Leaded copper alloys are used to make electrical connectors and mechanical bearings, especially in the automotive industry where high performance and reliability are required.
Softer alloys with a higher lead content are also used, for example in bushes where conformance to the opposite bearing surface is important.
It is a toxic heavy metal and in recent times the use of leaded copper alloys has been reduced.
[7] Enigmatic entries in a Chinese manuscript, the Kao Gong Ji dating from around 300 BC, were deciphered by scholars in 2022, and seem to indicate that a pre-prepared copper-lead alloy named Xi(金) may have been used in the preparation of ancient bronzes.
Another copper-tin-lead alloy named Jin(锡) was also tentatively identified as a pre-prepared component of Chinese bronzes.