Fabrication and properties of seamless Phosphorized Arsenical Copper Tubing

COPPER containing a small amount of arsenic has been used extensively abroad, and a number of reports, particularly those by English workers, have indicated that such copper is better suited for certain uses than high-conductivity copper. Inasmuch as a large percentage of the copper fabricated is used for nonelectrical purposes where high conductivity is not at all essential, it has been suggested that arsenical copper might be at least as suitable as high-conductivity copper for many purposes. An investigation spon-sored by the Calumet & Hecla Consolidated Copper Co. at Battelle Memorial Institute was therefore undertaken with the object of determin-ing the effect of small amounts of arsenic (up to 0.75 per cent) on the properties of copper. In this work the effect of arsenic on the basic properties of tough-pitch and of phosphorized copper have been critically studied and many data collected from laboratory experiments which have been supplemented by mill-scale tests. The results of these tests, with coppers of the type referred to, in the annealed condition and after various degrees of reduction, show that the basic properties of copper are not greatly affected by small amounts of arsenic, an increase in strength being observed with increasing arsenic with no corresponding decrease in ductility. It is well known that the evaluation of material for plastic deforma-tion, on the basis of laboratory tests, may not be directly comparable with its performance in commercial operations. In order, therefore, to substantiate the data obtained at the Institute, the cooperation of the Wolverine Tube Co. was obtained for a series of production tests on the fabrication characteristics of phosphorized arsenical copper in the manu-facture of seamless copper tubing. In these tests the behavior of the arsenical coppers was carefully observed in comparison with that of representative types of phosphorized arsenic-free copper, which were fabricated under the same conditions.