Wieland SUPRALLOY Bronze
Wieland SUPRALLOY Bronze The Wieland Group The Wieland Group, headquartered in the southern German city of Ulm, is one of the world s leading manufacturers of semi-finished and special products in copper and copper alloys: strip, sheet, tube, rod, wire and sections as well as slide bearings, finned tubes and heat exchangers. Wieland s output reaches about 500,000 tonnes a year in copper alloy products. The starting point of the production process is Europe s biggest foundry for copper alloys at Wieland s Vöhringen/Iller location. The Wieland Group has more than 6,000 employees in its manufacturing companies, slitting centres and trading firms in several European countries as well as the USA, South Africa, Singapore and China. Wieland produces strip in all major economic regions of the world: in Germany in the three rolling mills in Vöhringen, Velbert-Langenberg and Villingen-Schwenningen. Further manufacturing companies are based in Great Britain, Singapore and the USA. A global network of slitting centres ensures swift and flexible product deliveries worldwide. SUPRALLOY Bronze Wieland helps the manufacturers of connectors and electromechanical components by optimising conventional copper alloys. Thus where conductivity demands can be reduced, expensive high-performance alloys can be avoided. A current example of this is Wieland s new development, SUPRALLOY bronze. A special thermo-mechanical treatment generates an extremely fine-grained microstructure. The main advantages of the new SUPRALLOY bronzes Wieland B14, Wieland B16 and Wieland B18 are substantially higher mechanical strength in combination with very good bending properties. These bronzes are outstandingly suitable for miniaturised connectors in electronic applications. The fine microstructure means that formed contact areas (e.g. in spoon contacts) are significantly smoother, which is advantageous for subsequent electroplating with precious metals. Another advantage of SUPRALLOY is that it contains no critical substances and is therefore an interesting alternative to copper beryllium. 2
Properties Using the same bending radius Wieland SUPRALLOY gives a much higher strength than standard bronze: The yield strength R p0.2 is by 100 to 150 MPa higher for Wieland B18 SUPRALLOY, at the same time giving much smoother bending edges. Wieland DIN EN ASTM JIS Electrical Conductivity* SUPRALLOY Bronze Designation Number Designation Number UNS-No. JIS-No. B14 CuSn4 2.1016 CuSn4 CW450K C51100 C5111 13.0 B16 CuSn6 2.1020 CuSn6 CW452K C51900 C5191 10.0 B18 CuSn8 2.1030 CuSn8 CW453K C52100 C5212 7.5 *Reference values in MS/m Microstructure of Wieland B18 SUPRALLOY Measurement of the yield strength R p0.2 3
Bending edges of Wieland B18 und Wieland B18 SUPRALLOY The differences in formability between standard bronze and Wieland SUPRALLOY are particularly pronounced in very sharp bends and at very high mechanical strength. Wieland B18 Standard, R p0.2 = 650 MPa Strip thickness 0.15 mm, 180 bend with bending radius 0.2 mm, bad way bend Wieland B18 SUPRALLOY, R p0.2 = 685 MPa Strip thickness 0.15 mm, 180 bend with bending radius 0.2 mm, bad way bend Applications Typical applications are miniaturised connectors with heavily formed contact areas, e.g. gold plated SIM- and battery contacts in mobile phones. Electrical contacts in mobile phones 4
The production Semi-continuously cast slabs are heated in a gas-fired furnace to the optimum temperature for hot rolling. The reversing hot rolling process reduces the thickness to 10-15 mm and increases the length of the slabs to about 100 m. The casting skin and the oxides from hot rolling are removed by milling. Several subsequent processing steps of cold rolling followed by annealing ensure that the strip is reduced to the required final thickness and that it has the properties specified by the customer. After the respective quality control the strip is slit to the required width and packaged in the specified delivery format. A look inside the rolling mill in Vöhringen with hot rolling on the right and milling on the left Cast slabs prior to hot rolling A coil during dimensional inspection 5
Wieland-Werke AG www.wieland.com Rolled Products Division Graf-Arco-Str. 36, 89079 Ulm, Germany, Phone +49 (0)731 944-0, Fax +49 (0)731 944-2772, info@wieland.de Ziegeleiweg 20, 42555 Velbert-Langenberg, Germany, Phone +49 (0)731 944-0, Fax +49 (0)731 944-9270, info@wieland.de Lantwattenstr. 11, 78050 Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, Phone +49 (0)731 944-0, Fax +49 (0)731 944-7108, info@wieland.de This brochure is for your general information only and is not subject to revision. No claims can be derived from it unless there is evidence of intent or gross negligence. The data given are no warranty that the product is of a specified quality and they cannot replace expert advice or the customer s own tests. 0541-02 082/08.08 Sz 1 ODH (GWW/En)