White copper plate is a copper alloy with nickel as the main alloying element. Copper-nickel alloy-based white copper rods with the addition of a third element such as zinc, manganese, or aluminum are correspondingly referred to as zinc white copper rods, manganese white copper rods, aluminum white copper rods, etc.
Common white copper plates mainly include four grades: B0.6, B5, B19, and B30, with B19 and B30 being the most commonly used. The American standard includes a wider range of grades. White copper rods form a continuous solid solution of Cu and Ni with a face-centered cubic lattice, as shown in Figure 1-18. When the temperature is below 322°C, the copper-nickel phase diagram exhibits a relatively wide composition-temperature region of metastable decomposition. Adding a third element such as Fe, Cr, Sn, Ti, Co, Si, or Al to the Cu-Ni alloy can alter the range and position of the metastable decomposition region while also improving certain properties of the alloy. Common white copper plates exhibit good cold and hot workability. They can be easily processed into various shapes such as plates, strips, tubes, rods, profiles, and wires. They have good weldability, allowing for soft and hard soldering, gas-shielded arc welding, and resistance welding. Their machinability is 20% that of free-cutting brass HPb63-3. Common white copper plates offer good corrosion resistance, moderate strength, high plasticity, the ability to undergo cold and hot pressure processing, and excellent electrical properties. In addition to being used as structural materials, they are also important high-resistance and thermocouple alloys.
White copper plates are divided into five categories: common white copper plates, iron white copper plates, manganese white copper plates, zinc white copper plates, and aluminum white copper plates