Study on high-strength and high-conductivity Cu-Fe-P alloys

A new high-strength and high-conductivity Cu-Fe-P-B-Ce alloy strengthened by cold working and aging was designed. The mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of Cu-Fe-P and Cu-Fe-P-B-Ce alloys were measured, and the microstructures of the samples were analyzed with optical microscope and by transmission electron microscopy. Results showed that the recrystallization temperature of Cu-Fe-P alloy was greatly raised by adding trace B and Ce. Thus, the good strengthening effect processed by both precipitation hardening and cold working hardening was obtained. This novel Cu-Fe-P-B-Ce alloy exhibits excellent combination property that the tensile strength (sigma(b)) is 509 MPa, the elongation (delta) is 16% and the conductivity is 80% IACS. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.