Also known as red brass, commercial bronze, gilding metal. C21000 combines a rich golden colour with the best combination of strength, ductility and corrosion resistance of the plain copper-zinc alloys. It weathers to a rich bronze colour, and can be supplied in pre-patinated colours ranging from deep brown to green. It has a lower rate of work hardening than the copper-zinc alloys with higher zinc content, such as 260 and 272. This is an advantage in multistage pressing applications without interstage annealing. It has excellent deep drawing characteristics and resistance to pitting corrosion and stress corrosion cracking when exposed to severe weather and water environments.

Typical applications include: Architectural fascias, grillwork, jewellery, ornamental trim, vitreous enamel base, badges, door handles, escutcheons, marine hardware, munitions, primer caps, rotating bands, metallic bellows, pen, pencil and lipstick tubes etc. Available forms of gilding metal: Austral Wright Metals can supply this alloy as sheet, strip and round bar.

Corrosion Resistance of Gilding Metal Copper Alloy
As an alpha brass with low zinc content, C22000 has excellent corrosion in most media. It is less susceptible to stress corrosion cracking than the higher zinc brasses such as 70/30 brass C26000, and is not considered susceptible in marine atmospheres. However, it should not be used in contact with aqueous ammonia and amines. C22000 should not be used with acetic acid, acetylene, brines, calcium chloride, moist chlorine, chromic acid, hydrochloric acid, mercury or its compounds, nitric acid and sodium hypochlorite.