[Determination of copper alloy hardness, in original form and after casting as a function of casting techniques]

It was evaluated the Vickers hardness of five high-copper casting alloys, in their original package form and after casting, according to the casting method used. That way, ten ingots, supplied by the manufacturers of each alloy, were included in self-curing acrylic resin, polished, numerated and submitted to Vickers hardness test at load of 200 g during 30 seconds. Afterwards the numerated ingots were removed from the acrylic resin and five of those were cast in an electrical casting machine and the other five in a centrifugal casting machine with an air/gas torch. The specimens obtained were included in self-curing acrylic resin, polished and submitted to Vickers hardness test. As a result it was verified that there is a variation of hardness among the alloys tested, and the use of the electrical casting machine produced lower hardness values than those produced when used the centrifugal casting machine with an air/gas torch. Also, there is a decrease of hardness of the cast alloys when they are tested in their original form and after casting.