BRASS MILL (BM)

INTRODUCTION
The word BM is the abbreviation of Brass mill and this factory is one of the huge factories from the fourteen factories of Pakistan Ordnance Factories. The purpose of this factory is to manufacture brass alloy of different percentages. The products are supplied to SAA and MAA. In SAA small size ammunition are manufactured and in MAA medium size ammunition are manufactured using different processes. There are different shops in BM; the shops visited by us are A-40, C-01, and C-03.

A-40 SHOP
PRODUCTS
The main products are; Coils Slabs Discs Strips

BRASS ALLOY
It has different percentages, depending upon the requirement and demand. Percentage distributions are; i. ii. iii. 70% copper and 30 % zinc. 60% copper and 40% zinc 90% copper and 10% zinc

GILDING METAL CLAD STEEL (G.M.C.S) ALLOY

It has 90% Copper and 10% Zinc. It is used for production of 7.62mm and 34mm bullets.

GROUPS OF A-40 SHOP

There are two groups in shop A-40:

GROUPS

Foundry Shop

Rolling Shop

FOUNDRY SHOP
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings from either ferrous or non-ferrous alloys. Metals are turned into parts by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. It has five induction furnaces. These furnaces are of check republic installed in P.O.F in 1978

which has capacity of two tons. It contains induction furnace which can produce temperature up to 1100 C.
Junker (roller furnace)

It is used for annealing of discs or coil to adjust size of grains and relay stresses. There is a magnetic chip collector. Working scrap is poured into a furnace it melts and then this melted material is processed in the form of slabs. Billets and slabs are dressed by oil. Then the slabs are sent to the machine saws where the corners are cut.

Permanent Molding:
Molding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern, mold can be reused.

Material:
Copper & zink is used to form casting (billet, ingot). Copper is used 70% & zink is used 30% & the compound is called Brass Alloy. Temperature of brass is 1100 C.

Casting:
A casting may be defined as a "metal object obtained by allowing molten metal to solidify in a mold", the shape of the object conforms to the shape of the mould cavity.

Billet Formation:
Billets are rectangular in shapes. Thickness is 160mm. Width is 300mm. Length is 1000mm.

Machines Used To Make The Casting:

Shearing Machine. Mold (for molding). Internal material is copper & external material is cast iron. Induction Furnaces (quantity 4). Saw machine. Surface Milling machine. Blanking Press.

Annealing
To heat the job in protective atmosphere and to remove black layer and to provide path for cold working to reduce slippage.
Blanking press

It is one of the largest press in P.O.F having capacity of 1600 tons their slabs are brought to cut in the form of discs. Billets are preheated for cold and hard rolling in preheating furnace (Ranges from 850C-900C).
Materials with Colors Identification:-

G.M.C.S Brass

Packed (between gilding metal and steel sandwich ) Golden

ROLLING SHOP:
Rolling is a process in which volume or cross sectional area is reduced & length is increased by compressive forces exerted by two opposing rollers. Steps of rolling process are; HARD ROLLINGCOLD ROLLING MILLINGCOLDROOLINGDESIRED PIECE It should be noted that; Large grains indicating metal ductile. Small grains indicating metal non ductile.

TYPES OF ROLLING:

i. ii.

Hot rolling

It is a rolling operation carried out at a temperature exceeding the re-crystallization temperature and permitting large amount of deformation.
Cold rolling

It is a rolling operation carried out at room temperature. Cold rolling is commonly conducted after hot rolling when good surface quality and low thickness tolerance are needed. Cold rolling causes material strengthening and may be followed by annealing .

Machines Used for Rolling :

Preheating Furnaces (temp is 840 deg C for Brass). Hot Rolling Machine (9mm thick, 17,000mm length). Cold Rolling Macine (4 High Rolling Mill is Used). Annealing Process.

Pickling plant

G.M.C.S only has to go through pickling to remove carbon lair with acid in pickling plant.
Cold Rolling plant

It is a programmable logic control (P.L.C) plant for cold rolling.

