Annealing effect of micro-alloying on the microstructure and properties of Cu-10Zn alloy

The effect of Fe and P (Ni and Si) on the microstructure and properties of Cu-10Zn alloys has been investigated using hardness test, electrical conductivity measurement, optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. γ-Fe precipitates formed during the aging process, but there is almost no effect of precipitation strengthening on the Cu-Zn-Fe-P alloy and sparsely Fe3P precipitates existed in the matrix. After homogenization treatment at 900°C for 2h, hot rolling by 80%, cold rolling by 80%, and ageing treatment at 400°C for 30min, Cu-Zn-Ni-Si alloy obtained good combinations of hardness (219.8HV) and electrical conductivity(28.2%IACS). Ni2Si precipitates formed during aging process and the crystal orientation relationship between matrix and precipitates is:(200) α || (100) δ , [100] α || [010] δ ,. Compared with Cu-Zn-Fe-P, Cu-Zn-Ni-Si has finer grains, and the precipitation strengthening effect is more obvious.