International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 6, Issue 7, Jul 2015, pp. 74-80, Article ID: IJMET_06_07_009

Available online at
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ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
IAEME Publication
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DEFORMATION BEHAVIOR AND

CHARACTERIZATION OF COPPER ALLOY
IN EXTRUSION PROCESS
Shalini Kumari and Ajeet Kumar Rai
Mechanical Engineering Department, SSET, SHIATS
Allahabad-211004, UP, India
Devendra Kumar Sinha
Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT - BHU,
Varanasi, UP, India
Rahul Charles Francis
MED, SSET, SHIATS,
Allahabad-211004, UP, India
ABSTRACT
In the proposed work experimental studies have been performed on the
extrusion of Copper rod. The commercial extrusion machine has been used for
the extrusion of copper circular rod of diameter 12.5 mm. Microstructure
analyses of the extruded products of Copper before and after deformation
(extrusion) have been carried out. Material properties of Copper have been
found using tensile and hardness test. It is observed that more uniform and
homogeneous grains are obtained after extrusion. It is observed that the
tensile strength of the extruded product increases by 6.8 % after extrusion of
material and the braking load is increased by 22.9%.
Key words: Copper Alloy, Extrusion process and Hardness test
Cite this Article: Kumari, S., Rai, A. K. Sinha, D. K. and Francis, R. C.
Deformation Behavior and Characterization of Copper Alloy in Extrusion
Process. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology,
6(7), 2015, pp. 74-80.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JTypeIJMET&VType=6&IType=7
_____________________________________________________________________

1. INTRODUCTION
Extrusion is an important metal forming process having applicability in industrial as
well as domestic sectors. Extrusion is the process by which a block of metal is
reduced in cross section by forcing it through a die orifice under high pressure [11,
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Deformation Behavior and Characterization of Copper Alloy in Extrusion Process

12]. Some of the important products of extrusion are rods of various cross sections,
tubes, I-sections, channels etc. Extrusion is a hot-working process, which, like
forging, rolling, etc., uses the good deformability of heated metallic materials for
shaping them. The most important aspect of this process is that it enables considerable
change of shape to be achievable in a single operation. Extrusion process is a means
of dealing with metals and alloys whose metallurgical & mechanical properties
renders them unsuitable for shaping by other manufacturing methods. With extrusion
it is possible to form complex sections that cannot be produced by other methods of
manufacturing.
One of the current challenges faced by the manufacturing industry is to produce
component of high strength, resistance to fatigue, heat corrosion and low production
cost. Forming is one of the process, which bears the additional advantage of greater
utilization of raw materials and high productivity apart from above advantage. Among
the common forming processes extrusion-forging is a process where difficult to
produce shapes, can be formed with better mechanical properties and net shape
production can be achieved. The experimental works on plastic deformation [12, 14]
and metal forming starting in France by Colomb and Tresca. In the early 20th century
the research on plastic deformation flourished in German. Towards the 2nd half of the
20th century analysis of the metal forming process was developed and efficiently used
in all over the world. Many researchers contributed remarkable findings towards the
field of extrusion [16].

2. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND CHARACTERIZATION

In the previous chapter literature review on Extrusion process has been carried out so
that the probable conditions for the experiments could be made and experiments can
be carried out successfully for different metals and alloys and formability knowledge
could be generated to help industries involved in continuous extrusion process [24,
69]. The results so obtained would be required to be validated the process under
study so as to ensure the correctness of the theory and practice. In the extrusion
process, extrusion ratio, extrusion velocity and pressure by intensifier can be set and
calculated and the best condition for extrusion of an alloy or metal is found .It is
desired that a defect free part is produced. All the products of different alloys or
metals out of the fabricated and commercial extrusion set up have been formed and
presented in section 3.2. Material characterization of the product samples such as
microstructure analysis, tensile test and hardness test before and after deformation has
been carried out in this chapter to predict the material properties of feedstock before
and after extrusion. The experiment is done for the Copper feedstock for several
extrusion speed and extrusion ratio and formability of Copper has been found very
well after the experiments. Figures 13 show the extruded product of Copper at
different velocity and extrusion ratio. Figure 3 show the commercial setup used for
carrying out the experimentation of Copper feedstock at different velocity and
extrusion ratio.
Table 1 Chemical Composition of the Copper feedstock (C 101) used for extrusion
experiments
Elements

% Composition

Copper

99.99

Oxygen

0.0005

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Shalini Kumari, Ajeet Kumar Rai, Devendra Kumar Sinha and Rahul Charles Francis

Figure 1 Pure Copper rod feedstock before extrusion of 12.5 mm diameter

Figure 2 Extruded Copper rod of 8mm diameter, extrusion ratio 3.18

3. CHARACTERIZATION
In this section three more studies are introduced such as Microstructure analysis of the
extruded products like Copper, Tensile test and Hardness test of the extruded products
to examine the material properties and microstructure prior and after the deformation
of the feedstock material.

3.1. Microstructure analysis of the raw material and extruded product

In this section, the process of microstructure analysis of the extruded products through
LOM (Light Optical Microscopy) method is explained .The Extrusion of Copper rod
is carried out on the commercially available Extrusion set up TBJ 350.
Metallography (Sample Preparation) of Samples
The products of Copper extruded out using the commercially available setup are
cut to a finite length using hacksaw as shown in Figure 3. Also samples of raw
feedstock of Copper are prepared to study the microstructure of the material before
and after deformation [13]. The aim of this section is to determine the probable
extrusion speed and extrusion ratio at which the best microstructures are obtained.

