Metalchic

Aluminum Bronze Facts

Aluminum Bronzes are a family of copper-based alloys offering a combination of mechanical and chemical properties unmatched by any other alloy series.  This feature makes the Aluminum Bronze the first choice for demanding applications.  No...I'm not on an Aluminum Bronze Campaign kick BUT I love to learn about an alloy family that outshines the rest.  Well at least in some areas!

So what are the attributes that make Alumimum Bronzes so hot and in demand? Check these out:

Excellent Strength - in fact it is similar to that of low alloy steels. 

factoid:  Several common groupings of low-alloy steels, beginning with HY 80, HY 90, and HY 100 steels, are used for building ship hulls, submarines, bridges, and off-highway vehicles. These low-alloy steels contain nickel, molybdenum, and chromium, which add to the material's weldability, notch toughness, and yield strength. When welding these low-alloys steels, preheat and postheat treatments typically are not required.

Excellent Corrosion Resistance - especially in seawater and similar environments, where the alloys often outperform many stainless steels. Aluminum bronzes can be used in environments that are far more aggressive than are tolerated by most other metals.  Like many copper alloys, aluminum bronzes also resist biofouling in both fresh and saline waters.  Aluminum Bronze alloys may be considered for service with a wide variety of chemicals, particularly where is a combination of stress and erosion, but selection must take account of the anticipated temperature & other services conditions.  Here is a sample of some chemicals:  acetic acid, ammonia (dry), Brine, Bromine (dry), Chlorine (dry), Nitrogen, Sodium Carbonate, Phosphate and much more.

factoid:  Stainless steels are known for there Corrosion Resistance properties.  However stainless steel can be contaminated throughout the fabrication process and wind up being highly corrosive.  Such as: iron dust landing on the stainless steel, water stains from resting water, scratches from carbon steel forklifts or carbon steel racks, gouges from improper handling, embedded iron in machine tooling used on carbon steel and not properly cleaned.  Also welding stainless steels can be tricky.  Mistakes in the welding process will result in a weld that is not as corrosion resistant as the base material.

Favorable High Temperature Properties - for short term or long term usage

Good resistance to Fatigue - ensuring a long service life.

factoid:  Aluminum Bronzes happen to possess exceptional...yes, I said exceptional...resitance to fatigue.  (Insert Sarcasm - "Gee, I wish I had an exceptional resistance to fatigue!") This is one of the most common causes of deterioration in marine engineering equipment.  This property is why this material is most suitable for use as propellors and in pump applications. 

Good resistance to Creep - making the alloys useful at elevated temperatures.

Oxidation Resistance - for exposure at elevated temperatures and in oxidizing environments. 

Ease of Casting & Fabrication - when compared to materials used for similar purposes.

High Hardness & Wear Resistance - provides excellent bearing properties in arduous applications.

factoid:  Aluminum Bronzes often provide excellent service in both cast & wrought forms.  A the high end of the wear - and - abrasion - resistance spectrum are special aluminum bronze alloys containing up to 14% alumimum, whose applications include dies for deep drawing and molds for die casting, casting of glass bottles and pressing of vinyl records. 

Ductility - which, like that for all copper alloys, is not diminised at low temperatures

Good Weldability - making fabrication economical

Readily Machined - when compared with other high-duty alloys

 factoid:  Here are some charts for machining purposes....

 - Cutting tool Geometry for Machining Aluminum Bronzes

- Drill Geometry for Aluminum Bronzes

- Reaming Geometries for Aluminum Bronzes

- Recommeded Tap Geometry for Aluminum Bronzes

- Recommeded Milling Cutter Geometries for Alumnum Bronze

Low Magnetic susceptibility - useful for many special applications

Ready availability - in cast or wrought forms

 factoid:  This of course is the most helpful part of dealing with Aluminum Bronzes.  The ability to have a product right off the shelf, cut and shipped within a day or so it extremely helpful.  Atlas Bronze has a wide variety of stocked material....you can visit to see what we've got, http://www.atlasbronze.com/copper_alloys_product_sheet.html.

