Lead Ingots to IS 27 Purity Grades

IS 27 was revised in 2023 and retitled 'Primary Lead' instead of 'Pig Lead', since a pig is only one of the shapes lead is cast in. It now covers five grades: Pb99.90Cu, a chemical copper lead with a deliberate copper addition, then Pb99.97, Pb99.985, Pb99.99 and Pb99.995. The number is the minimum lead content in percent.

What separates the grades is the impurity allowance. Bismuth and silver are the elements that most often decide the grade, along with copper, and the table below compares the three grades buyers ask for most. For reference, Pb99.97 matches the London Metal Exchange's minimum of 99.970 percent, and Indian smelters also sell 99.99 material.

Lead-acid battery makers are the largest users. Grey oxide for battery paste and pure lead parts need high-purity lead, because impurities such as bismuth, silver and copper affect gassing, self-discharge and plate life. Battery producers usually specify Pb99.97 or better, often Pb99.985 or Pb99.99, and many have their own tighter limits.

For radiation shielding, sheathing, ballast weights, counterweights and general castings, Pb99.97 is normally adequate. For alloying, the lead is the base to which antimony, tin or calcium is added. Hard lead for grids and castings uses antimony, and soft solders use tin; our tin-lead alloys page covers those.

There is no single answer, as each producer casts its own mould. Primary lead ingots from large Indian smelters commonly weigh around 25 kg and are strapped into bundles of roughly one tonne. Smaller ingots are produced for workshops that melt in small pots. Tell us your melting pot size or handling limit and we will tell you what is available.

Ingots are for melting. If the job is lining an X-ray room, a tank, or a roof flashing, you want rolled lead sheet instead of casting your own. Lead sheets and other lead products are covered on the lead sheets page. Buying sheet saves a melting step and gives you a controlled thickness, which matters when shielding is specified in millimetres of lead.

Remelting your own scrap lead is another option some workshops use, but scrap rarely meets any IS 27 grade. Battery scrap in particular carries antimony and calcium from the grids. Fresh primary lead ingot with a certificate removes that guesswork.

Solid lead is safe to handle with gloves, but lead dust and fume are poisonous and build up in the body. Melting should be done with fume extraction, and workers should not eat, drink or smoke in the area. Wash hands before breaks. Keep ingots dry before charging into a pot, since water trapped under a cold ingot can cause molten lead to spit violently. Dross skimmed from the pot is hazardous waste and should be handled through an authorised recycler.

• Wear gloves and wash hands before eating.
• Melt only under local fume extraction.
• Preheat ingots to drive off moisture.
• Store away from food and from children's access.

Tell us the grade, quantity and end use. Each lot can carry a test certificate from a Government-recognised test house, showing lead content and the impurity values against IS 27 limits. Jubilant Impex is ISO 9001:2015 certified, and the certificate is how you confirm the grade you paid for.