Mechanical Properties, Fatigue Life, and Electrical Conductivity of Cu–Cr–Hf Alloy after Equal Channel Angular Pressing

Structure, mechanical, and service properties of a Cu–Cr–Hf alloy after quenching, equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP), and subsequent aging have been studied. The positive effects of ultrafine-grained structure formation (grain/subgrain size of ≈200 nm) during ECAP and strengthening particles precipitation upon subsequent aging at 450 °C on the mechanical and fatigue properties of the alloy are shown. Ultrafine-grained Cu–Cr–Hf alloy after aging shows increasing in the fatigue limit on the basis of 107 cycles from 185 to 375 MPa relative to that of the initial coarse-grained state. The alloy after ECAP and aging also exhibits sufficient elongation to failure (11.4%) and good electrical conductivity (78%IACS).