Light industrial products are closely related to people's life, with a wide variety. Because steel has good comprehensive properties, it can be seen everywhere. Here are just a few examples:
Air conditioner and refrigerator
The temperature control function of the air conditioner and the refrigerator is mainly realized by the evaporation and condensation of the copper tube of the heat exchanger. The size and heat transfer performance of heat exchange heat transfer tube determine the efficiency and miniaturization of the whole air conditioner and refrigeration device to a great extent. In these machines, the special-shaped copper tubes with high thermal conductivity are used. With the good processing performance of steel, the heat pipe with inner groove and high fin has been developed and produced recently, which is used to manufacture heat exchanger in air conditioner, refrigerator, chemical industry and waste heat collector. The total heat transfer coefficient of the new heat exchanger can be increased to 2-3 times of that of the common pipe and 1.2-1.3 times of that of the common low fin pipe. It has been used in China and can save 40% of copper, The volume of heat exchanger is reduced by more than 1 / 3.
Clock
At present, most working parts of clocks, timers and devices with clock mechanism are made of "clock brass". The alloy contains 1.5-2% lead, which has good processability and is suitable for large-scale production. For example, gears are cut out by long extruded brass bars, flat wheels are punched out by strips of corresponding thickness, and clock surfaces, screws and joints are made of brass or other copper alloys. A large number of cheap watches are made of gun copper (tin zinc bronze) or plated with nickel silver (white copper). Some famous bells are made of steel and copper alloy. The clocks of Big Ben in England use solid gun copper rods, and the minute hands use 14 foot long copper tubes.
A modern clock factory, with copper alloy as the main material, can produce 10000 to 30000 clocks a day with press and precise mould processing, with very low cost.
Paper making
In the current information changing society, paper consumption is very large. The surface of paper seems simple, but the paper-making process is very complex. It needs many steps and uses many machines, including coolers, evaporators, beaters, paper machines and so on. Many of the components, such as various heat exchange tubes, rollers, strike rods, semi liquid pumps and wire mesh, are mostly made of steel alloy.
For example, in the current long web papermaking machine, it is necessary to spray the prepared pulp on the fast-moving mesh with small mesh (40-60 mesh). The mesh is made of brass and phosphor bronze wire. Its width is very large, generally more than 20 feet (6 meters), and it is required to be completely straight. The mesh moves on a series of small brass or copper rollers, and as it carries the pulp sprayed on it, the moisture is sucked out from below. The mesh vibrates at the same time to bond the small fibers in the pulp. The mesh size of the large paper machine is very large, which can reach 26 feet 8 inches (8. L meters) wide and 100 feet (30. 5 meters) long. Wet pulp not only contains water, but also contains chemicals used in the paper-making process, which is highly corrosive. In order to ensure the quality of paper, the mesh material is required to be very strict, not only with high strength and elasticity, but also resistant to pulp corrosion, and copper alloy is fully competent.
* printing
In printing, the use of copper plates for photographic plate making. A polished copper plate is sensitized with a photosensitive emulsion and imaged on it. The sensitive copper plate needs to be heated to harden the adhesive. In order to avoid softening by heat, copper often contains a small amount of silver or arsenic to increase the softening temperature. Then, the plate is etched to form a printing surface with concave and convex dot patterns.
In the automatic typesetting machine, it is another important use of copper in printing to make the pattern by arranging the brass block. The block is usually made of leaded brass, sometimes copper or bronze.
* wine making
Copper plays an important role in beer brewing in the world. Copper is often used as the inner village of malt barrel and fermentation tank. In some famous breweries, there are more than ten such barrels with a capacity of more than 20000 gallons. In the fermentation tank, in order to cool down, the steel pipe is usually cooled by water. In addition, the steel pipe is used for heating when brewing beer, and the steel pipe is used for conveying liquor, etc.
When distilling whisky and other spirits, steel distilling pots are usually used. Whisky ale needs to be distilled twice, using two large copper distilling pots.
* medicine
In the pharmaceutical industry, all kinds of steaming, boiling and vacuum devices are made of pure copper. Zinc and white copper are widely used in medical devices. Copper alloy is also a common material for spectacle frames.