Effect of melt temperature, cleanout cycle, continuous casting direction (horizontal / vertical) and super-cooler size on tensile strength, elongation percentage and microstructure of continuous cast copper alloys

¹ School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN Dundee, Scotland, UK
e-mail: E.bagherian@dundee.ac.uk
² Rautomead Ltd, DD2 4UH Dundee, Scotland, UK

Received: 22 February 2016
Accepted: 26 April 2016

Abstract

The main processing factors that control the solidification of castings, and consequently, microstructure and mechanical properties, are: chemical composition, liquid metal treatment, cooling rate and temperature gradient. In this work, the influence of melt temperature; cleanout cycle, continuous casting direction (horizontal / vertical) and super-cooler size on tensile strength and elongation percentage of continuous cast copper alloys has been characterized by tensile machine and confirmed by microstructure examination. A significant difference on tensile strength and elongation percentage has been observed by changing the processing parameters. By optimizing these parameters, the mechanical properties of continuous copper alloys can be substantially improved. As a particular example, super cooler size could improve the elongation of samples from 38% to 45% or cleanout cycle could improve the tensile strength of samples from 532 MPa to 561 MPa.