Bright Annealing

Material is being quenched through water or oil to soft the material.

Continuous annealing and pickling plant:-

It is an automatic machine involve the following steps Decreasing unit Washing unit

Drying unit Annealing Furnace Pickling Unit Slitting Unit

Material used for production of Brass:

We know that the basic formula for brass is: Copper + Zinc -------------> Brass But there are two types of materials are used. Which are; Pure Materials. Scrap Materials.
Pure Materials:

Virgin copper: which is imported from Australia and Germany, it 99% pure. Pure zinc: This is imported from India.

Scrap Materials:

Scrap materials are basically waste materials. Scrap includes: All rejected parts from other shops (like bullets and shells from SAA & MAA). The waste or extra portions left remain after any operation (like remaining parts of strips after cupping/capping/blanking or many of other operations). For production purpose we always use large amount of scrap and fewer amounts of pure materials. So, in foundry (of A-40) 80% scrap and 20% pure materials are used to make brass.

Foundry Machinery and Their Functions I. Electric Furnaces:

An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is applied by induction heating of a conductive medium (usually a metal) in a crucible placed in a water-cooled alternating current solenoid coil. The advantage of the induction furnace is a clean, energy-efficient and well-controllable melting process compared to most other means of metal melting. Induction furnace capacities range from less than one kilogram to two ton capacity, and are used to melt iron and steel, copper, aluminum, and precious metals. The one major drawback to induction furnace usage in a foundry is the lack of refining capacity; charge materials must be clean of oxidation products and of a known composition, and some alloying elements may be lost due to oxidation

Induction Furnaces:

(and must be re-added to the melt).Total numbers of induction furnaces present in A-40 are four. Which have maximum capacity of 2 tons. This furnace is air cool and it does not fully empty any time. It always has approximate 750 kg material all the time. They have the capacity to melt brass at 1120C, copper at 1200 C and gilding metal at 1170 C. its can produce 2 tons of brass in one hour.
Crucible Furnaces:

Only one crucible furnace is present in this shop. It has capacity of 1 ton. This furnace is water cooled and it can be fully empty it. In crucible furnace copper casting is also present. This furnace works at 360V and it have 200Kw power to charge the material.

Different disc sizes are given below: Width Diameter Thickness Weight 130mm 308mm 24mm 15kg 125mm 261mm 22.6mm 10.5kg 122mm 192mm 17mm 4.5kg 105mm 180.6mm 13.24mm 3kg 37mm 79.76mm 15.24mm 0.650kg 30mm 70mm 15.24mm 0.500kg

Preheating Furnace:

This is gas type pre-heating furnace. Pre-heating is done before hot rolling process. Brass ballets are heated at 840C and GMC ballets are heated at 940C. For pre-heating of GMC (gliding metal clad) sheets a steel slab is placed between two copper slabs. This is called GMC sandwich. It is heated at about 940C. Then the copper slabs attached to steel slab and then hot rolling process is done. This GMC sheet is used to make tracer bullet (in SAA).

Hot Rolling Machine:

Hot rolling is a metalworking process that occurs above the re-crystallization temperature of the material. After the grains deform during processing, they re-crystallize, which maintains an equiaxed microstructure and prevents the metal from work hardening. The starting material is usually large pieces of metal, like semi-finished casting products, such as slabs, blooms, and billets. If these products came from a continuous casting operation the products are usually fed directly into the rolling mills at the proper temperature. In smaller operations the material starts at room temperature and must be heated. Hot rolling is used mainly to produce sheet metal or simple cross sections, such as rail tracks
Slab Milling Machine:

A slab mill machines a flat surface of the work piece in order to provide a smooth finish. The depth of the face, typically very small, may be machined in a single pass or may be reached by machining at a smaller axial depth of cut and making multiple passes.

DEFECTS OF ROLLING: Scratches Thickness variation Grain size

DEFECTS IN G.M.C.S IN ROLLING:Air entraps creating blisters Coating may be removed