Brassland is a custom machining company — you send the drawing and the grade, and we turn and mill the part. Across the commercial range, three brass grades cover most export work. CW617N (free-cutting leaded brass) is the workhorse for general machined components where there is no dezincification risk. CW602N is the DZR (dezincification-resistant) grade, specified where chlorinated or aggressive water would otherwise leach zinc from ordinary brass. CW724R is a lead-free grade for parts that must meet low-lead requirements.
We also machine CW614N and CW510L, copper C11000 (ETP) for high-conductivity contacts and terminals, and aluminium 6061 and 6063. We can advise on machinability and typical use, but the alloy choice for your end application — and any potable-water, food-contact or regulatory approval of the finished product — is your responsibility. We machine the part in the grade you specify and provide EN 10204 3.1 material certificates on request.
We machine components to your drawing — we do not rate, certify or pressure-test finished fittings or valves, and we hold no product approvals. The pressure rating and validation of the finished part are determined and tested by you, the buyer. What we can speak to is the material behaviour your design has to account for.
Brass loses tensile strength as temperature rises — noticeably above 80°C — and above roughly 200°C brass is usually the wrong material, so steam and high-temperature service move to other alloys. Working pressure is set by alloy and wall geometry together, which is why the rating belongs to the finished design rather than the raw component. Standards such as EN 1254 (fittings) and EN 12165 (forging stock) are common references; we machine to the dimensions and tolerances your drawing calls out, and you validate the assembled product against the relevant standard.
DZR means dezincification-resistant. Ordinary 60/40 brass can suffer a corrosion mechanism where aggressive water selectively leaches zinc, leaving a porous, weak shell that can fail under pressure. CW602N counters this with a small arsenic addition that inhibits dezincification at the grain boundary.
When it is specified: potable hot-water systems and markets with aggressive or chlorinated water often mandate DZR or lead-free grades (for example UK Water Fittings Regulations and WRAS in the UK, or local equivalents elsewhere). We machine your component in CW602N (DZR) or lead-free CW724R when you specify it, and supply EN 10204 3.1 material certificates — but Brassland holds no product approvals, so obtaining WRAS, NSF or equivalent approval for the finished product is the buyer's responsibility.
When it is not needed: gas, compressed air, hydraulic oil and dry industrial service do not cause dezincification, so a free-cutting grade like CW617N is usually sufficient and more economical.
Thread mismatches are a common, costly procurement error, so we confirm the standard before cutting. We machine all the major thread forms in-house: BSPP (G, ISO 228) parallel; BSPT (R, ISO 7) tapered; NPT (ASME B1.20.1) tapered American; and metric (ISO 261 / ISO 965). We also cut JIC, SAE and BSP forms for hydraulic work on request.
Rule of thumb by market: UK, Europe and Australia use BSPP; the USA and Canada use NPT; industrial hydraulics are often metric or JIC; Japan uses JIS. Send a dimensioned drawing or a sample fitting and we will confirm the thread form before machining.
CW617N (free-cutting leaded brass): outstanding machinability — lead acts as a chip-breaker for high cutting speeds and good surface finish — with good general corrosion resistance. It is the baseline choice for compressed air, gas, hydraulics and industrial fluids not exposed to aggressive water.
CW602N (DZR; higher copper, small arsenic addition): better overall corrosion resistance and dezincification resistance, slightly harder to machine — cycle times run about 10–15% longer, which is reflected in price. It is the grade buyers specify for potable hot water and markets requiring DZR or regulatory approval, approval the buyer obtains for the finished product.
Commercially, CW602N runs roughly 8–12% more than CW617N for the same geometry. Specify by application, not habit — we machine whichever grade your drawing calls for.
Direct seawater is a hard environment for standard brass: at seawater chloride levels both dezincification and stress-corrosion cracking accelerate, and ordinary or even DZR brass can fail in continuous immersion. This is a material-selection decision your engineering team owns — we machine the grade you specify.
Where buyers move away from standard brass, we commonly machine CW712R naval brass, and for the most aggressive service copper-nickel grades are specified (selection and validation remain yours). For pool and coastal-air environments rather than direct immersion, standard and DZR brass are widely used. Tell us the grade and we machine to your drawing.
