Microstructure and properties of Cu‒Fe alloys prepared by powder metallurgy

Cu‒5%Fe alloys (mass fraction) were prepared by cold isostatic pressing, sintering, and rolling, using the elemental mixed powders, mechanical alloying powders, and water-gas combined atomized alloy powders as the raw materials. The powder morphology, microstructure, mechanical properties, and physical properties of the copper-iron alloys fabricated by the three kinds of raw materials were compared. The results show that, the iron particles are uniformly distributed, and the average size of the iron particles in the sintered body consisted of the powders by element mixing, mechanical alloying, and water-gas combined atomization are 9.4 μm, 1.2 μm, and 3.5 μm, respectively. The alloys with the water-gas combined atomization powders show the best overall performance as the tensile strength of 550 MPa, the electrical conductivity of 59.5% IACS, and the magnetic saturation strength of 9.1 emu·g^‒1.