Here you can find some interesting facts about copper which you might not be currently familiar with.
Copper is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Cu ( L. : Cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with excellent electrical conductivity , and finds extensive use as an electrical conductor, as a building material, and as a component of various alloys. |
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Above: Copper mine and collection of new copper
Below: Scrap copper wires for scrap smelting
Below: No.1 copper compressed and shipped to smelting facilities to create new copper cables. 
Copper Scrap Smelting
Raw material of copper scrap with copper content usually higher than 65%, such as copper wires, alloys, tubes and different brass items is used. Typical impurities like zinc, lead, tin and nickel are easily handled with new processes.
Sorted scrap is processed in smelting furnaces. Standard solution includes TROF converter, tilting furnace and Outokumpu anode casting system. Off-gas from the smelting furnace is led through an effective bag house, where zinc, lead and tin are caught. Thus emissions are minimal.
Products from the smelting process are anodes, which are further purified in electrolytic refinery. Refining process utilizes modern and patented technology. |
Copper Applications
Copper is malleable and ductile, and is used in products such as:
- Copper wire .
- Copper plumbing .
- Doorknobs and other fixtures in houses.
- Statuary : The Statue of Liberty , for example, contains 179,200 pounds (81.3 tonnes ) of copper.
- Roofing , guttering, and rainspouts on buildings.
- Electromagnets .
- Electrical machines , especially electromagnetic motors and generators.
- Watt 's steam engine .
- Electrical relays , electrical busbars and electrical switches .
- Roof gutters and drainage
- Vacuum tubes , cathode ray tubes , and the magnetrons in microwave ovens .
- Wave guides for microwave radiation.
- There is increasing use of copper in integrated circuits , replacing aluminium because of its superior conductivity.
- Alloyed with nickel , e.g. cupronickel and Monel , used as corrosive resistant materials in shipbuilding .
- As a component of coins , often as cupronickel alloy.
- In cookware , such as frying pans .
- Most flatware ( knives , forks , spoons ) contains some copper ( nickel silver ).
- Sterling silver , if it is to be used in dinnerware, must contain a few percent copper.
- As a component in ceramic glazes , and to color glass .
- Musical instruments , especially brass instruments .
- As a biostatic surface in hospitals, and to line parts of ships to protect against barnacles and mussels , originally used pure, but superseded by Muntz Metal . Bacteria will not grow on a copper surface because it is biostatic. Copper doorknobs are used by hospitals to reduce the transfer of disease, and Legionnaire's Disease is suppressed by copper tubing in air-conditioning systems.
- Compounds, such as Fehling's solution , have applications in chemistry.
- Copper(II) sulfate is used as a poison and a water purifier. It is used in gardening powders and sprays to kill mildew .
- As a material in the manufacture of computer heatsinks , as a result of its superior heat dissipation capacity to aluminium .
- Copper was sometimes used by the Inuit to make the cutting blade for ulu 's. alloys .
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