 

Press Release - Atlas Bronze Website Redesign

Hi All - so proud to announce that Atlas Bronze will be launching it's Website Redesign, Spring of 2012.  The great part of it is that we listened to our customers....we are doing away with our inadequate Quote Forms and adding some great features...like an Online Catalog.  So, see the below Press Release that is going out tomorrow - February 21st! 

San Jose, CA, February 21, 2012. CDS (Catalog Data Solutions), a leading provider of online product catalog solutions for industrial suppliers, today announced that Atlas Bronze has selected its SaaS online product Catalog and CAD download solution.

Atlas Bronze, a Maranatha Now company, based in Trenton, NJ is a leading distributor of Bronze, Copper Alloy, & Iron products, as well as self lubricated bushings and sintered bronze products. “The internet has changed industrial sourcing – designers often research and select products online even before talking to potential suppliers. Therefore our products have to be found online and our website needs to make it very easy to find and select the product a visitor needs. In addition downloadable CAD model of the products will provide flexibility for designers and visual confirmation for buyers specifying our products”, said Ruth Smith, Project Manager, Atlas Bronze. “We researched many vendors and chose the CDS Catalog and CDS ModelServer SaaS solutions because they were the most industry specific for us, are well proven in the market, right up-to-date technically and CDS is highly responsive to work with. This new solution is currently being configured for our products and will be integrated into our future website.”

“We’re delighted to have been selected by Atlas Bronze,” said John Major, CEO CDS. “As product selection and buying continues to change and evolve, sales and marketing organizations need to continually come up with ways to get in front of the selection and buying cycle. Atlas Bronze are now doing just that, via an online product catalog and CAD downloads that ensure their products both remain in contention and exploit a new advantage made possible by the new process. The downloadable CAD models of the products save designers and buyers time and enable the products to be designed-in easily and quickly. Of the many types of online marketing content (e.g. white papers, case studies, brochures, videos, demos, recorded webinars, reviews, CAD model downloads, etc.) only one is known to lead to a sale nearly 50% of the time!  CAD downloads may be the most efficient online marketing tool available.”

CDS helps grow sales and strengthen customer loyalty for its clients through interactive online product catalogs, ecommerce, 3D CAD & BIM model delivery and product configurator solutions.

About Atlas Bronze
Atlas Bronze, founded in 1995, has established itself as a leading distributor of Bronze, Copper Alloy, & Iron products, as well as self lubricated bushings and sintered bronze products, in the United States.  Situated in the heart of New Jersey, the Company is well positioned to serve the East Coast, the Northeast, & the Nation with its comprehensive product line of Bronze, Iron, & Copper Alloys. For more information, visit www.atlasbronze.com or call +1.877.554.0443

About CDS (Catalog Data Solutions, Inc.)
CDS is a leading SaaS provider of product search, configuration, and online CAD solutions for manufacturers and distributors.  Founded in 2005 with headquarters in San Jose, CA, CDS enables building product and industrial parts manufacturers and their distributors to increase sales by enabling their products to be specified into new designs, improve website conversion rates, generate high quality sales leads, and improve customer service. CDS SaaS solutions include the CDS Content Manager™, CDS ModelServer™, CDS Catalog™, and CDS CAD Configurator™.  CDS’s skilled and experienced professional services team provides CAD modeling and implementation services for the successful deployment of CDS SaaS solutions.  The company’s customers include the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors in the building products, high tech and industrial manufacturing industries.  For more information, CDS can be reached at 408.550.8820 or by visiting www.catalogdatasolutions.com.

