Brass plates are solid, thin pieces of square or rectangular copper and zinc alloy. They are similar to brass sheets, but are thicker, harder and not able to bend without the application of heat or force. Like all metal plates, brass plates are considered preforms or blanks because they are almost always fabricated into another product.
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Brass has an attractive, shiny yellow finish similar to gold, and because of its aesthetic appearance, is most often used for consumer products and architectural accents. As the most popular alloy of copper, brass typically contains 33% zinc and 67% copper. Bronze is technically brass alloyed with low amounts of zinc and is therefore darker in color. The more zinc brass contains, the lighter the yellow color. It has many beneficial properties, such as malleability and easy formability, ductility and both thermal and electrical conductivity. Gliding, red, cartridge and yellow brass are all formed into plates by copper suppliers for the electrical, heating, architectural, construction, lighting, decorative product manufacturing, furniture and kitchen supply industries. Many hinges, office nameplates, plaques, musical instrument components, decorative screens and exterior building accents are fabricated from brass plate preforms.
Since brass plates are so easily formed, there are many different fabrication processes used to produce different parts and products. These processes include stamping, etching, cutting, brake forming, welding, extruding, drawing, punching, blanking, conjoining, bending, drilling and rolling. They can be either cast, which involves melting the brass and creating a 3 dimensional product inside a mold, or wrought, which mechanically forms the brass preform into a product with the use of heat, force and machining. Depending on the dimensions of the finished product's design, brass plate preforms have different specifications, including temper (hardness or softness of the metal), diameter, color, width and thickness. While they usually have a thickness of at least .25 inches, they may easily be thicker than a quarter inch. The plates themselves are formed by casting, extrusion or drawing, all of which use heat and force to form the plate, which is flat, wide and long compared to other stock forms. Most brass plates are unpolished and not heat treated or coated in clear, tarnish-resisting lacquer until after they have been formed into a finished product.
