The OnlineMetals Guide to Brass
Brass is generally known for several things - decent strength and electrical conductivity, it can be polished easily, and there seems to be a brass for just about every application. With few exceptions, most notably C230 Red Brass and C770 Nickel Silver, materials in this category generally are yellow in color. OnlineMetals.com currently stocks six brass alloys.
230 Brass (Red Brass) As the name would imply, this material is reddish in color. It is one of the stronger brass items that we carry.
260 Brass (Cartridge Brass) 260 Brass is known by about a zillion different names, but the most common are yellow brass and cartridge brass, the second because it is generally used for shell casings. As a rule, it is only available in sheet, and is not very machinable, but is a great combination of formability and workability.
330 Brass (no nickname for this brass, and it gets picked on by the other brasses) We've never figured out why this material doesn't have a nickname, but that is the metals industry for you. It is normally only available in tubing products, and has a good balance of both workability and machinability (the latter due to the presence of lead). If you've ever seen a brass fire pole, or, um, any other kind of brass poles, chances are you were looking at 330 Brass.
360 Brass (Free Machining Brass) Free Machining brass is the most commonly used of the brass rod and bar items. The presence of lead in the alloy creates a highly machinable material that can easily be cut and shaped into whatever you need. It is not so good, however, at forming operations.
464 Naval Brass / Naval Bronze Used primarily in applications where corrosion resistance is important, the material has a small amount of tin added to help deal with corrosion, especially in seawater.
770 (Nickel Silver) Nickel Silver is named for its silvery appearance, but surprisingly contains no silver at all.
|