Increasing strength and electrical conductivity of Cu-0.77%Cr-0.86%Hf alloy by rotary swaging and subsequent aging

The effect of cold rotary swaging (RS) and subsequent aging on the structure, electrical conductivity, mechanical characteristics and fracture toughness of the Cu-0.77%Cr-0.86%Hf alloy was studied. RS leads to the formation of a microstructure elongated along the direction of deformation with grains width of 8.0 ± 0.2 μm. An ultrafine-grained structure with shear bands of 370 ± 10 nm in width and subgrains of 500 ± 13 nm in size is formed inside these elongated grains. The refinement of the microstructure after RS leads to an increase in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) from 300 ± 5 to 505 ± 12 MPa and a decrease in ductility from 54.0 ± 2.4 to 12.9 ± 0.3%. A subsequent aging of the alloy leads to the precipitation of fine particles of Cr and Cu5Hf phases. The precipitation of these particles leads to an additional increase in UTS of RS-treated alloy up to 558 ± 11 MPa and ductility up to 15.4 ± 2.4%. In this case, the decomposition of the supersaturated solid solution, which accompanies the particles precipitation, leads to an increase in the electrical conductivity of the deformed alloy up to 77.7 ± 1.6%IACS. The combination of RS and subsequent aging at a temperature of 450 °C for 4 h leads to an increase in the fatigue limit from 220 to 393 MPa. In addition, this treatment allows to increase the fracture toughness coefficient by 6 times.