money – Shanghai Metal Corporation

Do You Know How The UK Coins Are Made And What Are They Made of?

The processes involved in producing a coin can be broken down into three different sections: making the blanks, making the dies and striking the coins.

Making the blanks

Depending on the alloy required, the appropriate metals are melted in the necessary proportions in a furnace. The metal is then extracted from the furnace in the form of a continuous strip, which is cut to produce coils weighing up to 2.8 tonnes. The strip is passed through powerful rolling mills to reduce it to the thickness of a coin. Blank discs of metal are then punched from the strip in a blanking press at a rate of up to 10,000 a minute. Rolling metal under great pressure makes it hard so the blanks have to be softened, something which is achieved by heating them in an annealing furnace at up to 950°C.

Making the dies

Once a design has been approved, a plaster model is prepared at several times the diameter of the intended coin. The plaster model is scanned by a ruby-tipped probe which records the design as a digital file on a computer. Guided by this digital file, an engraving machine cuts the design into a piece of steel at the correct size of the coin. Known as a reduction punch, this piece of steel is then used to make the dies which will actually strike the coins.

Striking the coins

For the final stage of the process, the blanks are fed into a coining press containing a pair of dies. Applying a pressure of around 60 tonnes, the dies strike the blanks and turn them into coins at speeds of up to 850 a minute.

= 1 penny coin =

First Issued February 15, 1971

Diameter 20.3mm

Weight 3.56g

Thickness Bronze: 1.52mm. Copper-plated steel: 1.65mm

Composition Bronze (97pc copper, 2.5pc zinc, 0.5pc tin)

= 2 pence coin =

First Issued February 15, 1971

Diameter 25.9mm

Weight 7.12g

Thickness Bronze: 1.85mm. Copper-plated steel: 2.03mm

Composition Bronze (97pc copper, 2.5pc zinc, 0.5pc tin)

= 5 pence coin =

First Issued Smaller version in June 1990.

Diameter 18.0mm

Weight 3.25g

Thickness 1.7mm

Composition Cupro-nickel (75pc copper, 25pc nickel)

= 10 pence coin =

First Issued Smaller version in September 1992.

Diameter (since 1992) 24.5mm

Weight 6.5g

Thickness 1.85mm

Composition Cupro-nickel (75pc copper, 25pc nickel)

= 20 pence coin =

First Issued June 9, 1982

Diameter 21.4mm

Weight 5g

Thickness 1.7mm

Composition Cupro-nickel (84pc copper, 16c nickel)

= 50 pence coin =

First Issued Smaller version introduced in September 1997. Diameter (since 1997) 27.3mm

Weight 8.0g

Thickness 1.78mm

Composition Cupro-nickel (75pc copper, 25pc nickel)

= 1 pound coin =

Issue Date April 21, 1983

Diameter 22.5mm

Weight 9.5g

Thickness 3.15mm

Composition Nickel-Brass (70pc copper, 5.5pc nickel, 24.5pc zinc)

= 2 pound coin =

First Issued June 15, 1998

Diameter 28.4mm

Weight 12g

Thickness 2.5mm

Composition, Outer Nickel-Brass (76pc copper, 4pc nickel, 20pc zinc). Inner Cupro-nickel (75pc copper, 25pc nickel)

= 5 pound coin =

First Issued August 4, 1990. Previously crowns had a face value of 25p

Diameter 38.61mm

Weight 28.28g

Thickness 2.89mm

Composition Cupro-nickel (75pc copper, 25pc nickel)

Collector versions have been struck in precious metals

As an international manufacturer and supplier for copper sheet and bronze sheet, Shanghai Metal Corporation produces slitting, edging, and oscillates winding to fit your specific copper requirements. To find out more, please visit our Website or send your inquiry here. Our English speaking personnel will be more than pleased to help you. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

Sources: Royal Mint, The Telegraph, museumvictoria.com.au

William P.//SMC Editor

Be cool, save energy and pay less

While building a house there is always a question what kind of roof to choose, what colour, should it be flat or pitched. When you live in a hot climate the answer is clear. A metal cool roof!

A cool roof can reflect sunlight and cools itself by emitting the radiation to its surroundings. Isn’t that cool? The roof literally reduces the amount of heat. Two basic characteristics of the roof are solar reflectance and thermal emittance. It is like wearing a white t-shirt on a hot day, it reflects more sunlight and absorb the heat.

