The Optimization of Thermomechanical Treatment and Properties of Cu-Fe-P Alloy C194

The Cu-Fe-P alloy C194 for lead frames was prepared using thermomechanical treatments (TMT)．The effects of deformation ratio of cold rolling and aging temperature on the conductivity and micro hardness of C194 alloy during TMT were studied by a low DC resistance tester and a Vickers hardness tester. The results showed that the effect of aging temperature on conductivity was relatively larger than that of deformation ratio. After a series of experiments, the optimized TMT process was obtained. The strip with 1.4mm in thickness was first rolled to 1.0mm and first aged at 500°C for 2 hours, and second rolled to 0.3mm and second aged at 450°C for 2 hours, and finally rolled to 0.2mm and stress-release annealed at 330°C for one hour. The final strip products would reach to the best properties, such as, conductivity was 68.5 %IACS and microhardness was 149.9HV.