Effect of heat treatment on the plasticity of molybdenum-doped iron–copper pseudoalloys

The effect of heat treatment on the mechanical properties and microstructure of Fe–30% Cu pseudoalloys doped with 10% Mo is studied. The samples were produced by compacting mechanically alloyed metal powder mixtures and subjecting them to solid-phase sintering (SPS) and liquid-phase sintering (LPS) at 1000 and 1130°C, followed by quenching and tempering. It is shown that doping Fe–Cu pseudoalloys with molybdenum increases the density of the compacts after both SPS and LPS (residual porosity about 1%). The interdiffusion of all the three components promotes the formation of stable heterophase fine-grained microstructure which prevents grain growth and improves the plasticity of the FeCuMo pseudoalloys. Heat treatment increases the strength of FeCuMo and does not affect its high plasticity. The FeCuMo samples produced by SPS and LPS show optimum values of ultimate strength (683–694 MPa and 741–752 MPa), elongation (12.1–12.4% and 8.2–9.4%), and contraction (24.0–25.9% and 12.5–19.7%) after heat treatment.