Italian
EnglishCOPPER - HISTORICAL NOTES
Historical notes. The copper is the type of metal that mankind has been using for a long time, it is believed, mainly for its malleability and ductility qualities: copper objects have been found that date back to around 10,000 years ago. The Italian name comes from the Latin definition “aramen”, as the evolution of the word “aes” which has the meaning of “copper” or “bronze” (between the two materials, in Roman times, no distinction was made). Only later the substitution with the word “cuprum” took place, from which the symbol of the chemical element comes (CU). Bronze is an alloy composed of copper and another metal, which may be aluminium, beryllium, nickel and tin, although often with the word bronze a copper-tin alloy is meant.
The use of bronze is so widespread in the history of mankind that the name is ascribed to an evolutionary step of civilization (the Bronze Age). The copper is almost always found in the form of ore and more rarely in the form of nuggets, in its native state. The main copper mines are along the Cordillera of the Andes and in the Rocky Mountains: among the main mining Countries there are Peru, Chile, the United States of America, Australia and Indonesia. Other large and important mines are in Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, in the former USSR Countries, in Finland and in Poland. Some of the largest mining areas are opencast.
COPPER - THE USES AND OUR WORKING
Uses and our working. Thanks to its characteristics, copper is widespread in the sectors of plant engineering and hydro-thermo-sanitary, in taps and fittings, in the nautical sector, in electrical engineering and electronics, in architecture and in tinsmithing, in coinage, in gift and fancy goods sector and in crafts in general, in the transport sector, in the building sector and in many other sectors. Copper, in its pure state and transformed into wires, finds its greatest application in the production in the use of electricity, as well as in the production of printed circuits and electronics. In the architectural and building sectors, copper is used to make coverings, roofs, eaves, downpipes, flashings and other elements of tinsmithing.
Copper pipes are used to make drinking water pipelines, medical gases, combustible gases, water for heating and cooling fluids for air conditioning. All this because copper is impermeable to gases and liquids, it is easily flexible, mouldable and foldable, it is corrosion-resistant and does not suffer degradation in the event of exposure to solar radiation. Thanks to its excellent thermal conductivity it is one of the most suitable materials for heat transfer: this is why it is used in solar panels, in heat exchangers and in the wall and floor radiant panels.
The formats usually worked by our company are 2000 × 1000 mm sheets, with thicknesses in the 1-1,5-2-2,5-3-4-5 mm sizes, as well as a wide range of rectangular drawn bars maximum length of 4500 mm, with thicknesses of 3.5 and 10 mm and widths ranging from 15 to 120 mm.