Benefits

reducing energy use – as a building stays cooler, it uses less energy for air conditioning
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution
improving human’s health and make them feel comfortable – cool roofs prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths
extending roof life and lowering roof maintenance costs

Metal cool roofs might be one of the solutions for polluted cities. They have significant environmental benefits besides using cool roofs cool the cities. Increasing workplace productivity and decreasing pollution can be achieved by using metal cool roofs. Cool metal roofs actually last longer than standard ones because a cool roof doesn’t heat up that much.

What’s more cool roofs are typically light in colors so they can perfectly be a part of the architecture for those who might consider it as an important feature. As today’s range of cool roofs is pretty wide and there are a lot of manufacturers, it can be a real challenge to make a good choice.

Shanghai Metal Corporation besides other metal and steel products also offers a roof panel roll forming machine or a roof sheet making machine which are widely used for making various metal roof panels. For more details visit our website or send us inquiry. You could also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LindkedIn or Instagram. If you have a smart phone or tablet you can download our new application by scanning QR code below. Our English speaking staff will be more than glad to help you.

Silvia M.//SMC Editor

You can read more articles by this author here.

Credit and pictures : epa.gov, facilitiesnet.com, coolroofs.org, googleimages,

Galactic Prefab Offers Vacations in Space

Space tourism is an extreme form of travelling that has been experienced by only a few people. Due to the high prices of such service providers as Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic, only the wealthiest can spend a vacation in space. A Russian space pod design company Orbital Technologies is trying to take space tourism more mainstream.

An article on Wikipedia has gathered a list of all of the world’s eight space tourists. The lists also showed that in order to get to space, those people spent US 20 to 40 million. Orbital Technologies’ service is much more cheaper.

A Soyuz rocket will take you to a two day voyage in space with about $US 826,000. Five nights weight in $US 165,000. With that price passengers can stay in a comfortable solar-powered Commercial Space Station (CSS) orbiting the Earth within a 217 mile radius. The passengers can view the cosmos through portholes.

The price includes luxury gourmet meals that are prepared on Earth. Unfortunately alcohol is not allowed in the space flight. The passengers can use an air-flush toilet and take shower in a fully sealed water cubicle. They sleep vertically or horizontally in zippered sleeping bags that prevent them flying around in zero gravity.

The galactic prefab is also used as pod for scientific research during off-seasons. It is also used as an emergency stations for space crafts that get into trouble in space.

One interesting fact about space tourism is that it slows down aging but just a little bit. According to a theory of time dilation, say, a six month trip to space slows down aging by 0.007 seconds. Thereby arithmetically speaking, a five day voyage in a space hub would slow down aging by 0.002 seconds.

Space pod is a futuristic application of prefabricated building. For many years people have built prefab homes, hotels and hospitals etc. Shanghai Metal Corporation is also a provider of prefabricated building projects. To learn more about our projects, please visit our website. Please also look at our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram profiles. If you liked this blog, please feel free to share it.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Inhabitat, Designboom, How Stuff Works?, Wikipedia, Tuvie.com

Shakespeare Reborn in Container Theaters

We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly follow’d. –a Quotation from Shakespeare’s Othello

The modularity of shipping containers enables creative architects to design beautiful container homes and hotels. Open top containers can be turned into swimming pools. Open side containers can become excellent theaters.

In 2013 a local architecture studio O+A designed the architectural setting of the 20th Over het IJ Festival and transformed Amsterdam’s shipyard into a huge restaurant area with theatrical stages. The building of the “container city” took four days, and another two days to take down, lasting only two weeks in between.

Shipping containers theaters have also been used in Miami. In 2012, the actors of Microteatro por Dinero performed in 15 minute short dramas for 15 people six times a night in a shipping container. The concept of “por dinero performance” (in English for money) has its roots in Madrid where local actors turned an old bordello into a commercial mini theater and spread the word in social media.

Besides drama, shipping containers have also been used as movie theaters. Container mini theaters showed short films in New York in 2011. The event was a part of USA Network’s Character Project and it also was supported by the director of the Alien Saga, Ridley Scott. Audience was placed in 18-seat air conditioned screening pods to watch the shorts. The tour also took place in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

It is yet unclear when does this “Broadway in a box” concept spread globally and go mainstream. Still, because of these events, mobile mini theaters will gain popularity in cinema and drama industries.