Press Queries:
Lauren Koziel 
Strategic Reach PR 
303-487-7406 
[email protected]
All brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
###

SAE 841 Sintered Bronze Question

Over the past year and a half, I have been processing and distributing the MTR's or Material Test Reports here at Atlas Bronze.  I must say that when I first took on the job I was a little apprehensive.  I heard stories about these people who falsified Certs and some of them even wound up in jail.  (see my post , Who knew you could go to jail!!! )  Needless to say, there was a bit of trepidation on my part taking up this new job.  

Well, since I had no intention of falsifying any documentation anytime in my life... I new I was safe and took on the challenge.  I must say that it has taught me alot.  After some time now, I can look at another "distributor's" C of C or Chemical Cert and be able to tell what mill produced the material.  You would be surprised the information you can learn just from reading an MTR. 

I could literally go on and on about MTR's forever....and by no means am I an expert (there is just so much to say and learn from) So, I figured I'd start with the one material / product where customers seemed to become the most confused - SAE 841 Sintered Bronze

 Now if some of you have any thoughts to add please feel free to add your comments below.

Recently I had a customer who purchased some SAE 841 Sintered Bronze material from us and requested Certs with this material.  So when it came time to forwarding them the Certs she came back to me, puzzled, asking...."On your paperwork, do you have anything that indicates the lot #?".  I then replied with my standard reply.  After I did this I decided....I must post this on the blog, I get this question so often with Sintered products, hopefully it will help.

MATERIAL: SAE 841, Sintered Bronze

QUESTION: "On your paperwork (Certs), do you have anything that indicates the lot #?"

ANSWER: 

Unlike other bronze materials Powdered Metal (841 Sintered Bronze) is not melted nor heat traceable, so therefore there will be not be a LOT# or HEAT#:       
             
Powder metallurgy is the process of blending fine powdered materials, pressing them into a desired shape (compacting), and then heating the compressed material in a controlled atmosphere to bond the material (sintering). The powder metallurgy process generally consists of four basic steps: (1) powder manufacture, (2) powder blending,(3) compacting, (4) sintering.     

Compacting is generally performed at room temperature, and the elevated-temperature process of sintering is usually conducted at atmospheric pressure.   Optional secondary processing often follows to obtain special properties or enhanced precision.     

I have found a video that might help visualize the process...see below:

 

I hope you all found this helpful and as always feel free to leave comments or questions and if I can't answer them, I'll definitely find someone who can.

Blessings! Ruth

2012

So it has been over 6 months since my last blog.  That's embarrassing.  The funny things is that each day I thought...." I must blog today!"..but life & FB got in the way.  So...for 2012 I shifted around a few things, carved out some precious time to blog and took a sabbatical from FB.  :) 

What's new?  Lots....Atlas opened a 2nd Sales Office, hired a new Sales Manager and promoted Eric to Business Development, added 2 new sales assistants, bought 2 saws & a grinder, had a baby, a bought a motorcycle.  After all that.. we have big plans for 2012.  So here is the breakdown play by play....(oy vey, sports terminology...I'm getting more into football!)

- 2nd Sales Office -  in July of 2011 we opened a 2nd Sales office 50 miles southeast of our Trenton facility.  We affectionately call it our "Lakewood Office".  Josh Smith, Eneldo Rivera, Katie Mandrik (Smith), Kathleen McCullen, Thomas Blumensteel, Kathe Smith and myself are the residents at this location.   

- 2 New Sales Assistants - so after opening our office in July and got some of the logistics down, we went out and found 2 amazing Assistants.  Thomas Blumensteel & Kathleen McCullen.  They officially started with us on October 3rd.  What a blessing they have been!  Eager to learn our business, full of energy and enthusiasm and most importantly...they love to serve our customers!  Folks...it doesn't get any better than that!  So needless to say, we are happy to welcome them to the Atlas family.

