Long before there were global positioning satellites, ships at sea determined their position through the use of a sextant. Measuring the angles through one-sixth of a circle (hence the name sex-tant), these devices had to be made with fine tooling and great precision. Capable of measuring angles to 1/60th of a degree, a skilled navigator could determine his location to within 0.1 nautical miles.

Machining an accurate sextant required skill and attention to detail on the part of the manufacturer. It also required the

best quality metals in order to hold tolerances with the necessary consistency.

No matter what products you are creating from brass, Chicago Extruded Metals

can make your life easier with engineered metals produced in our 200,000 square foot casting and extrusion facility in Cicero, Illinois. Our fully integrated brass mill is able to cast, extrude and finish a variety of engineered shapes and customized rod products in either limited volume or large quantity production runs.

Everything is focussed on producing a finely engineered product using the most advanced metallurgy techniques available. Alloys are engineered for consistency to reduce problems in your final machining process. Rods and shapes are extruded with great precision to minimize the finished machining required on your part.

Our process begins with raw materials purchased from our customers and carefully selected suppliers. Our own raw material in-ventory of both recycled and virgin metals is processed in quantities large enough to ensure flexibility in meeting changing customer requirements.

Cast billets are subjected to spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectophotometer testing during the melt and after solidification to certify the chemistry of the alloy. Next, indirect extrusion produces high quality material in either coil or length forms. The extruded material is then pickled to prepare the surface for cold working.

Pulling extruded products through a cold-draw or finishing die reduces the cross-section to obtain precise geometric tolerances improving surface quality,

straightness, machinability and mechanical properties.Straightening, annealing and multiple reductions are used

to meet specific requirements. Next comes the sawing of bars to length, cutting coils to weight or precision-cutting blanks. Packaging and lab certification or documentation complete our manufacturing process prior to shipping.

Our Goal Is To Sell You Less BrassMaybe we’re just cheap ... uh, that is to say “frugal” ... by nature. But it doesn’t make any sense to us for you to purchase brass in round rod, at full price, spend time and money to machine away the part you don’t need, scoop up the swarf and sell it to a recycler at a fraction of what you paid for it.

We would rather sell you less brass to begin with. That’s why we’ve worked so hard to perfect the manufacture of extruded brass shapes. For precision parts, extruded shapes outperform forgings, castings, powdered metal and other approaches to achieving near net shapes.

Near Net ShapesCXM doesn’t publish tolerances for near net shapes because we’re in the business of solving your manufacturing needs. The requirements change from project to project and

so will our tolerances. The primary limitations are the alloy selection (see alloy selection bulletin) and cross-sections that will fit within a 4-inch circle. Also hollow and semi-hollow materials cannot be extruded.

It’s Easy To Get StartedSend us your prints, sketches or even sample parts. Tell us your critical requirements. We’ll get back to you with a proposal. Your cost will vary depending on the complexity of the shape, the size of your order, the annual volume, the dimensions, the tolerances, the alloy and other manufacturing requirements.

To be sure, when brass rods are extruded to near net shapes, they cost more per pound than simple brass rods. But by the time you factor in all of the other expenses, the overall savings in both time and money can be substantial.

If you buy this ...... when all you

need is this ... ... you‛re just

wasting this.

So why not

buy just this?

If you buy this ...... when all you

need is this ... ... you‛re just

wasting this.

So why not

buy just this?

Many of our customers report to us that one of the benefits of choosing CXM is the consistency of our alloys. From one order to the next, from one production run to the next, our alloys are produced in carefully-controlled batches that result in an exceptionally consistent product.

Size MattersIn this case, smaller is better. Because we produce alloys in small batches, CXM products can be custom designed to meet the needs of the customer. This allows us to have

tighter control over every step of the process, from melting and skimming to casting and cooling. During the melting process, the chemistry of each batch is

controlled in our advanced metallurgical laboratory. Needed adjustments are made to ensure purity and consistency.

Custom AlloysASTM specifications are a great place to start, but they’re not good enough to suit us. Our specs are tighter, allowing

us to create custom alloys within the industry standard alloy groups and deliver those alloys consistently from order to order. Let’s face it, nobody likes surprises.

Our customers have come to depend on us for this in delivering consistent quality

to their customers. They have greater control over their machining process. Productivity is increased.

Garbage In Garbage OutEstimates are that 70% of all the copper ever mined is still in use. Which means that most brass stock comes from recycled materials.

The fact that we run small batches also allows us to have tighter control over the material. All recycled material that we take in is carefully sorted and specially selected for the alloy we’re creating. This, combined with our careful chemical analysis of each batch results in a consistency and purity of material that’s unequalled by anyone in the industry.

CHICAGO EXTRUDED METALS

1601 South 54th Avenue, Cicero, IL 60804-1898 t:800-323-8102 f:708-780-3479www.cxm.com