Simplifying Bronze Foundry Grades - for New Foundry Professionals
- Cupro
- Mar 3, 2024
- 2 min read
The Purpose of this Blog : For a new entrant into the Bronze and Brass foundry, things might seem a little overwhelming at first. Since we've had this problem multiple times while training new members to our team, we've developed this simple formula to ensure new hires are up to speed quickly. When we look at the majority of the Bronze and Brass foundry Industry, it's clear that Brass is more of an independent industry by itself. It does happen that certain Bronze foundries pour Brass too, but they are a minority, and so for the sake of simplicity, we'll categorize Brass as an independent class all together.
What are the 8 Classes and why have they been split up?
We've split up all our grades into 8 clear cut classes as each alloy has an element that is an impurity for the other.
For Eg : Gunmetal is usually an alloy of Copper, Tin, Lead and Zinc. However Phosphor Bronze has Tin and Copper but doesn't allow Lead and Zinc.
Lead Bronze on the other hand allows Lead and Tin but not Zinc.
Hence these would be 3 individual classes in our books.
Now that we've got our basics out of the way, things will be easier to memorize.
8 Classes for the New Bronze Foundry Professional :
1. Gun Metal
2. Phosphor Bronze
3. Lead Bronze
4. Aluminum Bronze
5. Manganese Bronze
6. Brass (Whole Industry by itself)
7. Bismuth Bronze
8. Silicon Bronze

Above is a pictorial representation of what we mean.
If you notice, each of these above Classes have some element that isn't allowed in the other, hence it's own Class was created. Of course there are exceptions to the rule here with new Grades having some desired and allowed elements too, but for the sake of simplicity, we want to make it as easy as possible to grasp for a new entrant. This has served us well and really sets the right foundation to begin with, hope you guys find it useful!
We've also attached a downloadable and printable copy below for your convenience below.
Written By
Cupro Recycling Pvt Ltd
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