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The Kobe Steel group has the largest share in Asian alloys for cost reduction.
market for high performance copper alloy strips for In April 2004, Kobelco & Materials Copper
electronic equipment and for air conditioning copper Tube, Ltd. (KMCT) was established as a joint-
tubes. Our high performance copper alloy strips and venture between Kobe Steel Ltd. and Mitsubishi
copper tubes meet diverse needs of our customers. This Materials Corporation, providing a manufacturing
article summarizes the present and future technology base for high quality products with strong
trends of copper strips and tubes, and our latest technical resources. 1) The company mainly
products. produces grooved tubes for air conditioners and
finned tubes for refrigerators, and is the only
Introduction company in the industry that can supply heat-
resistant, high-strength and corrosion-resistant
Our group owns the largest share of copper alloy copper alloy products.
strips for electronic equipment and of copper tubes
for air-conditioners in Asia. We have developed 1. Development of copper strip products
copper products in response to various needs of
the time. 1.1 Market trend of copper strips for electric
Lately, electronic equipment has changed equipment
dramatically. The cellular phones have gone
through downsizing, upgrading of performance 1.1.1 Downsizing of electronic equipment
and digitization to own capabilities including
clock, camera, TV and e-mail. The modern Electronics equipment is becoming thinner and
automobiles have various electric components smaller with larger capacities and higher
including the ABS for safety and CCD cameras for performance, and copper alloys are required with
rear and side monitoring. The engines are higher-strength, higher-reliability (thermal
controlled by computers for energy saving and for resistance and stress-relaxation resistance) and
optimum performance. better bending formability. This trend will increase
We have developed innovative copper alloy more in the future. Figure 1 shows the downsizing
products having good balance of conductivities trend of terminals and connectors.2)
and strengths, and our products are becoming To respond to the downsizing requirements,
indispensable electronics materials. We are a various next-generation materials are being
unique manufacturer of copper strips with our
main focus on electric equipment and 97% of our
products are for electronic applications.
In addition, copper tubes are used in many Class 4 44% IACS CAS85
applications including heat-transmitting tubing for
Stress relaxation resistance
CAC60
heat exchangers, because of their excellent thermal
conductivities, formabilities and corrosion Class 3 High strength
resistance. KLF-5 with excellent
formability
Recent needs for energy-saving, high- Class 2
performance and cost-reduction have led the
manufacturers of heat exchangers of residential-
and commercial-air conditioners to employ inner Phosphor
grooved tubes having a number of fine grooves on bronze
the interior surfaces of the tubes. Also, the rapid 2.3 1.0 0.64 0.5 0.32
growth of the Chinese economy drove up the bare Width of connector (mm)
copper price and there is an increasing interest in Fig. 1 Trend of connector shape and demanded
thinner-wall tubes using higher strength copper characteristic
KFC
precipitates.3) 80 LED
White LEDs, which are finding more 70
KLF194 KLF2 B Thin PKG
applications in traffic signals and automotive 60
KLF170
lights, generate significant amounts of heat and 50
KLF-1
C7025
the electrode materials used for white LEDs are 40 CAS85
required to have thermal-resistance along with 30 KLF125
high conductivities. At the same time, superior 20 Mini Tr.
press formabilities and bending capabilities are 10
CAC92
42alloy
required for the materials to increase the 0
productivity of end products. 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000
recently developed KLF2, having conductivity of Fig. 2 Position of new copper alloys for semiconductor and
75% IACS and strength of 600 MPa, by adding electrical circuit
We have been supplying various copper alloys 20 C2600 CAS800 Spring, Cover
Wide use CAC92-SSH
with higher than 60%IACS for those applications; 10
C5100
C5191 C5210
however, the requirement for bending formability 0
is becoming stricter as the part-size becomes 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000
We also supply tin-plated copper alloy products. 2.1.2 Heat transmitting copper tube for compression
As the numbers of connections and fitting forces of type refrigerator
connectors increase, the connectors are required to
have smaller insert force for better workability and Traditionally, improvements of heat transmission
productivity. performance of a tube have been achieved by the
We have achieved 25% reduction of insert force increase of surface areas, however, the approach
without sacrificing the electrical reliability and tends to result in increases of cost and weight per
corrosion resistance. The alloy has 3 layers of tin- length. We have achieved high performance by
plate on a Ni plate layer which prevents diffusion analyzing the flow of coolant using a high speed
of alloying elements into the tin layer.10) camera and by reflecting the result in the thin-
The soldering temperature for electronic precision forming of semi-hard material.
equipment has been risen to above 250 ℃ to The TOPCROSS CHT34-N2 developed for
accommodate the lead-free soldering required for condensers has a superior condensability on the
environmental protection. Our tin-plated copper exterior surface of the tube due to its open fin
alloy has good solderability for lead-free solders shape, and the sharp edge of the fins allows quick
and will find more applications in the future.11) release of condensed fluid.12)
The TOPCROSS EHT34 developed for
1.3 Summary of copper strip products evaporators has good resistance against smudge
with its open shape unlike other cavity-type boiling
Our copper group has developed new copper structure. Photo 2 and Photo 3 show the
alloys and tin-plated products matching the needs appearances of TOPCROSS CHT34-N2 and
of the market. We will strengthen the position of TOPCROSS EHT34 respectively. Figure 5 and
our products in the global market by establishing Figure 6 show the condensing and evaporating
production bases overseas and making alliances properties of the respective tubes.
with foreign companies.
