Coppers and copper alloys designations, standards, compositions

The material designations and standards that relate to the manufacture and production of coppers and copper alloys within the UK and Europe are designed, maintained and published by a number of bodies: British Standards Institute (BSI), European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). BSI is a member of CEN, and European Standards developed by CEN are published by BSI in the UK as BS EN.

BS EN for coppers and copper alloys have been developed to meet the needs of industry and they cover the most commonly available alloys within Europe. There are around 200 coppers and copper alloys within these standards and information on individual materials can be found in this section of the website.

See Understanding the Copper Alloy BS EN Material Designation

The other standards commonly utilised in the UK are the Aerospace series, published by BSI, (BS B) and the Ministry of Defence Naval standards (Def Stan). The materials specified in these standards have more exacting requirements and have been developed for applications where strength and corrosion requirements can be more critical than those of the BS EN materials.

The tables in this section show the most commonly available BS EN coppers and copper alloys, their compositions, typical properties and uses, and applicable standards. It also provides details of the BS B and Def Stan and the copper-based materials approved for contact with drinking water.

For complete information on any material, the appropriate standard should be consulted.

Information Tables Index

	Table Title
Updated Mar 2019	BS EN and BS standards comparison for copper and copper alloys
Updated Mar 2019	Test methods for copper and copper alloys
Updated Mar 2019	Wrought and unwrought coppers—BS EN material designations and old BS equivalents
Updated Mar 2019	Wrought copper alloys—BS EN material designations and old BS equivalents
Updated Mar 2019	Copper and copper alloy ingots and castings—BS EN 1982 and comparison with BS1400
New Mar 2019	Copper and copper alloys in contact with drinking water
New Mar 2019	British Standards aerospace series
New Mar 2019	Def Stan—Defence Standards
Table No.	BS EN Coppers and Copper Alloys
Table 6a	Unwrought and wrought coppers—compositions, uses, properties
Table 6b	Unwrought and wrought coppers—relevant standards
Table 7	BS EN 1982 copper and copper alloy ingots and castings
Table 8	Wrought low-alloyed copper alloys—compositions, uses, properties
Table 9	Wrought copper-aluminium, copper-nickel and copper-nickel-zinc alloys
Table 10	Wrought copper-zinc and copper-tin binary alloys
Table 11	Wrought copper-zinc-lead alloys (leaded brasses)
Table 12a	Wrought, complex, copper-zinc alloys (special brasses)
Table 12b	Wrought, complex, copper-zinc alloys (special brasses)—relevant standards
Table 13	Copper and copper alloys for welding and braze welding (BS EN 13347)
	Brass Semi-finished Products
Table 14	Brass rods and sections—compositions, uses and typical properties
Table 15	Brass forgings, stampings and hot pressings—compositions, uses, properties
Table 16	Brass sheet, strip and plate—compositions, uses, properties
Table 17	Brass tubes—compositions, uses, properties
Table 18	Brass wire—compositions, uses, properties

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