Modern Copper Smelting: being lectures delivered at Birmingham University, greatly extended and adapted and with and introduction on the history, uses and properties of copper.Levy, Donald M.
Science
Modern Copper Smelting: being lectures delivered at Birmingham University, greatly extended and adapted and with and introduction on the history, uses and properties of copper.
Levy, Donald M.
Copper -- Metallurgy
The _malleability_ and _ductility_ of copper are considerable. Cold
rolling and hammering causes a reduction in this respect, and the
metal is hardened, but the properties are restored by annealing.
The annealing effect commences at about 300° C., but proceeds
more effectively at higher temperatures, the factors of annealing
temperature and duration necessary for annealing being inversely
connected. The impurities which influence these properties most
adversely are bismuth and tellurium. The effect of other constituents,
oxygen _per se_, sulphur, and iron, in the quantities usually present
in commercial copper, is very small. Arsenic and antimony up to 0·4
or 0·5 per cent. have no deleterious effect on the malleability and
ductility of copper _of the correct pitch_, and may even improve the
metal when tested in the cold; the hot malleability is, however,
somewhat decreased.
The presence of impurities raises the temperature required to
bring about the full effects of annealing after the metal has been
hardened by mechanical work. This action is probably explained by
the interference of the impurities upon the molecular freedom of the
metal, which controls the mechanism of annealing. The conditions,
whether reducing or oxidising, during annealing, may exert an important
influence on the results.
_Hardness._—Pure copper is a comparatively soft metal. It is hardened
by mechanical work—the hardness of rolled copper, determined by the
Brinell Test, being 74 compared with mild steel as 100—and by the
presence of even small quantities of impurities, tin possessing a
particularly marked effect in this connection. The worked metal is
softened on annealing.
_Tensile Strength and Elongation._—The strength of copper, being a
property of such practical importance, has been the subject of much
extended investigation. The work has, however, been conducted under
such a great variety of conditions, many of which have been left
unrecorded, that co-ordination of the results is barely possible,
and does not allow of establishing on a definite basis the effect of
different influences on this property of the metal. Later work, some
already published, some still in progress, should eventually allow
of more general standardisation than is at present possible. The
tensile strength of pure cast copper is 8 to 9 tons per square inch.
Mechanical work causes an increase in the value up to 14, or even 16
tons, cold work exerting a still more marked influence; whilst 33 tons
and more per square inch has been recorded with cold-drawn fine wire.
The elongation varies according to the mechanical work which the metal
has undergone; the amount ranges from 35 to 40 per cent. and upwards,
measured on a 3-inch length.
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