Effects of cold working and heat treatment on microstructure and wear behaviour of Cu–Be alloy C17200

Journal article, 2015

© 2015 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and W. S. Maney & Son Ltd. The effects of cold work process between aging and solution heat treatment on the microstructure, hardness and the tribologic behaviour of a copper–beryllium (Cu–Be) alloy C17200 were investigated. The wear behaviour of the alloys was studied using ‘pin on disc’ method under dry conditions. The results show that the formation of fine grained structure and γ phase particles enhances the mechanical properties of the alloy; nonetheless, they do not reduce the wear rate. This is attributed to the capability of the softer specimens to maintain oxygen rich compounds during the dry sliding test.