Influence of Cu Alloying on the Microstructure and Properties of the Al–Fe Alloy, Produced by Electromagnetic Casting and Subjected to Equal-Channel Angular Pressing

The effect of alloying with 0.3 wt % of Cu on the microstructure and properties of an Al–0.5 wt % Fe alloy, obtained by continuous casting in an electromagnetic crystallizer and subjected to deformation treatment by equal-channel angular pressing and subsequent cold rolling, is studied. The implementation of two-stage deformation processing ensured the formation of a homogeneous ultrafine-grained structure in the alloy, as well as the fragmenting of the second phase intermetallic particles, which made it possible to achieve an ultimate tensile strength and electrical conductivity of 309 MPa and 55.9% IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard), respectively. It has been shown that the refinement of the grain structure and intermetallic particles caused by deformation treatment also ensures the preservation of a high level of strength of the material after annealing for 1 hour at a temperature of 230°C. Based on a generalization of the results, including those obtained in previous studies, the role of Cu alloying in achieving increased strength and thermal stability of the Al–Fe alloy with an ultrafine-grained structure was determined. The possible area of using ultrafine-grained alloys of the Al‒Fe‒Cu system as promising conductor materials is discussed.