Jee Hyuk Ahn1,2,Seung Zeon Han1,Eun-Ae Choi1,Heung Nam Han2
Korea Institute of Materials and Science1,Seoul National University2
Jee Hyuk Ahn1,2,Seung Zeon Han1,Eun-Ae Choi1,Heung Nam Han2
Korea Institute of Materials and Science1,Seoul National University2
The discontinuous precipitation (DP) was known to mechanically detrimental mechanism compared to normal precipitation (continuous precipitation, CP), while the DP-structure has higher conductivity than the CP-structure. To get the optimum balance of strength and conductivity, we controlled the fraction of DP-structured area in the Cu matrix of Cu-4Ni-1Si alloy by changing aging time. After successive cold-working, the alloy showed considerably wide ranges of strength and electrical conductivity, from 500 to 1,170 MPa, and from 23 to 50% IACS, respectively. The accelerated strengthening of the alloy with DP is caused by uni-directional alignment and enhanced plastic deformation of DPs in alloy after cold-working. The DP-structured area was more severely deformed than CP counterpart region during cold-working when the alloy has a mixed form of CP and DP. The alloy with CP- and DP-structures leads a drastic increase of strength without sacrifice of conductivity.