Pure Alloy Additive or Preliminary Alloy: A Comparative Study on Obtaining High-Strength Copper Magnesium Alloys Designed for Electrical Power Systems

Abstract

Due to the increasing demand for electrical energy in modern society, there is a huge requirement for conducting materials and, due to the development of electromobility, this demand is forecasted to grow each year. This is one of the reasons why copper and copper alloys manufacturing and processing industries tend to evolve and improve. One of the improvement paths is the design of new conducting materials for electrical power systems, electrical energy transmission, and energy storage systems. This paper presents a comparative study on obtaining high-strength copper magnesium alloys in terms of the alloy additive used during the metallurgical synthesis process, because this is a crucial, initial element in obtaining the final conducting product, such as wires. The obtained ingots were tested in terms of their chemical composition, and mechanical and physical properties. The provided results prove that there is a significant increase in the materials’ hardness (and thus the ultimate tensile strength), and a slight decrease in density, impact resistance, and electrical conductivity, as the Mg content increases. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and phase analysis were additionally conducted in order to determine the distribution and origin of Mg precipitations. Collectively, the results show that the CuMg alloys may successfully replace other alloys, such as CuNiSi or CuZn, as carrying and conducting materials because their properties are superior to those of the aforementioned materials.