Abstract
Today, commercially used brasses commonly contain 2 to 4 wt% lead. As the availability of low-lead and lead-free brass increases, there are environmental incentives for investigating the consequences of replacing the lead-containing brasses with lead-free equivalents. Generally, lead-free brass is expected to have a lower machinability than its lead-alloyed counterpart, implying a higher manufacturing cost. Thus, the aim of this study has been to quantify the added manufacturing cost by replacing a standard brass alloy with a low-lead alternative. This was done through a case study performed at a Swedish SME which replaced CuZn39Pb3 (3.3 wt% Pb) with low-lead CuZn21Si3P (< 0.09 wt% lead) for a select part. Since CuZn21Si3P is almost twice as expensive as CuZn39Pb3, the material cost was found to have a substantial influence on the manufacturing cost. Additionally, the lower machinability implied a longer cycle time and higher losses while machining CuZn21Si3P, resulting in a 77% overall increase in manufacturing cost when using the low-lead material. Arguably, the difference in material cost, and thus manufacturing cost, may decrease over time making production of low-lead and lead-free brass products a viable option, especially when considering the environmental incentive for decreasing the amount of lead in circulation.
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Acknowledgements
The current research is a part of the “Lead-Free Brass” research project funded by Mistra Innovation, The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, and the “Lead-Free Copper Alloys in Products and Components” research project, part of the Swedish Strategic Innovation Area SIO: Produktion2030 funded by Vinnova. The research is also a part of the Sustainable Production Initiative, SPI, cooperation between Lund University and Chalmers. The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable contributions made by AB Markaryds Metallarmatur.
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Schultheiss, F., Windmark, C., Sjöstrand, S. et al. Machinability and manufacturing cost in low-lead brass. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 99, 2101–2110 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-018-1866-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-018-1866-4