Thread: 110 copper vs 145 copper

Customer is open to either. 145 machines better, but does it conduct electricity about the same as 110?

Can't really answer that but they both contain 99.9 percent copper, 145 is also known as trillium copper, not sure what else they're adding to the mix. Just did some 145 and it machined awesome. 145 is about 3-4 times the cost though

Dave

Originally Posted by david n

Customer is open to either. 145 machines better, but does it conduct electricity about the same as 110?

Mcmaster has two pages on compairing different copper alloys
Link:
McMaster-Carr

They seem very close

Jason,

Oxygen is the constituent making a big difference in minute quantities. I have a scienfific paper somewhere , about the conductivity of copper. It can be downloaded from a web source, ill report back some time this evening and post the link.

Essentially oxygen is a scavenger for other impurities and minute quantities will improve conductivity while the overall chemical analysis is virtually identical....

Originally Posted by david n

145 machines better, but does it conduct electricity about the same as 110?

NO!
120 & 140 copper alloys have trace amounts of phosphorus. The resistance is very small, but it is higher.

110 is what they make buss bar from
145 is what they use for switch knives.
JR

I've always known tellurium copper to be cheaper than c110, assuming that is what you are talking about. I think it's c140 or c145.

I made a bunch of little parts of copper a while back. At first I used c110 and it worked ok. I switched to c140 or c145 and it was cheaper and machined much better. It's almost harder, less "smeary."

For your question though, coppers electrical conductivity is rated as a percentage of a standard pure bar of copper. I believe it's called IACS, annealed copper standard or something...


http://www.metalsuppliersonline.com/...1&Mechanical=1

That page shows c145 as 90-96% IACS. I believe 110 is 101%, but might be mistaken.