Where Our Numbers Come From

Sources we use

• Alloy properties. Published alloy data, principally the Copper Development Association. Conductivity in percent IACS, machinability rated against free-cutting brass C36000 at 100, mechanical properties by temper.
• Standards. ASTM specifications for product form and ASTM B601 for temper designations. We name the standard rather than paraphrasing it, so you can read the actual document.
• Trade classifications. RWMA classes for resistance welding electrode materials.
• Process behaviour. How copper cuts, burrs and smears is long established shop knowledge rather than a single citable number, and we describe it as such rather than dressing it up with a false precision.

What "typical" means here

Every alloy figure on this site is a published typical value for the alloy. It is not a commitment from any shop, and it is not a guarantee about your geometry.

Tolerance bands are the clearest example. When we write that pure copper commonly holds around ±0.025 mm, that describes what the material comfortably allows on ordinary features. Your part may hold tighter with a dedicated finishing pass, or looser because it is thin, long or clamped awkwardly. The shop quoting your drawing is the only party who can commit to a number, and we say that on every table.

Where we deliberately do not give a number

Some figures move with market, standard or setup, and a confident number there would be worse than no number.

• Busbar ampacity. It depends on temperature rise, ambient, orientation, plating, stacking and ventilation. We give an orientation range and tell you to design against the standard your assembly is certified to.
• Copper price. It is a traded commodity. We explain how it enters a quote and refuse to print a price that is wrong within a week.
• ASTM specification by product form, where a grade is covered by different standards for bar, rod, sheet and strip. We name the ones we are sure of and tell you to confirm the rest with the supplier.
• Lead price on this site. Shops see it on every preview before they decide. It is not published here because it moves with part complexity and order size.

What we will not publish

This site is new. The following would all be inventions, so none of them appear anywhere on it:

• Client counts, parts shipped or orders placed
• The size of our shop network
• Years in business
• Certifications, because we hold none and a matching service would not hold them anyway
• Testimonials, reviews, case studies or customer logos
• Backdated articles, to fake a publishing history
• Stock photography presented as our own work, or as copper when it is not

When any of these become real, they will appear with the detail needed to check them. Until then their absence is the honest signal.

How the guides are written

The same person who reads your RFQ writes the guides. There is no content agency and no rotating freelancer, which is why the articles are specific about tool geometry, burrs and drawing callouts rather than generic.

Every article carries the date it was written. Where an article is updated the updated date is shown instead, and the original date is not removed to make the page look fresher than it is.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it. Email with the page and what is incorrect. Technical corrections from machinists and engineers are welcome and we would rather be corrected than be confidently wrong in front of a buyer.

Material errors are corrected in place and the page is marked as updated. We do not quietly delete a page to make a mistake disappear.

Independence

Shops pay us for matched requests, which is stated plainly on the about page. No shop pays to appear in an article, no article is sponsored and no grade, process or supplier is recommended because someone paid for it. Outbound links to commercial sites carry a nofollow attribute.