Building Design and Construction Handbook - Merritt - Ventech!

BUILDING MATERIALS 4.83
Nickel, silver, 18% (A) (65.0% copper, 17.0% zinc, 18.0% nickel). Typical uses
are hardware, architectural panels, lighting, electrical and plumbing fixtures. General
properties are high resistance to corrosion and tarnish, malleable, and ductile.
Color: silver-blue-white.
4.61 CUPRONICKEL
Copper and nickel are alloyed in a variety of compositions of which the highcopper
alloys are called the cupronickels. Typical commercial types of cupronickel
contain 10 or 30% nickel (Table 4.15):
Cupronickel, 10% (88.5% copper, 10% nickel, 1.5% iron). Recommended for
applications requiring corrosion resistance, especially to salt water, as in tubing for
condensers, heat exchangers, and formed sheets.
Cupronickel, 30% (70.0% copper, 30.0% nickel). Typical uses are condenser
tubes and plates, tanks, vats, vessels, process equipment, automotive parts, meters,
refrigerator pump valves. General properties are high strength and ductility and
resistance to corrosion and erosion. Color: white-silver.
4.62 BRONZE
Originally, the bronzes were all alloys of copper and tin. Today, the term bronze is
generally applied to engineering metals having high mechanical properties and the
term brass to other metals. The commercial wrought bronzes do not usually contain
more than 10% tin because the metal becomes extremely hard and brittle. When
phosphorus is added as a deoxidizer, to obtain sound, dense castings, the alloys are
known as phosphor bronzes. The two most commonly used tin bronzes contain 5
or 8% tin. Both have excellent cold-working properties.
4.62.1 Silicon Bronze
These are high-copper alloys containing percentages of silicon ranging from about
1% to slightly more than 3%. In addition, they generally contain one or more of
the four elements, tin, manganese, zinc, and iron. A typical one is high-silicon
bronze, type A.
High-silicon bronze, A (96.0% copper, 3.0% silicon, 1.0% manganese). Typical
users are tanks—pressure vessels, vats; weatherstrips, forgings. General properties
are corrosion resistance of copper and mechanical properties of mild steel.
4.62.2 Aluminum Bronze
Like aluminum, these bronzes form an aluminum oxide skin on the surface, which
materially improves resistance to corrosion, particularly under acid conditions.
Since the color of the 5% aluminum bronze is similar to that of 18-carat gold, it
is used for costume jewelry and other decorative purposes. Aluminum-silicon
bronzes are used in applications requiring high tensile properties in combination