Effects of precipitation and strain-induced martensitic transformation of Fe-C phases on the mechanical properties of Cu-Fe-C alloy

Effects of precipitation and strain-induced martensitic transformation of Fe-C phases on the mechanical properties of Cu-Fe-C alloy were systematically studied. The results reveal that, the hardness and strengths of Cu-Fe-C alloy can be increased after cold rolling, and forming shear bands in the alloy matrix. However, compared with directly cold rolling, the hardness, strengths and elongation can be all increased much more after using the processing of cold rolling 80%+heat treatment at 400 °C for 60 min+cold rolling 75%, which results from the contribution of both work hardening and precipitation strengthening of nano-sized α-Fe particles formed by strain-induced martensitic transformation. The formed α-Fe particles satisfy the K-S orientation relationship with Cu matrix, i.e. (011)α-Fe//(−111)Cu,[−11-1] α-Fe//[110]Cu. These findings provide inspiring using the martensitic transformation of Fe-C phases to improve mechanical properties of Cu-Fe-C alloys.