Copper Powder
Copper powder for powder metallurgy, diamond tool segments and alloying additions.
Copper is the workhorse of powder metallurgy. It presses and sinters readily, it alloys with iron to raise strength, and in diamond tool segments it forms part of the bond matrix that holds the diamond in place and wears at a controlled rate.
It is also used as an alloying addition in weathering steels and in some welding consumables.
Forms & grades supplied
- Powder
- Screened to your agreed size range
- PM and diamond tool grades
Industries served
Ask us for
- Chemical specification and test certificate
- Particle size / mesh range
- Packing options and lead time
- A sample for trial
Standard grades
The grades below are the standard specifications this material is traded to. We supply against your specification — tell us the grade and we will confirm what we can hold.
| Grade | Cu purity | Apparent density (g/cc) | Particle size | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrolytic | 99.7% | 0.6–1.8 | 20–400 mesh (mean 45 µm) | Diamond tools, sintered parts, carbon brushes, electrical contacts, welding rods |
| Atomised | 99.7% | 2.6–4.2 | 40–325 mesh | Pressed and sintered parts, friction materials |
| High purity | 99.9% | — | — | Where a low-lead unit is needed; available below 100–200 ppm Pb |
| Tamping | 99.7% | 2.2–2.6 | −40 mesh, −100 fraction 15% max | Tamping and free-flowing applications |
| Ultrafine | 99.5% | 1.5–1.8 | D50 9–10 µm | Catalysts, conductive pastes, fine sintered work |
| Flake | 99.6% | 0.8–1.3 | Mean 16 µm | Pigments, conductive and decorative coatings |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
Dendritic electrolytic powder green-strengths well and is the usual grade for pressed and sintered parts. Atomised powder is more spherical and flows better. The flake and ultrafine grades are different products with different handling requirements — tell us the application and we will point you at the right one.
Please note. These are indicative industry-standard ranges shown for guidance. Where a grade name encodes a nominal sieve or density, that is what the designation means in the trade — the size range actually supplied, and the packing, are set to your requirement and confirmed on your order. The binding specification for any order is the one on your purchase order and the test certificate supplied with the consignment — see how we test and certify a lot. Ask us for a datasheet for the exact grade you need.
Mesh and micron
Size is specified separately from chemistry, and it is usually the figure that decides whether a powder works in your process. We grind and screen to the range on your order — tell us the mesh you need.
What a mesh number means
Mesh counts the openings per linear inch of the test sieve, so a higher number is a finer powder. “−100 mesh” means the material passes a 100 mesh sieve — nominally 150 micron. These apertures are the published ASTM E11 / ISO 3310-1 standard.
- 20 mesh
- 850 µm
- 30 mesh
- 600 µm
- 40 mesh
- 425 µm
- 50 mesh
- 300 µm
- 60 mesh
- 250 µm
- 80 mesh
- 180 µm
- 100 mesh
- 150 µm
- 120 mesh
- 125 µm
- 140 mesh
- 106 µm
- 170 mesh
- 90 µm
- 200 mesh
- 75 µm
- 230 mesh
- 63 µm
- 270 mesh
- 53 µm
- 325 mesh
- 45 µm
- 400 mesh
- 38 µm
Where each band is used
General guidance on the ranges these industries work in, useful if you are specifying a powder for the first time. It describes the trade, not our production.
| Application | Typical band | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Welding electrode coatings and flux | 20 – 100 mesh | Coarser powders, blended into the coating slurry. |
| Powder metallurgy — pressing and sintering | 60 – 200 mesh | Iron and copper powders for pressed parts; apparent density matters as much as size. |
| Thermal spray and hardfacing | 100 – 325 mesh | Tighter distributions, since feed behaviour depends on it. |
| Metal injection moulding and additive | 170 – 400 mesh | The finest bands, with close control of the distribution at both ends. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
Our standard range for Copper Powder: to be confirmed — ask us and we will confirm what we hold and what we can grind to.
A note on the figures above. The sieve apertures are an exact published standard. The application bands are general industry guidance and are not a statement of what we supply — our own standard range is the line marked above, and it is confirmed against your order rather than read off a chart. Ask us for the size range you need.
Where Copper Powder is used
- Powder metallurgy components and bearings
- Diamond tool and grinding segment bonds
- Friction materials
- Alloying additions
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