Develop an effective oxygen removal method for copper powder

Abstract

At present, one of crucial limitations for the hot isostatically pressed (HIPed) Cu-3Ag-0.5Zr alloy, which is used on the combustion chamber liner of aerospace engine, is the high oxygen content, which easily results in the intergranular fracture under high temperature, pressure, liquid hydrogen and oxygen environment during operation. In this study, a novel effective oxygen control method is developed, for which vacuum degassing process is integrated with a flowing hydrogen reduction reaction at an elevated temperature before HIP. For this technique, a container is designed with two gas pipes for hydrogen inflow and outflow, so the hydrogen circulation can be established. Allowing hydrogen to react effectively with oxygen, the oxygen content of HIPed alloy is found to drop significantly from 140 ppm (raw powder) to 28 ppm, which is equivalent to the oxygen-free copper and copper alloys. As a result of the reduction, no prior particle boundaries could be observed in the low oxygen content material. Although the tensile strength of the materials with and without employing this technique does not vary significantly, the ductility of low oxygen content material has improved by about 70% at 500 °C. This significant improvement of ductility is critical to ensure the safety critical PM components.