Brass expands and contracts with temperature (coefficient of thermal expansion about 19 × 10⁻⁶/°C), so a system cycling hot and cold accumulates movement and stress at joints — something the system designer allows for with expansion provision. We machine sealing faces and threads to tight, repeatable tolerances so the component side of the joint is consistent; cyclic and seal validation of the finished fitting is done by the buyer.
For impact and fatigue, hot-forged brass has a continuous grain flow around the part that gives roughly 15–30% higher fatigue and burst strength than the same shape cut from bar, which is why forging suits valve-body and pressure-part blanks. Our forging is produced by a dedicated partner to our dies, then machined and finished in-house — we do not cast.
Our standard is natural machined or polished brass, typically Ra 0.8–1.6μm. For corrosion protection and hardness we apply nickel plating (electrolytic), and chrome for decorative finishes — both through qualified finishing partners with our QC oversight. PTFE thread coating can be applied for consistent make-up torque without tape.
Where a potable-water barrier is wanted, nickel over a low-lead grade is a common construction — but the drinking-water approval (NSF, WRAS or local) of the finished product is the buyer's, not something Brassland certifies. Any coating over a machined thread is thickness-controlled, and we measure plated parts to confirm 6H/6g thread tolerance after coating.
Honest production numbers from our floor: standard turning holds about ±0.05mm on diameters and ±0.1mm on bores with 6H/6g threads; precision work holds ±0.02mm on diameters and ±0.01mm on reamed bores. On our Swiss sliding-head machines we achieve down to ±0.005mm on small, slender parts. Below that you are into grinding and honing, which we do not do in-house — and we say so upfront.
Surface roughness runs Ra 0.8μm standard, Ra 0.4μm with finishing passes and Ra 0.2μm polished. We run first-article inspection before every production run, in-process checks every shift, and offer 100% inspection on critical features; SPC with Cpk above 1.67 is routine on our brass lines. Agree the critical dimensions and the measurement plan with us at the RFQ stage.
Yes — as machined components to your drawing. We are make-to-print, not a stockist of finished fitting ranges. The engineering distinction matters: a compression body designed for rigid copper tube (to EN 1254-2) relies on the tube's own wall stiffness, whereas plastic pipe (EN 1254-3: PE, HDPE, PE-X) needs an internal support liner / insert to reinforce the wall, or the seal can leak under pressure cycling.
We machine the bodies, nuts and support-liner inserts to your design — in brass, or for the liner the material your specification calls out. Put the tube material and wall (SDR for PE) on the drawing; the finished fitting's design, approval and testing remain yours.
We do not make, assemble or test finished valves. Brassland machines the brass valve components that go inside them — bodies, bonnets, stems, spindles, caps and glands — to your drawing. Assembly, seat fitting, pressure and leak testing, and the valve's rating are the valve-maker's (buyer's) responsibility.
As a reference for your design: PTFE is the common ball-valve seat material, generally serviceable from about -20°C to +180°C; glass-filled PTFE extends that toward +200°C; PEEK is used hotter still; and above roughly 200°C brass itself becomes the limiting factor. We machine the metal components to the tolerances and finishes your valve design needs — seat selection and the finished valve's temperature and pressure rating are set and validated by you.
Yes. Brassland machines brass (the full CW range), copper (C11000 ETP for conductive parts) and aluminium (6061 and 6063) on dedicated lines in our Jamnagar facility — 79+ CNC machines plus 28+ Swiss sliding-head machines, with machining never subcontracted.
For buyers, a multi-material set of machined components can come on one purchase order, one quality plan and one set of EN 10204 3.1 certificates, from one supplier. We can also flag galvanic-compatibility points between, say, aluminium and brass at the drawing stage. One honesty note: we do not machine stainless steel — if your BOM needs it, we will point you to a suitable vendor rather than pretend otherwise.
Standards we machine to
The material, thread and tolerance standards these answers reference, with links to verify each with the publishing body and to our in-house capability pages. Brassland machines components to these standards; we do not hold or issue product or regulatory approvals.
What we do and don't certify. Brassland is a custom machining company certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 45001 (DQS). We machine components to your drawing and hold no product or regulatory approvals (e.g. WRAS, NSF, PED, ACS). Pressure and flow rating, type approval, testing and final assembly of the finished fitting or valve are the buyer's responsibility. Standards above are references we machine to; material lots are released against the EN 10204 Type 3.1 certificate accompanying each shipment. Last reviewed: June 2026.
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