The recrystallization of heavily-drawn Doped Tungsten Wire

Abstract

The recrystallization of 0.18 mm doped tungsten wire, swaged and drawn to a true strain of 7.7 at temperatures of <0.47Tm, was investigated by light microscopy and by transmission electron microscopy. The as-drawn structure of the wire consisted of greatly elongated, ribbon-shaped grains which had a pronounced «110” fiber texture. These contained well-developed, elongated cells with few transverse boundaries. The onset of sub-boundary and grain boundary migration, together with the formation of potassium-containing bubbles in rows oriented parallel to the drawing direction, was observed after annealing at 800°C for 1 h. At higher temperatures, the spacing and the misorientation of the longitudinal subboundaries increased, and new transverse subboundaries were formed. Both subboundary and grain boundary migration were strongly inhibited by the bubble rows, as well as by the uniformity of the deformation and the well-developed texture. At 2100°C these mechanisms produced a fine-grained, partially recrystallized structure (1.2 μm average longitudinal boundary spacing) without change in the deformation texture. At 2150°C and above, large grains of high aspect ratio, which also retained the «110» drawing texture, were formed by exaggerated grain growth. This process was initiated by a very small population of grains which had acquired the necessary size advantage during the growth of the fine-grained structure.