- New Sales Manager - His name is Anthony Mandrik and comes to table with a strong background in Sales & Marketing.  I know it might seemed bias that I openly praise Anthony in public...because he is my brother-in-law...but as most might know if I don't like something I am the first to say it.  Anthony comes to Atlas with absolutely NO metals knowledge.  Which to be honest it quite refreshing.  Because at the end of the day selling is about a customer experience and it doesn't matter if what your selling is a T-shirt or bar stock!  But what Anthony does bring to the table is a solid management philosophy and a total understanding of Atlas's principles of building relationships with our customers. It's a great extension of what was started in the Sales group and as Eric Grabowski has moved into Product/Business Development they still work closely in shepherding the group.  So needless to say we are so happy to have him on board! 

- 2 saws & a grinder - We have finally found ourselves 2 great new saws (with much thanks to Jason and his dilegence) and are going to be finally grinding in house!  more to come on this one....stay tuned!

- a BABY - as most of you might know, one of our Sr. Sales Reps, Ami Edwards had her baby girl in 2011.  Although we were SO excited for her...we certainly did miss her very much!  I just got word that Ami will be returning from Maternity, February 6th!!  In the meantime...here's her little peanut :)

- an 883 Harley - I am finally a Harley owner :)  This past October I finally did and took the motorcycle lessons, bought a bike and now I'm learning how to be a biker...well we'll see how that part goes :) Here's Lucy!

OK all that's some of the changes here at Atlas.  There are many more to come but I thought I'd at least play catch up to some of the highlights of 2011. 

What to look forward to....a new website, new product segments and a sales group excited about forging relationships with our customers. Until next post....

God bless & be safe!

Ruth

 

Spec - Schmeck

Recently, I have encountered some customers who are getting drawings from their customers calling out for material specifications that they don't recognize.  Additionally, I'm finding some customers who typically know the material they usually buy being stumped by dual Specs.  Such as C93200 is Bearing Bronze but but it's also referred to as SAE 660.  Same material  - just 2 different organizations (Copper Development Association - CDA & Society of Automative Engineers - SAE) calling out for the same material. 

Well I came across one of my Cross-Reference guides and thought I'd share.  This is by no means a comprehensive list but it's something for some of the common 800 & 900 series alloys.  It lists the UNS, SAE, Alloy description & typical material applications for the following:

 

Coming Soon

Some exciting news for 2011 is the introduction of Copper products to the Atlas Bronze product line. 

This past October, Atlas Bronze purchased McCaffrey Metals.  McCaffrey was well known in the industry for selling Copper products from inventory in small quantities with quick turn around times.  The transition has been pretty smooth so far with the expansion & rearranging of our warehouse to accomodate the new inventory. And of course, for me.....the thrill of learning new metal!

I started off in this industry learning all about Bronze Products, C95400, C91100, C86300, finished machined parts, Centrifugals and the likes.  And by no means do I have that totally down pat yet.  But for 2011 it is all about learning Copper & Brass !  C10100, C11000, C35300, C46400, C26000...

So in keeping true to my odd love affair with metal, I have found myself wandering around the new section of the warehouse taking pixs of some of the new specimens!  Take a look:

 

 

As you can see...it's beautiful... and I am EXCITED to learn all about it :)

That's it for now..more to come...until later!!

Ruth

 

 

 

 

 

Ride the Wave

I have seen the abbreviation “ WMM” used in the metals industry can you tell me what the abbreviation WMM means and more about it? 

Well, it means “ waive the method of manufacturing” and it came about years ago because most of the standards in the USA were written for sand castings and new methods of manufacturing like centrifugal casting and continuous casting were proving themselves as better and more economical methods of manufacturing.  I mean way back in time like prior to WWII there were specs like the US Navy’s spec 46B23e which today is C83600 or Federal Spec. QQ B 691b which was also C83600.  Most drawings back then had these specs as the required material and there were companies that wanted to substitute the better made product that were not sand casted.  To communicate to the customer that the material met their specs like QQ B 691b but was not sand casted but was continuous cast the term waive the method of manufacturing became popular.  It meant that we met the chemical and mechanical requirements of the sand casting but instead of pouring the metal in a sand mold it was centrifugally or continuous cast.  Today the term is becoming popular again because of the alloy C63000 to the standard AMS 4640 which is an extruded product.  For years the only way to buy AMS 4640 bar stock form inventory was solid bar not tubing and since many of the applications for AMS4640 (C63000) were for bushings there was a lot of wasted material boring the solid bar into bushings. 