Figure 3 Microstructure samples of Copper rod before and after extrusion

For microstructure analysis of any material, the faces of prepared samples on

which microstructures is to be obtained are initially rubbed on emery papers of coarse,
medium and fine grades in longitudinal and lateral directions so as to avoid any

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Deformation Behavior and Characterization of Copper Alloy in Extrusion Process

scratches and obtain mirror like faces before polishing of the samples. Polishing of the
samples plays a vital role in the microstructure analysis of different materials. Some
materials which are very soft such as Aluminum are very sensitive to pressure,
therefore polishing of such kind of materials consumes much time as compared to
other materials such as Copper and Brass. Polishing of the prepared samples are
carried out till scratch free mirror like finish of the faces of the prepared samples are
obtained. Velvet cloth, Brasso and Kerosene have been used while polishing of the
prepared samples. During polishing of the prepared samples it has been found that
polishing of Copper is easier as compared to the polishing of Aluminum samples.
After polishing, the samples are etched using proper etchant. For Aluminum samples,
Kellers reagent (3 ml HCl, 5 ml HNO3, 2 ml HF, 190 ml water) has been used as
etchant whereas for Copper samples Ferric chloride in suspension of hydro fluoric
acid and water has been used as etchant. Finally, the polished scratch free samples are
mounted on the slide and are placed under the microscope with different
magnifications for obtaining microstructures of the prepared samples..

3.2. Microstructure analysis of samples

Different samples of Aluminum and Copper at various extrusion wheel velocity and
extrusion ratio have been taken to study the microstructure and deformation
characteristics. Measurement of grain size and its comparison before and after
deformation (extrusion) is possible by using standard length at different places in an
image and the equation is given as:
d= (Laverage.grain shape factor)/M
Where d: grain diameter, and
M: magnification
and grain shape factor is constant for every material .Therefore its value can be
neglected for comparison before and after deformation (extrusion).
L(ave)= 1/NL/ni
N: number of data
L: Real visible and measured test length and
ni: number of intercept.

For all images real magnification has been calculated from the ratio of visible or
actual standard length over written length. All the samples are of circular shape cut
out of raw feedstocks as well as of extruded products. The samples of Aluminum and
Copper are prepared from the extruded product at various extrusion wheel velocity
and extrusion ratio. Sample of raw feedstock is also prepared to examine its
microstructure before deformation (extrusion) and comparison of microstructure and
grain size can be studied at different extrusion wheel velocity and extrusion ratio.
LOM (Light Optical Microscope) has been used for getting images of microstructure
after proper polishing. Magnification of 50x, 100x and 200x has been used for all the
samples. PL-Ink capture and Axiovision Rel 4.8 software have been used for
obtaining the images under microscope and for measuring the grain size by making
standard length respectively.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Microstructure Analysis
In this section the microstructure images of all the samples of Copper alloy (C 101)
has been carried out under different extrusion ratio. The microstructure of the
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Shalini Kumari, Ajeet Kumar Rai, Devendra Kumar Sinha and Rahul Charles Francis

feedstock before extrusion and the final microstructure of the extruded product are
shown in Figures 4 and 5. The microstructure images of all the samples show no
considerable changes of grain size during before deformation (extrusion) but the
shape of grains is changed as they are elongated after deformation (extrusion). The
feedstock before extrusion has uniform grains. The average size of the extruded alloy
after extrusion ranges from 80 m to 200 m.

Figure 4 shows the microstructures of Copper samples of raw feedstock of 12.5 mm size at
50x, 100x and 200x respectively.

Figure 5 Shows the microstructures of Copper samples of 8 mm size at 50x, 100x and 200x
respectively

4.2. Tensile Test Result

It can be inferred from the table that maximum load bearing capacity of the extruded
product increases by 8%. The tensile strength of the extruded product increases by 6.8
% and the braking load is increased by 22.9% after extrusion of material.
Table 2 Tensile Test result of Copper rod

S.
No.

1
2

Sample
details

12.5
mm
8 mm

Max.
Displacement
(mm)

Max.
Load
(kN)

Max.
Strength
(MPa)

Breaking
Displacement
(mm)

Breaking
Load
(kN)

0.2%
Yield
Strength
(MPa)

Energy
Break
(J)

%
Elongation

3.13

3.648

234

7.440

1.458

127.9

22.11

43

6.300

3.941

250

9.168

1.793

53.2

30.23

52.46

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Deformation Behavior and Characterization of Copper Alloy in Extrusion Process

4.3. Hardness Test Result

Table 3 Hardness test result of Copper rod
S. No.

Sample detail

Average Hardness on Vickers Scale

1
2

12.5 mm(Raw material)

8 mm(Extruded Product)

70.6
82.2

It can be inferred from the table that hardness of the extruded product increases
and is more than the material before extrusion.

5. CONCLUSION
In the present experimental work commercial Extrusion machine [9] has been used for
the extrusion of circular rod of diameter 12.5 mm and the product has been found
satisfactory. Characterization of Continuous Extrusion process like microstructure
analysis, tensile and hardness test of the copper sample before and after extrusion has
been performed in the proposed work. Microstructure analysis of the extruded
products of Copper before and after deformation (extrusion) has also been carried out.
Material properties of Copper have been found using tensile and hardness test. It can
be concluded from the proposed work that

More uniform and homogeneous grains are obtained after extrusion.

Material properties of the material can be enhanced after extrusion of raw material as
it is clearly visible from tensile and hardness test result.

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