The Effect of Severe Plastic Deformation and Heat Treatment on CuCrZr Alloys

CuCrZr alloy was subjected to equal channel angular pressing method, belonging to the severe plastic deformation group, followed by heat treatment under different ageing conditions to optimize mechanical properties of the alloy. Before equal channel angular pressing, CuCrZr alloy was treated by solution annealing at temperature 1020°C for 1 h. Afterwards, samples were pressed through an equal channel angular pressing die once at room temperature and subjected to artificial ageing under different conditions (200, 400, 450, 480°C for 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 min). Optimization of the CuCrZr alloy was done through the study of mechanical properties and microhardness as a function of ageing temperature and time considering the progress in microstructural/substructural features.