Effect of ECAP combined cold working on mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of Conform-produced Cu-Mg alloys

A Cu-0.2 wt%Mg alloy and a Cu-0.4 wt%Mg alloy after Conform-process were deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) and subsequent cold working (CW) at room temperature, aim to obtain excellent overall performance for new commercial contact wires. The ECAP plus CW procedure made the grains of the two alloys obviously ultra-fine and elongated, which significantly increased their micro-hardness and tensile strength while maintained a fairly good electrical conductivity. After annealing at 573 K, the tensile strength of the two ECAP + CW-processed alloys reduced, but the electrical conductivity and ductility increased. The combination processing can endow the two Cu-Mg alloys high strength and good conductivity, which are advantageous to the current high-frequency electrification railway systems. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.