Synergistic Strengthening of Cu-Cr-Zr-Mg Alloy by Multi-step Deformation-Aging Process
摘要
Cu-1.0Cr-0.25Zr-0.3Mg alloys were fabricated by vacuum induction melting, cast in a copper mold and subjected to multi-step deformation-aging treatment. Through the synergistic effect of precipitates and dislocations, we successfully achieved high conductivity of 98.7% IACS, high hardness of 192.2 HB and high strength of 559.7 MPa in Cu-1.0Cr-0.25Zr-0.3Mg alloy. Different from the traditional treatment, this study adopts a new multi-step deformation-aging treatment, which can effectively improve the decrease in conductivity caused by deformation, strengthen the contribution of dislocations and precipitates, and achieve dual-phase strengthening. Compared with single-step deformation-aging, the properties are greatly improved and the plasticity is restored. After single-step treatment, two types of nano-precipitates appear in the alloy, which are semi-coherent ellipsoidal Cr phase and spherical Heusler phase CrCu2(ZrMg), which are dispersed near the dislocation line. After multi-step treatment, the size of CrCu2(ZrMg) particles is 4-6 nm, which is smaller than before. The Cr particles are even finer in size, only 3-5 nm. The multi-step deformation-aging strengthening effect is the result of the interaction between the dislocations, precipitates and residual solute atoms.