What is The Effects of Rare Earth on Copper and Copper Alloys>

Adding an appropriate amount of rare earth metals to copper alloys can improve the casting properties of copper and copper alloys. For different types of copper alloys, the fluidity can be increased by 30% to 40% after adding rare earth. For high manganese aluminum bronze, when the addition of Y and La does not exceed 0.10% and 0.20%, respectively, the fluidity increases with the addition of rare earth. Adding 0.5%～1.0% mixed rare earth to high lead bronze (ZQPb25-5) and adding 0.04%～0.05% mixed rare earth to HPb59-1 lead brass can improve the segregation or reverse segregation of the alloy. Adding 0.01%～0.03% misch metal can significantly increase the high temperature elongation of deformed lead brass, improve hot workability, and reduce or eliminate hot rolling cracking. The removal of impurities by rare earth elements increases the strength of grain boundaries and reduces the number of embrittled phases, thus increasing the high temperature σb and δ of copper alloys. Adding rare earth can reduce the residual stress value, and rare earth can improve the cold deformation ability of the material within a certain deformation range (<14%).

Adding 0.03% to 0.05% of rare earth elements to deformed lead brass can greatly improve its cutting performance, especially to reduce surface roughness, burrs and tool wear. This is because rare earth elements mainly refine lead particles and The "indirect effect" of promoting the presence of more lead particles in the β phase also has the "direct effect" of reducing the width of the columnar crystal region, thereby improving machinability. Rare earth additives have a good effect on improving the welding process performance of copper and its alloys. Impurities in the weld metal such as traces of Pb, Fe, Si, Bi can cause hot cracks. Adding rare earth elements will effectively prevent this tendency.