US 2014/0193293 A1Published application

Copper alloy

AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)

InventorsHisao Shishido, Yasuhiro Aruga, Shinya Katsura, Katsushi Matsumoto

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Abstract

Disclosed is a copper alloy containing 1.0% to 3.6% of Ni, 0.2% to 1.0% of Si, 0.05% to 3.0% of Sn, 0.05% to 3.0% of Zn, with the remainder including copper and inevitable impurities. The copper alloy has an average grain size of 25 pm or less and has a texture having an average area percentage of cube orientation of 20% to 60% and an average total area percentage of brass orientation, S orientation and copper orientation of 20% to 50%. The copper alloy has a KAM value of 0.8 to 3.0 and does not suffer from cracking even when subjected to U-bending. The copper alloy has excellent balance between strengths (particularly yield strength in a direction perpendicular to the rolling direction) and bending workability.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A copper alloy, comprising:

by mass,
Ni in a content of from 1.0% to 3.6%;
Si in a content of from 0.2% to 1.0%;
Sn in a content of from 0.05% to 3.0%;
Zn in a content of from 0.05% to 3.0%;
and
copper,
wherein:
the copper alloy has an average grain size of 25 μm or less;
the copper alloy comprises a texture having an average area percentage of cube orientation {001} <100> of from 20% to 60% and having an average total area percentage of specific three orientations of from 20% to 50% as measured by scanning electron microscope-electron back-scattering pattern analysis (SEM-EBSP) with the three orientations being brass orientation {011} <211>, S orientation {123} <634>, and copper orientation {112} <111>;
and
the copper alloy has a kernel average misorientation (KAM) value of from 1.00 to 3.00.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.