TECHNOLOGIES
Development of copper wire deformation technology
The paper studies the evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of copper wire during a new combined deformation process. The essence of the technological process is deformation of wire in a rotating equal-channel step matrix and subsequent drawing. The matrix rotates around the wire axis and thereby creates stress due to equal-channel angular drawing and twisting in the matrix. The deformed copper wire was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and EBSD analysis, as well as tensile tests and microhardness determination. The deformation resulted in an ultrafine-grained gradient microstructure having a high component of high-angle grain
boundaries. The tensile strength of the deformed copper wire compared to the undeformed one increases more than twice from 302 to 635 MPa, and the yield strength increases from 196 to 306 MPa, an increase of 56%. The use of such hardened copper wire in construction will reduce the weight of the structure by reducing the diameter.