Brass bars are solid, straight uniform preforms, billets and blanks that are common supplies in metalworking facilities. They undergo a variety of processes, including deep drawing and extrusion to form various brass products for the industrial and consumer sectors. Brass is a popular copper alloy that is mixed with zinc, or tin.
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Brass is stronger than copper and has a gold-like yellow color, but retains many of copper's properties like malleability, electrical and thermal conductivity and chemical and corrosion resistance. It has an attractive color and shine, and is often used for its aesthetic appeal for products like faucets, architectural accents, fixtures, lighting, towel racks for the kitchen or bathroom and musical instruments. Brass bars are also used to fabricate products for the electrical, engineering, aerospace, automotive, heating, weapons and plumbing industries. The bars are formed into solid profile pieces with smooth surfaces that can be round, square, flat or hexagonal. Most bars are thicker because both extrusion and drawing require a wider surface area to work with so that the metal does not crack while under pressure. Other brass products made from preformed bars include zippers, railings, propellers, tubing and industrial machinery components.
There are a couple different fabrication processes that use brass bars as preforms. Extrusion involves forcing the bar through successively smaller and smaller molds until the desired shape and size is accomplished. They are also deep drawn, a process that takes a brass preform of thicker diameter and stretches it around a plug. It is then transferred into a die and cut into a certain shape. It is considered a compression-tension technique and brass is a common metal to draw because of its malleability, which allows for greater design freedom. Thicker bars are used for the deep drawing process because brass with a longer diameter is able to retain higher volume and is capable of stretching far without fracturing or cracking. The finished, drawn brass product is approximately 30 to 50% the diameter of the blank, which creates a large amount of excess waste brass. The extra material, though, is recycled to make new brass bars. To resist tarnishing, protect the finish and maintain its appearance, brass is often coated with a clear lacquer, giving it a high shine. Most decorative perforated brass products are only polished on the side that will be visible. Antique finishes are also available for a higher cost.
