Effect of process parameters on surface quality and bonding quality of brass cladding copper stranded wire prepared by continuous pouring process for clad

Abstract

Brass cladding copper stranded wire with an outer diameter of 10 mm and core material of d2.12mm × 7 strand was prepared by solid-liquid composite method with continuous pouring process for clad. Compared with the cladding welding method which requires multiple drawings to make the composite welding wire achieve metallurgical bonding, it saves a lot of manpower and material resources and shortens the production cycle. The bonding mechanism of brass and copper was analyzed by experiments, meanwhile, the effects of brass melt temperature and casting speed on the surface quality and interface bonding quality of the composite wire were investigated. The results show that, on the one hand, increasing the melt temperature of brass and reducing the casting speed can inhibit the surface defects of the composite. On the other hand, reducing the temperature of the brass melt and increasing the casting speed can inhibit the excessive element diffusion at the bonding interface, thereby reducing the degree of surface erosion of the copper strand. The final reasonable process parameters are as follows: the brass melt temperature is 970 °C–990 °C, the traction speed is 40 mm/min∼80 mm/min, and the cooling water volume of the crystallizer is 450L/h. The prepared brass cladding copper stranded wire has good quality, Vickers hardness is between 80 - 85HV, and tensile strength is between 265 - 297 MPa. Elongation after fracture is 40.3%∼43.9%, conductivity is 53.8–62.1% IACS.