. ETP copper contains a minimum of There are several highly refined grades of copper that contain almost no oxygen or other impurities.

These are the so-called oxygen-free high-conductivity coppers. Comparable generic products are generally referred to simply as OF copper. OF copper is produced by casting electrolytically refined copper in a controlled, i. It is used where ease of welding and brazing are especially important.

It contains very low levels of residual volatile impurities and is therefore used for high vacuum electronic applications such as transmitter tubes, waveguide tubes, linear accelerators and glass-to-metal seals. Virtual elimination of oxygen also avoids certain welding problems encountered in oxygen-bearing grades, thus improving fabricability. Free-machining copper has an addition of around 0. Lead acts similarly in copper, although free-cutting leaded coppers as such i.

Applications for such free-machining grades as tellurium-bearing coppers UNS C and other and sulfur-bearing copper C include machined electrical components, gas-welding nozzles and torch tips and soldering iron tips.

The cost of these components for the electrical engineering industry is kept low by making them using a free-machining grade of copper.

They are cast or forged near to final shape and finish machined to close tolerances. Thomas Bolton. Deoxidized copper is used for the other major area of application of the coppers in building construction apart from electrical services, the principal uses being for central heating systems, tube for gas and water supply, and sheet for roofing and other architectural applications. The oxygen in copper is usually removed by the addition to the melt of phosphorus as a copper-phosphorus hardener, or boron in the case of castings.

This gives a material that can readily be brazed or welded without fear of embrittlement through contact with hydrogen. It is therefore ideal for use in plumbing systems and domestic gas supply. The ability of copper to form a protective and aesthetically pleasing surface, or patina, by weathering has encouraged its use for roofing large buildings over many centuries.

Today, such architectural uses are expanding to include wall panels, column cladding and other items. Copper forms alloys more freely than most metals and with a wide range of alloying elements. Zinc, tin, nickel and aluminum are the most common alloying additions and produce the following simple alloy types. There are several other types not listed here. In practice, many combinations of alloying elements are used in combination to optimize properties for a very wide range of uses.

The effects of these are summarized in Figure 8. Alloys based upon copper are classified as non-ferrous ferrous materials are iron-base; for example, steel. Useful alloying additions of other elements to the alloy types listed above in small amounts can include aluminum, arsenic, antimony, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, niobium, oxygen, phosphorus, silicon, silver, sulfur, tellurium, tin, zinc and zirconium.

All are found in standard coppers and copper alloys and are added as required in small amounts to give specific properties suitable for many demanding applications. Some alloying elements have been in use with copper since early times. The development of metallurgical and corrosion science knowledge has provided many answers to specific metallurgical or corrosion phenomena, and these improvements, in turn, have at times lead to the use of other alloying elements with copper.

A good example of this synergism is the development of new and improved alloys for use in the electronics industry. Apart from use in the copper-base alloys, there are other metals to which copper is added to improve properties.