🔍 Key Concepts
• Mechanical properties of hard drawn vs soft (annealed) copper tubing in refrigeration work
• Typical methods of making joints and changes in direction on hard drawn copper (flare, bend, swage, brazed fittings)
• How rigidity vs flexibility of the tubing affects field fabrication (flaring, bending, swaging)
đź’ Think About
• Think about whether hard drawn copper is more rigid or more flexible than soft copper, and how that affects your ability to hand-bend or flare it in the field.
• Compare which operations (flaring, bending, swaging) usually require softer, more malleable tubing, and which are avoided when the material is stiff.
• Consider what type of fittings and joining method you typically see on large, fixed refrigeration plant piping using hard drawn copper—are they mostly flare fittings, or something else?
âś… Before You Answer
• Verify whether hard drawn copper is normally supplied in straight lengths (rigid) or coils (flexible).
• Check which operations—flaring, bending, swaging—are commonly done on soft copper versus hard drawn copper.
• Confirm what joining method (flare, compression, or brazed fittings) is standard practice on larger, fixed refrigeration systems with hard drawn copper tubing.