Microstructure Evolution and Hardness of an Ultra-High Strength Cu-Ni-Si Alloy During Thermo-mechanical Processing

Microstructure evolution and hardness changes of an ultra-high strength Cu-Ni-Si alloy during thermo-mechanical processing have been investigated. For hot-compressive deformation specimens, dynamic recrystallization preferentially appeared on deformation bands. As deformation temperature increased from 750 to 900 °C, elongated grains with the Cubic texture {001} 〈100〉 were substituted by recrystallized grains with Copper texture {112} 〈111〉. For the samples having undergone cold rolling followed by annealing, static recrystallization preferentially occurred in the deformation bands, and then complete recrystallization occurred. Goss, Cubic, and Brass textures remained after annealing at 600 and 700 °C for 1 h; R texture {111} 〈211〉 and recrystallization texture {001} 〈100〉 were formed in samples annealed at 800 and 900 °C for 1 h, respectively. For samples processed under multi-directional forging at cryogenic temperature, the hardness was increased as a result of work hardening and grain refinement strengthening. These were attributed to the formation of equiaxed sub-grain structures and a high dislocation density.