Comparison of the Properties of Cu-Nb/Ti Composite Wires Fabricated by Wire Drawing and Swaging

This paper presents a comparison of the mechanical properties and microstructure of heavily deformed Cu-Nb/Ti composite wires produced via different fabrication routes. Three main fabrication routes; wire drawing, swaging and a combination of swaging and drawing, were employed with/without intermediate annealing heat treatments. Metallographic and mechanical testing techniques were used to characterize the wires. The experimental results showed that the wire produced by drawing exhibited the highest strength. Also, the application of intermediate heat treatment during fabrication resulted in the reduction of tensile strength. It was found that the strengthening of this high volume fraction Cu-Nb/Ti composite could not be explained by standard Hall-Petch type model.