The Effect of Minor Element Addition on Thin Walled Brass Casting

Abstract

Thin walled brass faucet casting is an important requirement of the industry in terms of both transportation and cost. Fluidity of molten metals is one of the important issues for thin walled castings. In this study, various metallic powders were added to the brass alloy in order to increase the fluidity of brass alloy and to provide casting at low pressures. Aluminum and nickel metallic powders were chosen as special additives. It is aimed to increase the fluidity of the brass composition by adding minor elements to the composition. In this work, the microstructure and melt fluidity of a (CuZn39Pb1Al-C) brass alloyed by small additions of aluminum and nickel were studied. These two metallic elements were added to the main melting furnace at amount of 0.0055 wt.%, 0.03 wt.% and 0.05 wt.%. The microstructures were investigated with the help of scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (SEM/EDX) for determining significant changes of the properties. In particular, the addition of 0.03 % by weight of nickel facilitated the casting and reduced the casting pressure by 80 mbar. This reduction in the casting pressure resulted to thickness value decreased by 55% compared to the standard.