{"id":1089,"date":"2018-10-09T07:58:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T07:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:33:52","slug":"alpaca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/alpaca\/","title":{"rendered":"German silver (Alpaca)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German silver (also called nickel silver) is a copper-nickel-zinc alloy sold, among other things, under the trade name Alpaca. Despite its name, German silver contains no actual silver at all \u2013 the name refers only to its bright, silvery-white appearance, which resembles that of real silver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of its silvery color, good corrosion resistance and favorable cold-working properties, German silver is used wherever a silver-like appearance or specific spring and conductivity properties are needed without the cost of real silver. Typical applications include cutlery and flatware, often as a base metal for subsequent silver plating, musical instruments such as flutes, saxophones and valves for brass instruments, decorative fittings and hardware, and electrical contacts, springs and connectors, where the copper-nickel-zinc composition combines corrosion resistance with useful mechanical and electrical properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Composition of German Silver \/ Alpaca<sup><a href=\"#q1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alpaca is the trade name for standardized German silver wrought alloys such as CuNi12Zn24 and CuNi18Zn20 under EN 1652<sup><a href=\"#q1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup>, which cover a composition range of roughly 60-66% copper (Cu), 11-19% nickel (Ni), the remainder zinc (Zn), with lead (Pb) limited to max. 0.03% in both grades.<sup><a href=\"#q1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Element<\/th><th>CuNi12Zn24<\/th><th>CuNi18Zn20<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Copper (Cu)<\/td><td>63.0-66.0%<\/td><td>60.0-63.0%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Nickel (Ni)<\/td><td>11.0-13.0%<\/td><td>17.0-19.0%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Lead (Pb)<\/td><td>max. 0.03%<\/td><td>max. 0.03%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Zinc (Zn)<\/td><td>remainder<\/td><td>remainder<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Density<\/td><td colspan=\"2\">approx. 8.7 g\/cm\u00b3<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Standards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wrought copper-nickel-zinc alloys of the German silver type are covered by European copper alloy standards such as EN 1652 (plate, sheet and strip)<sup><a href=\"#q1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup> and EN 12163 (rod), under designations like CuNi12Zn24 or CuNi18Zn20, with the compositions given in the table above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Does German silver contain any silver?<\/strong><br>No. German silver, also sold as Alpaca, is a copper-nickel-zinc alloy. The name comes from its silvery appearance, not from an actual silver content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What is German silver used for?<\/strong><br>German silver is used for cutlery and flatware, musical instruments, decorative fittings, and electrical contacts and springs, wherever a silvery appearance and good corrosion resistance are required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What is the difference between German silver and Alpaca?<\/strong><br>There is no material difference: Alpaca is simply the trade name under which German silver, standardized as e.g. CuNi12Zn24 or CuNi18Zn20 under EN 1652 with roughly 60-66% Cu, 11-19% Ni, max. 0.03% Pb and the remainder zinc, is sold commercially.<sup><a href=\"#q1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German silver is a typical example of a <a href=\"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/compound-alloy\/\">compound alloy<\/a>, produced through a defined <a href=\"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/alloying\/\">alloying<\/a> process. For more background on alloys in general, see our article on the term <a href=\"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/alloy\/\">alloy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"quellen wp-block-list\"><li id=\"q1\">European Committee for Standardization: EN 1652:1997, Copper and copper alloys \u2013 Plate, sheet, strip and circles for general purposes, Table 2 (Composition of copper alloys), p. 13; German national edition consulted: DIN EN 1652:1998-03. Grades CW403J (CuNi12Zn24) and CW409J (CuNi18Zn20).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">See Also<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>German edition: <a href=\"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/alpaca\/\">Alpaka<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>German silver (also called nickel silver) is a copper-nickel-zinc alloy sold, among other things, under the trade name Alpaca. Despite its name, German silver contains no actual silver at all \u2013 the name refers only to its bright, silvery-white appearance, which resembles that of real silver. Because of its silvery color, good corrosion resistance and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/alpaca\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">German silver (Alpaca)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5988,"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/5988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutfoundry.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}