The electrical conductivity of CuCrZr alloy after SPD processing

Abstract

CuCrZr alloys exhibit very good relation between mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. However, for its use in some advanced applications improvement of mechanical strength while preserving high electrical conducting is required. Therefore, in this work a CuCrZr alloy was subjected to a series of thermo-mechanical treatments, including solution annealing and water quenching, SPD processing (using hydrostatic extrusion and ECAP) as well as aging in order to improve mechanical strength. The influence of these processing procedures on microstructure features and mechanical properties was determined by TEM observation and microhardness measurements, respectively. Electrical conductivity of the samples was measured by four-points method. The results have shown that it is possible to improve mechanical strength while preserving good electrical conductivity by a proper combination of SPD processing and heat treatment. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.