The relationship between yield strength and tensile strength in annealed copper is inversely related to grain size. There are different ways to strengthen copper or copper alloy by cold working or by adding solid solution elements that enhance strain hardening, and copper exhibits increased tensile and yield strength, along with improved work hardening rates when it's alloyed with certain elements such as aluminum, zinc, beryllium, chromium, zirconium, tin, silver, sulfur or iron. These elements modify one or more of the basic properties of copper, such as strength, creep resistance, corrosion resistance, machinability or weldability. Copper alloys deliver an assortment of physical properties that allow them to be used for certain demanding applications. Fabmann is dedicated to providing custom copper and copper alloy sheet & foil, and plates with specific width, length and thickness, and we can supply both volume and one-off project requirement.
Copper Sheet Production
How are copper and copper sheets produced?
The production of copper sheets has quite long processes from mining to packing, it involves more than 10 different processes, including:
√ Mining of copper ore, various chemicals are used during processing to extract the copper and purify it to its purest form meanwhile many other minerals and materials are removed from the copper ores during the grinding and smelting process.
√ Concentrating, this process removes various non-copper elements, mud and debris from the copper ore. The pre-selected copper is concentrated by flotation process after the waste material is removed.
√ Smelting, this process is designed to remove sulfur and iron from copper through a series of chemical reactions. During this process, copper concentrate mixes with a flux melt and collects at the bottom of the hot furnace while other metals including iron floats on the melt surface, which is skimmed off from the surface. During this process, copper is purified to over 99% by weight in a second, and this process is named as converter.
√ Refining, this process is to eliminate oxygen, sulfur, and other impurities, and the air in the refining furnace helps the molten metal oxidize its impurities. Electrical current is introduced through the tank while the copper solution is in liquid form, which facilitate the copper solution to be attracted to a cathode which collects the copper rated between 99.95% and 99.99%.
√ Casting, after refining, the copper is cast into a variety of shapes once the blocks of copper cathodes are melted, including rods, billets, cakes, and ingots. The bulk copper blocks are then roll formed into thin sheets.
√ Annealing, it is mandatory to go through annealing process, which is designed to heat the copper material to a specific temperature, then slowly cooling, making it easier to work with in subsequent copper fabrication work.
√ Pickling, after annealing, the copper strips & plates are pickled to remove any oxide layers or surface impurities, which can enhance the mechanical properties.
√ Precision rolling (cold rolling), the annealed copper strips go through multiple sets of rollers until achieving the desired thickness.
√ Slitting, the strips are slit into required widths by precision slitting machines
√ Surface Treatment, after the slitting process, the plates and sheets may undergo surface treatments to enhance their performance or aesthetics. This surface treatment includes processes like electroplating, coating, or applying protective films.
√ Quality control, testing and inspection are conducted to verify the chemical, mechanical, electrical, and dimensions.
Advantages
Besides high conductivity, copper sheet also has many other benefits below:
√ Sustainability, copper is a very environmentally friendly metal, and this is easy to reuse and recycle with only little carbon foot print.
√ Flexibility, it is easy to do fabrication work such as bending, stretching, hammering, stamping and rolling into a variable form, and all these fabrications can be achieved by cold work solution.
√ Antimicrobial, copper, in fact, was registered at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an antimicrobial material because bacteria, yeasts, and viruses can be killed when they come into contact with copper surfaces. That's why copper material is highly valuable in healthcare sector.
√ Anti-corrosion, copper has low reactivity, and it reacts very slow with water or acid.
Copper and Copper Alloy Grades
Fabmann is a leading copper sheet supplier, and our main stock copper grades are C10100, C10200, C11000, & C12200. These grades have excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, outstanding corrosion resistance, and ease of fabrication, together with good strength and fatigue resistance. When high purity copper is exposed to natural environment, it will patina and develop a greenish or bluish hue over time, and therefore applying a film is a popular solution to avoid patina phenomenon. In many countries, ASTM B152 110 is a standard specification for copper sheet, strip, plate, and rolled bar. The oxygen free copper grades C10100 & C10200 have very high purity of copper, which means absence of deoxidizers, and these plates can reach a minimum conductivity of 101% IACS. Therefore, these two plates are suitable for applications requiring high ductility and electrical conductivity. Plus, we also supply copper alloy plates with grades like C17200, C17510, C17410 & C19900. In particular, we can supply 7N oxygen free copper (C10100, CW009A) sheet or strip from 0.15mm to 3.0mm, and our copper sheet range is listed as follows:
Metallographic Microscope Check
√ (3N) 99.9%
√ (3N5) 99.95%
√ (4N) 99.99%
√ (5N) 99.999%
√ (6N) 99.9999%
√ (7N) 99.99999%
Quality Assurance
Fabmann can assist you to find the suitable copper sheets and foils for your specific projects, and our quality engineers focus on following quality parameters for delivering high quality copper products.
1. Chemical composition, oxygen and hydrogen content will be tested for both C10100 & C10200 grades.
2. Dimension within required tolerance
3. Mechanical property such as hardness, tensile, yield strength and elongation
4. Conductivity
5. Surface condition
You can find more details about how Fabmann does tests at http://keyi2024.vip.seo.com.cn/quality-control-lab-test. Besides supplying custom copper sheets, Fabmann can also supply copper profile, copper bars, copper tubing for all kinds of project application purposes. We are committed to providing custom copper products and copper fabrication service for you.
Applications
Fabmann is dedicated to providing custom service including fabrication, and we can supply small volume for development and research. Our standard cold rolled copper sheet thickness is from 0.5mm to 3mm. If you have specific requirement, please consult with our copper material specialist, and we will respond within max 24hours. Below are some of the industries we currently service:
√ Copper roofing & cladding
√ Security systems
√ Power stations
√ Power Transmission
√ Power generation
√ Automotive
√ Marine
√ Medical
√ Interior design, such as countertops, backsplashes, and decorative panels.
√ Art and sculpture
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