Effect of Hot Rolling on the Thermomechanical properties of a Superelastic Cu-Al-Be-Cr Alloy

Shape memory alloys are generally produced by casting processes and are subsequently homogenized. However, to obtain semifinished products on an industrial scale, the ingots from the casting process must be hot worked. In particular, final bar and sheet products can be obtained by hot rolling process. During intense hot work, surface oxidation of the material and microstructural changes may cause modifications to its original thermomechanical properties. In this sense, the present work aimed to study the correlation of the superelastic behavior in a Cu-Al-Be-Cr alloy before and after subjecting it to the hot rolling thermomechanical process. Abnormal grain growth was observed for a hot rolled sample with 30% reduction in initial alloy thickness. This abnormal growth in relation to non-rolled alloy caused an increase in phase transformation temperatures, a reduction in residual strain, a reduction in induction stress and an increase in alloy superelasticity.