Annealing twin formation and recrystallization study of cold-drawn copper wires from EBSD measurements

The crystallographic texture and microstructure of an electrolytic tough pitch copper have been investigated by Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) after cold wire drawing (reduction in area between 52% and 94%) and after primary recrystallization. The material presents a deformation texture composed of major 〈111〉 and minor 〈100〉 fibers. The evolution of the quality index of the Kikuchi patterns shows that the stored energy is lower in the 〈100〉 fiber than in the 〈111〉 fiber. Then, after recrystallization, the volume fraction of the 〈100〉 fiber increases at the expense of the other texture components. The study of the grain boundary nature shows that the recrystallization twin fraction decreases with increasing strain. It is shown that this evolution is the consequence of the grain size reduction.