A material and method are disclosed such that the material can be used to form functional metal pieces by producing an easily sintered layered body of dried metal paste. On a microstructural level, when dried, the metal paste creates a matrix of porous metal scaffold particles with infiltrant metal particles, which are positioned interstitially in the porous scaffold's interstitial voids. For this material to realize mechanical and processing benefits, the infiltrant particles are chosen such that they pack in the porous scaffold piece in a manner which does not significantly degrade the packing of the scaffold particles and so that they can also infiltrate the porous scaffold on heating. The method of using this paste provides a technique deposition/removal process.

A lead alloy is described that is capable of manufacturing a positive electrode for a lead storage battery less likely to cause corrosion penetrating through a lead layer for the positive electrode in the thickness direction. The lead alloy contains 0.4% by mass or more and 2% by mass less of tin and 0.004% by mass or less of bismuth, with the balance being lead and inevitable impurities. When image analysis of a crystal orientation distribution map created by analyzing the surface of the lead alloy by an electron backscatter diffraction method is performed, intersection points of misorientation boundaries between crystal grains with a crystal misorientation of 5° or more and a straight line extending in one specific direction are extracted. The distances between two adjacent intersection points among the extracted intersection points are measured, and the average value of the distances is 50 μm or less.

Disclosed is a pyrometallurgical process for producing a crude solder comprising at least 9.5-69% wt of tin and at least 25% wt lead, at least 80% tin and lead together, 0.08-12% wt of copper, 0.15-7% wt of antimony, 0.012-1.5% wt of bismuth, 0.010-1.1% wt of zinc, at most 3% wt of arsenic, at most 2.8% wt of nickel, at most 0.7% wt of zinc, at most 7.5% wt of iron and at most 0.5% wt of aluminium, from a feedstock selected in terms of its levels of Sn, Cu, Sb, Bi, Zn, As, Ni and Pb, the process comprising at least the steps of obtaining in a furnace a liquid bath of metal and slag, introducing a reducing agent and optionally also energy, separating the crude solder from the slag and removing liquid from the furnace. The crude solder may readily be further prepared to become suitable as feedstock for vacuum distillation.

A process for the production of a metal mixture composition containing lead and tin, and comprising by weight at least 10% tin and 45% lead, at least 90% of tin and lead together, more lead than tin, from 1-5000 ppm of copper, at least 0.42% antimony and at least 0.0001% wt of sulphur, at most 0.1% of the total of chromium, manganese, vanadium, titanium and tungsten, and at most 0.1% of each one of aluminium, nickel, iron and zinc. The process includes a pre-treatment step for producing the metal mixture composition, followed by a vacuum distillation step wherein lead is removed by evaporation and a bottom stream is obtained comprising at least 0.6% wt of lead.

A lead alloy usable to manufacture a lead storage battery electrode the with easily predictable growth is described. The diffraction intensity determined by analyzing the surface of the lead alloy in a crystal orientation {211}<111> in a pole figure using an X-ray diffraction method is five or less times the diffraction intensity determined by analyzing powder of pure lead in a random orientation in a pole figure using the X-ray diffraction method.

A lead alloy usable to manufacture a lead storage battery electrode the with easily predictable growth is described. The diffraction intensity determined by analyzing the surface of the lead alloy in a crystal orientation {211}<111> in a pole figure using an X-ray diffraction method is five or less times the diffraction intensity determined by analyzing powder of pure lead in a random orientation in a pole figure using the X-ray diffraction method.

A lead alloy that is difficult to cause extension even when force is applied to the lead alloy is described. The half width of a (311) diffraction peak in a diffraction chart obtained by analyzing the lead alloy using an X-ray diffraction method is 1.4 or more times the half width of a (311) diffraction peak in a diffraction chart obtained by analyzing powder of pure lead using the X-ray diffraction method.

[Object] To improve both abrasion resistance and seizure resistance. [Solution] A copper alloy sliding material is configured, which contains 0.5 to 12.0 mass % of Sn, 2.0 to 8.0 mass % of Bi, and 1.0 to 5.0 vol % of an inorganic compound, the balance being Cu and inevitable impurities, wherein the inorganic compound includes a first inorganic compound having an average particle size of 0.5 to 3.0 μm and a second inorganic compound having an average particle size of 4.0 to 20.0 μm, and wherein a value obtained by dividing a volume fraction of the first inorganic compound by a volume fraction of the second inorganic compound is 0.1 to 1.0.

A disclosed process produces at least one concentrated copper product together with at least one crude solder product, starting from a black copper composition with at least 50% of copper together with at least 1.0% wt of tin and at least 1.0% wt of lead The process includes the step of partially oxidizing the black copper thereby forming a first copper refining slag, followed by partially reducing the first copper refining slag to form a first lead-tin based metal composition and a first spent slag. The total feed to the reducing step includes an amount of copper that is at least 1.5 times as high as the sum of the amounts of Sn plus Pb present, and the first spent slag includes at most 20% wt total of copper, tin and lead together.

A disclosed process produces at least one concentrated copper product together with at least one crude solder product, starting from a black copper composition with at least 50% of copper together with at least 1.0% wt of tin and at least 1.0% wt of lead The process includes the step of partially oxidizing the black copper thereby forming a first copper refining slag, followed by partially reducing the first copper refining slag to form a first lead-tin based metal composition and a first spent slag. The total feed to the reducing step includes an amount of copper that is at least 1.5 times as high as the sum of the amounts of Sn plus Pb present, and the first spent slag includes at most 20% wt total of copper, tin and lead together.