Strain Tempering of FCC Metals by Rapid Heating and Cooling

Abstract

The strain tempering for a heating time of 0.2 s was performed on the cold-drawn wires of pure nickel, OFHC copper and 65∼35 brass, all with FCC crystal structure.
The effect of the heat treatment on the improvement of resistance to stress relaxation for nickel wire was nearly equal to a low carbon martensite rod and PC steel wire. On the other hand, the effects for OFHC wire and 65–35 brass wire were negligibly small at least on the improvement of the resistance to stress relaxation at ambient temperature.
These results are discussed in comparison with the published data on low carbon martensite rods, PC steel wires and decarburized iron wire, and the depressing effect of the strain tempering on the stress relaxation is proposed to be due to a three-dimensional rearrangement of cold-worked substructures.