[Mechanical properties of wiredrawn Ag-Pd-Cu alloys]

Nine experimental Ag-Pd-Cu ternary alloys, containing 20-30 wt% Pd and 10-20 wt% Cu, were cast into rods 4.5 mm in diameter using an original vacuum/argon-pressure oxide-free casting technique. Test samples 2.0 mm in diameter were made from the rods by wire-drawing. After softening and hardening heat treatments, mechanical properties (modulus of elasticity, elastic limit, proof stress, tensile strength, elongation, and Vickers hardness) of the samples were measured to analyze the effects of composition and fifteen sets of correlations between the mechanical properties on the condition that few internal casting defects existed. After softening heat treatment, values of hardness and strength increased with increasing Cu and Pd contents, while they increased approximately with increasing Pd content after hardening heat treatment. After softening and hardening heat treatments, tensile strength ranged from 44.4 to 60.7 and from 68.1 to 89.1 kgf/mm2, respectively. Values of elongation were more than 10% even after hardening heat treatment. Fourteen out of fifteen correlation coefficients (r) were statistically significant (p less than 0.01). One of the regression lines derived was as follows. Tensile strength (kgf/mm2) = 9.1 +/- 0.305 Hv (r = 0.990) Moreover, the mechanical properties observed in this investigation were compared with those of ordinarily cast samples with the same compositions.