Abstract
Accounting for the microstructure evolution in the design of technology for manufacturing of parts made of Cu based alloys is the objective of the paper. The particular emphasis is put on the CuCr alloys. The general information regarding properties of these alloys are given. Thermal, electrical and mechanical properties are presented and compared with those of pure copper and steel. Investigation of the role of aging and precipitation in hardening of the CuCr alloys is a particular objective of this work. Plastometric tests and stress relaxation tests were performed at various temperatures and various strain rates with different preheating schedules. The latter allows investigation of the effect of the initial microstructure on the flow stress. Rheological model and the model of microstructure evolution and precipitation kinetics are described and validated in the paper. The models are implemented into the finite element (FE) code and the microstructure, as well as mechanical properties of final products, are predicted. The combined FE-microstructure evolution model allows analysis of various variants of the manufacturing cycles composed of different preheating schedules, hot forging, cold forging and aging.