ABSTRACT
Diffusion couples of copper alloys are presented as screening tool for high-throughput alloy development. It allows estimating the precipitation hardening potential in multicomponent alloys of a vast number of compositions within one sample. The components were diffusion welded and annealed to form compositional gradients which were characterised through a grid of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. After splitting the different sample parts underwent different tempering treatments. Thereafter micro hardness grids matching the spectroscopy data were recorded and displayed in contour plots as a function of alloy composition that instantly show composition areas with hardening potential. A critical assessment of the reliability of the method is provided and checked for cu-Al/mn-Sn-ti systems against literature data.
This paper is part of a Thematic Issue on Copper and its Alloys.
Acknowledgements
The members of the user’s committee (Agosi Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt AG, G.RAU GmbH & Co. KG, Nonnenmacher GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Wieland-Werke AG, Indutherm Erwärmungsanlagen GmbH, Bruker-Spaleck GmbH) and the project partners from IWWT/Pforzheim University are acknowledged for the support of the work. The authors also want to thank their co-workers at fem research institute for their great work concerning sample preparation and performance of the analyses.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.