Brass, an essential industrial material, is widely used in sanitary ware and faucet. With the support from the Technology Development Programs of DoIT, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC) continues its research and development of the technology for the material “forgeable lead-free dezincified resistant brass”, which links up with the world. It once again acquires the grade of UNS/CDA C85690, with its material quality obtaining international certification. This helps Taiwan’s plumbing industry to secure its place in the international market supply chain. It doesn’t only effectively improve production efficiency and reduce manufacturing cost, but also brings the rapid growth of the quality and value for the entire industry chain steadily, which expands the new blue ocean of plumbing market.
Forgeable lead-free dezincification resistant brass uses non-toxic substance to replace lead content in leaded brass to achieve the features of forging and resistance against dezincification corrosion which meets industrial requirements as well as protects ecological environment. Now the forgeable lead-free dezincification resistant brass of MIRDC acquires an international UNC grade, in addition to introduction of lead-free dezincification resistant brass into casting process for plumbing products, through the enhancement of forging performance and yield rate of material, breadth of design by plumbing product industries is thus increased. Products are upgraded from cast parts to forged parts of high level to promote the added value of products. MIRDC has already accomplished technology transferring to copper bar manufacturers to set up their production lines for mass production of material, which satisfies material demand from domestic industry and improves the technical capability of the entire industry.
As indicated by Dr. Chun-Chieh Wang, Vice President of MIRDC lead-free brass is an eco-friendly new material in the main stream of current plumbing industry. To achieve easier machining for brass in the process for general machined parts, small amount of lead will be added to improve its free-cutting property. However, if leaded brass is used in industrial products for waterborne system, for example, components for drink water system such as faucet, in case that contained lead is dissolved in water and enters human body, it will harm the central nervous system and induce Alzheimer’s disease, this is one of the reasons that North America and EU have already limited and prohibited the usage of leaded brass in succession. Therefore, MIRDC cooperates with Chung Cheng Faucet Co. as well as the team of Professor Tseng I-Feng from National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology for co-development through industry-academia collaboration. Forgeable lead-free dezincification resistant brass of UNS C85690 meets various regulation and directives (NSF61.9, NSF372, S3874, ELV, RoHS). It is expected in the future to enlarge its application in the product fields such as electrical engineering, information communication, opto-electronics industry which are export-oriented mass production.