Bronze Bars, Sheets, and Tubes—What Type of Bronze Do You Need?

Ever since its discovery some 7000 years ago, bronze has maintained its reputation as one of the most valuable and most extensively used metals. It has come a long way from being merely the base material for ancient armors and cutlery to being the very nuts and bolts that hold structures together.

It is important to understand that bronze is no longer the typical alloy of copper and tin. With advances in technology, more versions of bronze have emerged, allowing it to be used for many more vital applications. Here are the most common types of bronze that you can find on the market today.

Architectural Bronze

Bronze is prized for its legendary antique color and shade, especially when sufficiently exposed to the elements. These unique characteristics make it a good material for architectural and structural elements, such as door and window frames, elevator sills, handles, railings, and balusters among many others. Because of the nature of their purpose in a structure, most of them exposed to heavy traffic and handling, they are designed to have high copper content to improve their corrosion resistance.

Manganese Bronze

Manganese is added to the mixture of copper and tin, along with other important elements, to improve bronze’s tensile strength or the ability to resist pulling force. The resulting alloy—manganese bronze—is perfect for applications that involve countering huge levels of tension. Specifically, this type of bronze is what most valves, pump parts, gears, nuts and bolts, and even non-spark tools and parts are made of. They are often produced through casting, forging, or extrusion.

Aluminum Bronze

While bronze is already highly resistant to corrosion, there are situations in which its corrosion resistance isn’t enough. For instance, situations where it has to be exposed to seawater, oil, or petroleum. These substances may have an even harsher effect on bronze than water so understandably, bronze’s qualities have to be improved as well. By adding aluminum, bronze can be resistant not just to tap water but also to saltwater, which is known for being ten times for corrosive.

Phosphor Bronze

Adding a little bit of phosphorus to the original copper-tin mixture gives bronze incredible strength, durability, high fatigue resistance, and a low coefficient of friction. Such properties are critical to applications where continues motion and sliding of surfaces are involved. For this reason, phosphor bronze is often used for making electrical components, washers, springs, and bellows to name a few.

Regardless of the type of bronze you are looking for, you can find the highest quality supplies if you go to a fully established metal supplier, especially one that specializes in copper, brass, and bronze bars, sheets, and tubes like Rotax Metals. Discuss the specific materials you need and they will present you with the options that suit your budget and needs.

Source:

HISTORY OF USING BRONZE, bronzecasements.com