Effect of rolling and annealing processes on the hardness and electrical conductivity values of Cu–13.5%Mn–4%Ni alloy

It was found that the dendritic microstructure of an as-cast alloy was changed to an almost equiaxed alloy after 480 min of annealing at 700 °C. The electrical conductivity of as-cast and hot rolled samples increased from 27.36 and 30.51% IACS to 30.67 and 32.1% IACS after 480 min of annealing at 700 °C. The dendritic microstructure and the electrical conductivity values of an as-cast alloy annealed for 60 min remained almost unchanged when the annealing temperature was increased to 800 °C. The hardness values of the samples that were hot rolled and annealed for 60 min were higher than those of the as-cast samples for all annealing temperatures. The electrical conductivity values of the hot rolled and as-cast samples were almost the same after annealing at 800 °C for 60 min. It was shown that after 20% cold work, the electrical conductivity value of the as-cast sample decreased from 30.5% IACS to 22.6% IACS. The electrical conductivity values of the samples were not significantly changed when the cold work was increased from 20% to 60%. The electrical conductivity values of the 20%, 40% and 60% cold worked samples increased from 22.62, 24.69 and 26.63 to 27.14,28.36 and 30.55% IACS, respectively, after 30 min annealing at 400 °C.