Investigation on Microstructure and properties of heavily cold rolled Cu-Fe alloys

CuFe10 and CuFe15 (mass fraction) alloys were prepared by vacuum induction melting and were cold rolled heavily at room temperature. Microstructure, microhardness and electrical conductivity of these alloys were measured at various cold rolled strain levels. The experimental results showed that the microhardness increased rapidly and the electrical conductivity decreases gradually with the increase of rolling strain at first. The microhardness increased slowly while the strain eta greater than 2.3. The Fe-rich phases are deformed to ribbons filaments. However, the electrical conductivity increases again after deforming to a certain degree. The final electrical conductivities of heavily cold rolled CuFe1 and CuFe1 alloys were slight lower than vacuum inducing melted master alloys, however, the microhardness had increased about 44% and 47%, respectively.