Brassmills produce brass and other metals for various purposes, including decorative materials, jewelry, fasteners, and wind instruments. The production of brass dates back to the Roman Empire, and modern mills use industrial equipment to create different types of brass alloys. Most brass alloys are recycled to reduce the demand for raw copper and zinc supplies.
A brassmill is an industrial plant that produces brass and brass alloys and other metals. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and has been used for thousands of years to make everything from religious artifacts to building materials. It looks like gold, but is generally much cheaper, making brass a popular option for decorative materials and jewelry. It is also strong, yet malleable, and is widely used to make fasteners and wind instruments. These numerous markets for brass have resulted in a high demand for brass instruments around the world.
Brass is often mentioned in early historical texts, but little was known about brass production at that time. It wasn’t until the Roman Empire that craftsmen first used science to make brass. During this time, workers used large, open containers to smelt copper and zinc together in a process known as cementation. In the medieval period, brass makers began adding powdered calamine and charcoal to the zinc and copper mix to produce better quality brass. This calamine brass process remained in use for centuries and was not completely abandoned until the 19th century.
During the 18th century, brasses began smelting zinc ore to create zinc metal before combining it with copper. This technique, which also made use of closed oven spelling, represents the birth of modern brass working. This form of manufacturing resulted in higher quality brass products and began to replace the earlier carburizing processes. Areas rich in natural copper, especially England, became popular locations for new brass-making factories.
In a modern steel mill, workers rely on different types of industrial equipment to produce and refine brass alloys. These companies process the copper and zinc ore in large furnaces to create the metal, then melt them together using special alloying techniques. The finished brass may be subjected to rolling or further refinement to be shaped into sheet, plate, rod or pellet.
A brass mill can produce many different types of brass or focus on simple alloys. Yellow brass is one of the most common blends and contains a mixture of 33% zinc with 67% copper. To produce naval brass, Brass uses an even higher percentage of zinc, with the addition of a small amount of tin. This gives the brass additional protection against corrosion and wear. Manganese brass alloys are often used to make gold coins, while lead brass provides a high degree of machinability for use in manufacturing.
Most of the brass alloys in use today are recycled to help reduce the demand for raw copper and zinc supplies. A mill producing new brass can also recycle old materials to reduce material costs. These mills use a magnet to separate other materials from the non-magnetic brass scrap. They then melt down the brass scrap and turn it into small pellets, which are then sold or reused for other purposes.
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