The mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability of a wire made of Al–Fe alloys produced by casting into an electromagnetic crystallizer

Abstract

The development and production of new aluminum-based materials is a critical task of the up-to-date industry. Particularly, new materials are necessary to produce light, strong, and thermally-stable wires and cables for household usage, transport, and power sphere. The paper presents the results of the study of the microstructure and physical and mechanical properties of Al–0.5Fe and Al–1.7Fe alloys (wt. %), produced by continuous casting into an electromagnetic crystallizer (EMC). The authors carried out a comparative analysis of alloys under the study and commercial alloys. During this analysis, the authors produced a wire with the diameter of 3 mm from the primary cast blanks by the cold drawing method (CD). The microstructure analysis showed that as a result of casting into an electromagnetic crystallizer, the particles of metastable modification Al2Fe phase appear during the crystallization process that have sizes close to the nanometric range. The use of the cold drawing method led to the substructure formation in both alloys and the refinement of intermetallic particles, which ensured the significant hardening of alloy specimens. After cold drawing, the intermetallic particles were grinded and distributed along the boundaries of grains/sub-grains. The ultimate tensile strength of the Al–0.5Fe alloy was 204 MPa, while in the Al–1.7Fe alloy, it reached 295 MPa. The electrical conductivity level of the Al–0.5Fe and Al–1.7Fe alloys wire was 58.4 and 52.0 % IACS, respectively. The study showed that the Al–Fe alloys wire with ferrum concentration of up to 1.7 wt. % demonstrated thermal stability at the level of thermally-stable Al–Zr and Al–REM conductive alloys.