2.1.3 Heat transmitting copper tube for absorption
2. Development of copper tube products refrigerator
2.1 Development of high performance copper tube Absorption refrigerators are widely used for air-
products conditioning in Japan and in other Asian countries
because of their Freon-free, environmental-friendly
2.1.1 Copper tube for air conditioners features. An absorption refrigerator mainly consists
5.0
LFT26fpi
Testing condition:
Refrigerant;R134a Photo 4 Overview of ENDCROSS
Condensing temperature;40℃
Temperature at water inlet;35℃
0.0
0 1 2 3 4
Water velocity Vi (m/s)
8.0
6.0 EHT34
Photo 5 Overview of CONDCROSS
4.0
lithium-bromide solution and water vapor
LFT26fpi
generated by the evaporator. Our ENDCROSS
2.0 Testing condition:
without inner rib is recommended for this
Refrigerant;R-134a application because the independent exterior
Evaporation temperature;5℃
Temperature at water inlet;12℃
protrusions stir the fluid and the rib-less interior
0.0
0 1 2 3 4
wall prevents pressure-losses.14)
Water velocity Vi (m/s) A condenser condenses water vapor generated
by a regenerator and our CONDCROSS is
Fig. 6 Overall heat transfer coefficient of flooded type
evaporator recommended with its independent protrusions
optimized for evaporation.15)
A regenerator increases the concentration of the
of heat exchangers such as evaporators, absorbing lithium-bromide solution diluted in the absorbing
circuits, condensers and regenerators. Each heat circuit by the water vapor running in the tube. The
exchanger has different conductivity characteristics thermal conduction in the exchanger is close to the
and requires different types of heat-transmitting pool-boiling and forms lithium-bromide crystallites
tube. which causes plugging of the tube. Because of this,
We have developed thin-wall / high heat- most regenerators today use low-fin type tubes
transmitting tubes by precision forming of a semi- with simple inner surfaces. We are developing new
hard material. Further developments such as the heat-transmitting tubes with better heat
VOF analysis13) have brought approx. 80% share in transmission for this application.
the domestic market of the tubes. Photos 4 and 5 show the appearances of
An evaporator cools water by dripping water ENDCROSS for evaporators and CONDCROSS for
on the heat-transmitting tubes placed horizontally condensers respectively.
in a vacuum. Because of the mechanism, the
wetability for water of the exterior surface of the 2.1.4 Copper alloy tube
tube affects the performance of the evaporator. Our
ENDCROSS products have excellent evaporation We are the only manufacturer of copper alloy
capabilities, because the many independent tubes in the industry and are developing new
protrusions on the exterior-surface improve water- applications. The alloy tubes are classified either
wetability along the tube axis and make the fluid into the high-strength type or into the high
layer thin by the surface tension at the protrusion corrosion-resistance type.
edges. HRS35LT is a high strength alloy having
An absorbing circuit heats water by an thermal resistance at 1,000 ℃ despite its
exothermic reaction between high-concentration precipitation hardening feature and is used for in-
16)
furnace brazing. hope for new demand.
On the other hand, KHRT is a solid-solution KMCT owns its original technologies such as
hardening type and has a good formability with inner-grooved tubes, high-performance finned-
thermal resistance at 900 ℃ and is suitable for inner tubes, high-strength copper alloys and high
grooved tubes and complex shape parts.17) This corrosion resistance copper alloys, and contributes
alloy is the mainstream of high-strength alloys to society by providing products and services
since it is castable in-house and lower in cost. The related to energy conservation and environmental
MA5J has high strength, although lower in thermal protection.
resistance, and its composition is in the JIS range.
The alloy is suitable for products made through 3. Globalization of copper business
an automatic brazing line.18)
The corrosion resistant PICOLESS is used for Our copper strip product group has its mother
our coated copper tubes. The Zr content in the factory in the Chofu Plant, and slit processing
alloy prevents type II corrosion occurring in the centers in Thailand (KEMT: Kobe Electronics
hot water piping. The KALT is used for the heat Material (Thailand) Co., Ltd.) and in China
transmitting tubes of air conditioners installed in (Suzhou Kobe Copper Technology, Co., Ltd.). The
an oil-rich environment such as food processing SKPL (Singapore Kobe Pte. Ltd.) has capabilities
factories and machine shops. The Mn content in of plating, shape rolling and slitting. The Kobe
the alloy prevents the ant-nest type corrosion. Leadmikk Co., Ltd. in Moji provides press forming
Table 1 summarizes the properties of the alloys. and plating, and owns technologies such as nickel
plating, silver plating and lead-free solder plating.
2.1.5 Development of heat exchangers based on a The company also owns a plating factory in Wuxi
new concept China (Shinko Leadmikk (Wuxi) Co., Ltd.).
Our copper tube product group has KWCP
We are developing new heat-exchangers, using (Kobe Wieland Copper Products, LLC) in the USA
carbon dioxide coolant, based on our design and and KMCT (Kobelco & Material Copper Tube,
analysis technologies. Ltd.) in Malaysia and Thailand. We have
Heat-exchangers for carbon dioxide coolant established a robust supply system from Southeast
have not yet been optimized and various Asia under the joint venture with Mitsubishi
developments are being made for practical Material Corp. The Shinko Metal Products Co., Ltd.
applications such as refrigerators, vending manufactures products including special alloy
machines, and air-conditioners. New-type heat tubes and molds for continuous-casting.
exchangers such as solid-type brazed heat-
exchangers are also being developed. Conclusions
2.2 Summary of copper tube products To respond to the needs of the time, the copper
product group has developed unique alloys and
The shift to overseas production by air-conditioner products such as strips for electronic equipment
manufacturers reduced the domestic demand for and tubes for air conditioners. The business is
copper tubes, forcing us to establish KMCT. On supported by our characteristic technologies and
the other hand, products using carbonic-gas has grown into global scale to own the largest
coolant have increased dramatically, bringing us share in Asia.