One of the leading continuous cast manufactures spent a lot of time and effort showing Boeing that continuous casting and centrifugally casting aluminum bronze was a major cost savings in the manufacture of the bushing in their landing gear and still provided the mechanical properties necessary for a very critical application.  They developed the alloy C95510 as a substitute for C63000 (AMS 4640) Boeing has approved it for many applications, and it is now becoming an industry standard as ASTM B 271 C95510, or ASTM B 505 C95510, or AMS 4880.  So the next time you see the terms AMS 4640WMM know that the person is probably offering a cast product not an extruded bar.

Courtesy a converstion with Tom Smith

 

Who knew you could go to jail!

Hi All!  OK...so it's been some time since I last blogged!  Alot has happened...packed, moved, unpacked and unmoved.  I'm back in Jersey and back in the main office.  Anyhooo...came across this article, courtesy of the Trentonian.  Thought I'd share, especially since most people don't know how serious the "metal's business" can be :)

 

PHILADELPHIA -- A Bristol Township alloys company and its president, James Bullick, were charged in federal court today with selling the U.S. Navy metals too weak to use building submarines.

Bullick and his Bristol Alloys Inc. were charged with one count of major fraud against the U.S. for allegedly selling a subcontractor metals unsuited for use in America’s Virginia class of naval submarines.

U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger said Bristol Alloys failed to heat treat the metals and then supplied the main contractor with counterfeit certifications that the metal was strong enough to use building subs.

If convicted, Bullick faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $5 million. Bullick’s company also could be fined another $5 million.

BLANK!

BLANK!   It is the age old problem.  Well maybe not for everyone.  But certainly for machinists.  Typically,  a machine shop does not know about the availability of a "blank" and will wind up buying a more expensive piece of bar stock instead. 

So, here is the scenario....Machine Shop X gets a print from their customer to make a short run of a part that is made from Sintered Bronze. Usually Machine Shop X will just go out and buy a piece of Sintered Bronze bar stock to make the part.  This is fine, except now you will spend a great deal of money for the part and a whole lot of time in machining.   BLANK!  Here is where the novel idea comes in!  A "blank" already has an ID and an OD and is found in a number of "standard" sizes.  So you choose which blank size is closest to your finished dimensions and then machine. You can add a flange, increase your ID, turn down your OD, groove holes and much more.  You'll still have to do some machining but it will definitely be a lot less work then the bar stock and Machine Shop X will have saved $$.  Cha-Ching!

Til next time..

Good News or....Bad?

Hi All!  I just read this article on Metal Center News and I thought it was very thought provoking.  We shall see what happens in the coming months!

Copper, Brass Shipments Climbing

Copper and brass shipments continued to rally in March. Total shipments were up about 13.6 percent from February 2010 and 14.3 percent over March 2009, according to the Copper and Brass Servicenter Association, Overland Park, Kansas. This trend is in line with what the manufacturing and metals markets are experiencing overall, CBSA reports.

Total copper shipments rose slightly to just under 10 million pounds. Alloy shipments also rose sharply during the month, from just over 12 million to more than 14 million pounds.
Inventory levels also continued to rise. More than half of reporting service centers indicated their inventories were on the rise during the month, while only about 10 percent reported declining inventory levels during March.

An unexpected change in March was the number of companies reporting they still had employees on short-time or lay off. The number increased from 26 percent in February to 31 percent in March for service centers, and from 17 percent to 50 percent for suppliers. Association officials say this is a number they will continue watch closely in the coming months to determine if it’s an anomaly or indicative of something else.