Influences of Cold Rolling and Aging on Microstructure and Property of CuCrSn Alloy

The CuCrSn alloy is promising as a high-strength and high-conductivity Cu alloy due to its relatively low smelting requirement. However, thus far investigations into the CuCrSn alloy are still quite lacking. In this study, the microstructure and properties of Cu-0.20Cr-0.25Sn (wt%) alloy specimens prepared under different rolling and aging combinations were comprehensively characterized, in order to reveal the effects of cold rolling and aging on properties of the CuCrSn. The results show that increasing the aging temperature from 400 °C to 450 °C can noticeably accelerate precipitation, and cold rolling before aging significantly increases its microhardness and promotes precipitation However, the deformation hardening is eliminated during the aging process, making the microhardness decrease monotonically when the aging temperature and the cold rolling ratio before aging are high. Performing cold rolling after aging can maximize precipitation strengthening and deformation strengthening, and the adverse impact on its conductivity is not serious. A tensile strength of 506.5 MPa and a conductivity of 70.33% IACS were obtained by such a treatment, whereas only the elongation decreases a little. Different strength-conductivity combinations of the CuCrSn alloy can be achieved through appropriate design of the aging and post-aging cold rolling conditions.