Study on the improvement of electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of low alloying electrical aluminum alloys

Abstract In this paper, several low alloying conductive Al alloys Al-0.5Fe-0.2Si, Al-0.5Mg-0.35Si, Al-0.8Fe-0.2Cu were selected as the research objects. According to our study, the combination of boron treatment and grain refinement was proved to be an effective method to improve the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the alloys. Firstly, 0.12% was chosen as the optimal amount of boron addition and the electrical conductivity of Al-0.5Mg-0.35Si, Al-0.5Fe-0.2Si and Al-0.8Fe-0.2Cu can be improved to 55.0%IACS, 58.3%IACS and 59.8%IACS, improved by 3.8%, 10%, 6.4% respectively. Secondly, based on the former step, boron treatment combined with grain refinement, the electrical conductivities of Al-0.5Mg-0.35Si, Al-0.5Fe-0.2Si and Al-0.8Fe-0.2Cu can be further improved to 56.5%IACS, 60.4%IACS and 61.8%IACS. At the same time, the low alloying conductive Al alloys show excellent mechanical properties.