Innovative rotary swaged Al/Cu laminated wire conductors: characterisation of structure and residual stress

Abstract This study presents innovative, uniquely sequenced Al/Cu laminated composite wires having perspective usage for various applications, from transportation to electrotechnics. The composites were processed via the industrially applicable technology of rotary swaging, which was performed at 20 °C and 250 °C to provide the possibility to compare the effects of different swaging conditions on structure characteristics of the wires. The work-pieces were gradually swaged down to the final wire diameters of 5 mm, the total swaging degree for each swaged-piece was 3.6. After swaging, both the aluminium components of the swaged wires exhibited recrystallized ultra-fine-grained (UFG) structures with minor presence of residual stress, certain presence of stress was observed within the refined Cu structures. Microhardness measurements revealed occurring work hardening, especially for the 20 °C swaged composite.