Customer project: Machining of lead-free brass

Customer request:

Production of turned parts made of low-lead and lead-free brass

In many areas of daily life, lead is almost completely disappeared. The demand for lead-free products is growing steadily as a result the legal requirements have been further tightened in recent years. However, especially in the milling industry, the demand for lead-free products is a major challenge. Due to the strong reduction or even the absence of lead, the machinability of the materials is decisively impaired. The lead in the copper alloys is responsible as a chip breaker and lubricant for good processability.

We have together with our customers milled various lead-free alloys in one project and the machining results with regard to chip form, surface quality and thread pitch are gradually improved. In particular the broaching of lead-free brass presented a challenge. We were able to achieve approximately industrial standard tooling times as well as unit numbers and, at the same time, optimal product quality, due to the fact of internal development of our tool geometries and the adaptation of the processes on our production machines.

Result:

Production of high-quality turned parts made of lead-free brass