Dissemination of IT for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS)

DoITPoMS Micrograph Library Full Record for Micrograph 665

Full Record for Micrograph 665

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Micrograph no
665
Brief description
Al-90 wt% Cu (bronze)
Keywords
alloy Link to MATTER Glossary entry for alloy, aluminium Link to MATTER Glossary entry for aluminium, bronze Link to MATTER Glossary entry for bronze, copper, corrosion resistance, lamella Link to MATTER Glossary entry for lamella, martensite Link to MATTER Glossary entry for martensite, metal, Widmanstätten Link to MATTER Glossary entry for Widmanstätten
Categories
Metal or alloy
System
Al-Cu   Link to phase diagram
Composition
Al 10, Cu 90 (wt%)
Standard codes
Reaction
Processing
Applications
Bearings, gears, corrosion resistant vessels
Sample preparation
Etched in ferric chloride
Technique
Reflected light microscopy
Length bar
400 μm
Further information
This is a copper-aluminium bronze containing 10 wt% aluminium. A small amount of iron is often added to act as a grain refiner to improve the mechanical properties. Alloys with more than 8 wt% aluminium solidify as the b phase. Below about 930ºC, Widmanstätten a phase precipitates. At the eutectoid temperature (565ºC) the remaining b decomposes to a lamellar eutectoid of a and b. Rapid cooling from the high temperature b phase can form martensite instead of Widmanstätten a. Aluminium bronzes have high strength, corrosion resistance and good high temperature properties (up to 300-400ºC). Typical applications include bearings, gears and corrosion resistant vessels.
Contributor
Dr J Marrow
Organisation
Department of Materials Science, University of Manchester and UMIST
Date
07/11/02
Licence for re-use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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