H62 Copper Alloy
H62 copper alloy is a common brass alloy with copper and zinc as its main components. Below is a detailed introduction:
Chemical Composition
Copper (Cu): Content ranges from 60.5% to 63.5%, serving as the primary component of the alloy. It endows the alloy with excellent electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and ductility.
Zinc (Zn): The remaining portion is mainly zinc. The addition of zinc enhances the alloy’s strength, hardness, and corrosion resistance while reducing costs.
Impurities: Strictly controlled to avoid adverse effects on performance, including: iron (Fe) ≤0.15%, lead (Pb) ≤0.08%, antimony (Sb) ≤0.005%, bismuth (Bi) ≤0.002%, phosphorus (P) ≤0.01%, and total impurities ≤0.5%.
Physical Properties
Density: Approximately 8.4–8.5 g/cm³, slightly lower than pure copper, offering an advantage in applications with weight requirements.
Melting point: Ranges from 900°C to 940°C, maintaining stable physical and chemical properties under high temperatures, suitable for high-temperature processing and service conditions.
Thermal conductivity: About 120 W/(m·K), providing good heat transfer capability, making it ideal for heat exchangers, radiators, and other equipment requiring rapid heat conduction.
Electrical conductivity: Approximately 28% IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard). Though lower than pure copper, it still meets requirements in many electrical and electronic applications.
Coefficient of linear expansion: Around 20.7×10⁻⁶/°C, ensuring good dimensional stability. Its dimensional changes are relatively small in environments with large temperature fluctuations, helping maintain part precision and reliability.
Specific heat capacity: About 0.377 J/(g·°C), enabling it to absorb more heat during temperature variations, buffering the impact of temperature changes on the alloy.
Mechanical Properties
Tensile strength: Approximately 340–540 MPa, allowing it to withstand significant tensile stress, suitable for manufacturing parts under tensile loads.
Yield strength: Around 110–360 MPa, indicating that the material will undergo plastic deformation when this stress is exceeded.
Elongation: 10%–30% in different states, demonstrating good plasticity and toughness, enabling it to withstand deformation without cracking.
Hardness: Brinell hardness of approximately 80–150 HB, balancing wear resistance, deformation resistance, and machinability.
Processing Performance
Hot working performance: As an α+β duplex brass, it exhibits good plasticity in the hot state and can be hot-worked above 600°C, such as hot extrusion and hot rolling.
Cold working performance: It also has moderate plasticity in the cold state, allowing cold drawing, cold bending, stamping, and other cold working processes. However, as cold working deformation increases, the material’s strength and hardness rise while plasticity decreases.
Machinability: Excellent machinability, enabling smooth surface finishes during processing. It can be fabricated into precision parts of various shapes, suitable for automotive components, medical devices, and electronic elements.
Weldability: Easily brazed and welded using methods such as gas welding, arc welding, and resistance welding, facilitating connections with other metals or alloys.
Corrosion Resistance
H62 copper alloy offers good corrosion resistance, resisting erosion by most chemicals. It performs well in atmospheric and freshwater environments. However, in specific environments (e.g., ammonia-containing or sulfur-containing media), it may suffer from corrosion cracking, especially under stress, which increases the risk of cracking.
Application Fields
Mechanical manufacturing: Used to produce various mechanical parts, such as pins, rivets, washers, nuts, and conduits, as well as structural components bearing heavy loads.
Electrical and electronics: Due to its moderate conductivity and good processability, it is used in electrical components like wire and cable connectors, sockets, switches, and in electronic devices as radiators and shields.
Architectural decoration: Processed into pipes, sheets, and profiles for architectural decoration, such as door and window frames, decorative moldings, and stair railings, combining aesthetics with corrosion resistance.
Automotive industry: Applied in automotive radiators, heat exchangers, oil pipes, and connectors, meeting the operational requirements of vehicles under various working conditions.
Hardware products: Widely used in manufacturing hardware items such as locks, lamps, zippers, and watch parts, enhancing product aesthetics and service life.