Today I will be discussing on heat treatment of copper and copper alloys. Previously, some articles were published on heat treatment. Heat treatment is said to be a metalworking process of changing the physical and sometimes chemical properties of metals. Both ferrous and nonferrous metals can be heat treated.
Read more: Heat Treatment of Aluminum and Aluminum alloys
Contents
Heat treatment of copper and copper alloys:
The final products when copper undergoes heat treatment consists of wire and cable, sheet, strip, plate, rod, bars, tubing, powder, metallurgy shapes, forging, casting, etc. All these items undergo heat treatment for stability in their various operation. Process of heat treating copper include homogenizing, annealing, stress-relieving, and precipitation hardening.
Homogenizing
Homogenizing is performed to dissolve or absorb segregation and coring of cast structures. It creates a more uniform structure in hot work materials especially those containing tin and nickel.
Annealing
Annealing of copper is carried out to soften hardened (strain hardened) materials. Annealing of cold material is done by heating to a temperature that causes recrystallization. Heating above its temperature causes grain growth. Some coppers containing iron alloy maintain an extremely fine grain size at a temperature beyond their recrystallization temperature. It also exceeds the temperature where the second phase finally dissolves, proceeding the grain growth.
Read more: Heat treatment of copper and copper alloys
Finally, there are two types of annealing. soft anneal, it is below the point at which rapid grain growth begins, severally at hundred degrees higher. whist light anneal is performed at a temperature slightly above the recrystallization temperature.
Stress relieving
Stress relieving is carried out to stabilize properties and improve strength and dimensions. Especially on cold work parts and to reduce residual stresses when put to service.
Solution heat treatment and precipitation hardening
They are performed to increase the copper strength by precipitation of constituents from solid solution. Examples of precipitation hardening copper alloy include beryllium copper.
Read more: Understanding solution heat treatment, annealing, nitriding
That is all for this article, where heat treatment of copper and copper alloys is being discussed. I hope you got a lot from this post, if so, kindly share with other students. Thanks for reading, see you next time!
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