Friday, April 5, 2013

Copper Nickel In History

By Helen Clark


Copper nickel is a steel alloy composed of copper, nickel, iron and manganese. Also known as cupronickel, copper nickel is extremely resistant to corrosion brought about by seawater because its electrode potential changes to neutral. This makes it a suitable material for piping, heat exchangers and condensers as well as for the structure, hulls and propellers of massive ships and boats. Copper nickel also finds another prevalent application in silver, contemporary coins which are presently in circulation. Regardless of its high copper content, copper nickel items are silver in color.

Copper nickel is known by a variety of trade names and common names, that are typically created bsaed on its appearance. For instance, it is called Alpaca, Argentan Minargent, and Cuivre blanc in French, plata alemana in German, and simply hotel silver. In history, it is known to Romans as an artificial type of white gold called claudianum and molybdochalcum. The ancient Greeks meanwhile called it as orichalcum.

The use of copper nickel for a variety of piping system and pipe couplings draws on the historical tradition of using cupronickel for its rust-resilient properties. The Chinese have used copper nickel for battle weapons during the Warring States Period. The Greeks, meanwhile, are the first to use it in coinage. Greco-Bactrian kings were the first to use copper nickel coins during in 180 BCE. The Chinese are also known to have used cupronickel for coinage in the form of paktong.

The West has rediscovered the uses of the alloy through chemical experiments during the Renaissance. The experimentations had proven to be pretty challenging for Europeans since the process of duplicating the popular Chinese paktong was not manageable due to lack of requisite metals and pigments. Eventually though, in the 1900s, foundries in Europe were able to refine the method.

Marine engineering types of copper nickel were produced during the 1920s. The alloy have been utilized for naval condensers at the time. Shortly after, manganese and iron are added to the formula since these elements prepared the alloy, making it resistant to sand and seawater oxidization. Since then fifties, the alloy has become broadly available for maritime construction application.




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