Whenever there is a need for shipping containers, one should always contact Shanghai Metal Corporation. Our wide collection of shipping containers can help companies to pack great entertainment in a box. For more information about our shipping containers, please visit our website (http://www.smccontainer.com). Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Try also our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: WLRN, N-punto, Broadway World, Gizmag, Wired, Miami New Times, Inhabitat, Oplusa.nl

Counterfeit Money Cases

The Hollywood version of counterfeiting is always so chic and professional. Cool, practiced criminal masterminds produce precise high-tech forgeries to fool the best detection methodologies the Secret Service can muster. Of course, the reality is that not all who pass bad money are quite so adept at their craft. Take a look at some of the less subtle fakeries.

A January 2013 case saw two men arrested after one of them attempted to eat several fake bills, according to police. Police were contacted and when they arrived at the restaurant’s the pair tried to spend it in, where one of the men tried to consume the bogus cash. He was prevented from doing so. Having been denied meals at two restaurants as well as a snack on the money itself, there was no word on whether the pair finally got a good meal in jail.

Some people are surprisingly good at passing obviously bad money. In 2004, a clerk at a clothing outlet in Pennsylvania accepted a $200 bill from one customer despite the fact that there is no such denomination of U.S. currency. If a $200 note strains credulity, you can imagine the reaction of the clerk at a Georgia Wal-Mart in 2004 when a customer casually attempted to spend a $1 million bill for her purchases. Needless to say, the cashier wouldn’t have quite enough change in her drawer even if she were under the mis-impression that the United States produced seven-figure monetary denominations.

Law enforcement conducting a 2006 raid in California were surprised to find not just fake cash but 250 bills marked as having denominations of $1 billion each leaving enough phony cash in the apartment to pay off a majority of that year’s federal budget deficit. Police said bills in such massive denominations are sometimes employed in scams to defraud others.

In the not-too-distant past, counterfeiting was a difficult and expensive endeavor. It required large printing presses and the ability to cut intricate designs by hand into metal plates. Today, it’s much easier to create counterfeit bills. So remain vigilant and know how to check if your bills are. Check the portrait, seals, borders, serial number and paper used against a real bill to check its authenticity.

Shanghai Metal is committed to deterring counterfeit tender and manufactures the steel fibre for anti counterfeit paper. As an ISO 14001 (International Quality Management System) Company and recipient of the “Star Enterprise Award,” Shanghai Metal Corporation prides itself on exceeding international standards of quality and reliability. We guarantee the best prices, quality, and fast delivery. To find out more, please visit our website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

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Liquid Packaging Business That Prospered Without Angels

Shark Tank is an ABC reality show that has attracted millions of viewers worldwide. In Shark Tank entrepreneurs get a chance to pitch their business ideas to a group of venture capitalists and ask for some funding in exchange for a share of their companies. In most cases the entrepreneurs leave the tank with empty pockets, but there was one idea that the sharks would really have wanted.

Copa di Vino is an innovative way to pack wine into a glass. The company holds a utility patent for packing alcoholic beverages into a sealed glass-like plastic container. In other words, the company is the only one in the world who can pack wine in ready-to-drink glasses.

James Martin, the CEO of Copa di Vino went to the tank two times. In the first time one of the angels Kevin O’Leary offered him a licensing deal including 600,000 dollars for 51 % stake in his utility patent . Martin refused the offer and left empty handed. In the second time he was given a two million dollar evaluation and an offer from O’Leary, Marc Cuban and Robert Herjavec. That deal was never made and still, the entrepreneur has managed to sell over 15 million glasses and to reach a growth of over 1000 percent.

Liquid packing seems to be a field where businesses compete with patents and design. An example of a creative use of liquid packaging is given by a watch brand Festina. The company has packed its water resistant watches in a plastic bag of distilled water in order to demonstrate the quality of their watches. For details on the brand, please have a glimpse of our former blog on liquid packaging through this link.

Shanghai Metal Corporation is a reliable provider of automatic liquid packing machines. We also apply a high standard quality assurance and offer high-quality post-sales services. To learn more about our liquid packing machine, please visit our website. Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also download our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Wallstreetinsanity.com, ABC, Justelementary.com, ABC News, Hogshead Wine Wordpress, Seblogger.com, Nowyouknowevents.com, Festina