Mechanical and faigue properties of powder metallurgy processed Cu-Nb strong conductor

In this paper, powder metallurgy processing of Cu-Nb microcomposites is examined. A restacking technique is developed to achieve the high areal reductions necessary to reduce the Nb powder particles to ultra-fine fibers. Cold deformation was the key factor in achieving high strength. Sintering followed by cold hydrostatic extrusion and cold wire drawing is successful in producing strong Cu-Nb composites both at the laboratory scale and larger scales. Ultimate tensile strengths of 1600 and 1035 MPa are obtained for composites at laboratory and intermediate scale respectively. The conductivity of these composites were in the range of 70% of pure Cu. Detailed microscopic examinations of the Cu matrix and the Nb filaments at various stages of processing are conducted with TEM, SEM, and optical microscopy. Fracture surface of tensile specimen are studied