The company's founder, Chris Stephenson, started the business by storing copper tubes in his own home in London. Over a period of time, and without drawing a salary for the first nine months of the company's existence, he developed a local customer base and raised enough money for the first big capital investment - an ex-army lorry for deliveries, costing the princely sum of 60.
The company's next success came when a small warehouse was rented in Haringay, north London, and the stock range expanded to include aluminium bronze. In 1965, Columbia Metals relocated to a premises in the unfortunately named Rust Square in Camberwell, south London, where the business consolidated and grew over the next five years.
The company's next success came when a small warehouse was rented in Haringay, north London, and the stock range expanded to include aluminium bronze. In 1965, Columbia Metals relocated to a premises in the unfortunately named Rust Square in Camberwell, south London, where the business consolidated and grew over the next five years.
Services
Each of our warehouses is equipped with bandsaws which allows us to billet material to customer requirements. Our facilities allow us to cut to a minimum thickness of 10mm and a maximum diameter of 250mm. We have access to a number of subcontractors that allow us to offer speedy testing and added-value processing.
Our brass product range includes many of the most commonly used grades - from naval brass to high-tensile brass and from dezincification-resistant brass to free-machining brass. These offer a variety of properties such as high strength, ductility, corrosion resistance and machinability. Widely used in almost every industrial sector, brass is the most common of the copper-based alloys.
CZ101 (CW501L) is a brass alloy containing approximately 90% copper and 10% zinc. It is primarily supplied as a sheet grade and is classed as a gilding metal. The alloy offers excellent cold working properties and is generally not susceptible to dezincification or stress corrosion. Due to its formability and its attractive rich golden colour, CZ101 (CW501L) is widely used for architectural and decorative applications.
Known as basis brass, CZ108 (CW508L) is one of the most popular grades of brass due to its hot and cold working capabilities. Supplied primarily as a sheet grade, this material is often used for general purpose and simple forming operations. It offers very good corrosion resistance in normal environments and good machinability at slow speeds.
CZ109 (CW509L) is a lead-free form of alpha-beta brass containing approximately 60% copper, 40% zinc and a trace of iron. It is a general purpose alloy that offers excellent hot working properties for corrosion-resistant machine parts. Also known as Muntz metal, the alloy is named after George Fredrick Muntz, who commercialised it following a patent of 1832.
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