Effect of La-B-Ti on Microstructure and Performance of Regenerated Brass Ingots with High Fe Content
In the production of high-quality regenerated brass alloys from scrap copper,Fe-rich phase segre-gates in the form of hard particles,affecting the machining performance of brass ingots.To improve the material yield ratio,La-B-Ti composite additive was used to improve the microstructure of brass ingots with high Fe content.By thermodynamic simulation and calculation,the effect of La-B-Ti on the micro-structure of Cu-Zn-Pb-Fe system was analyzed,and the microstructure,hardness and electrical conductivity of brass ingots with different mass fractions of composite additive were experimentally investigated.The results show that La easily combines with Pb to form compounds,and Ti easily combines with Fe to form compounds.The composite additive can inhibit the aggregation and precipitation of Fe-rich phase and Pb phase,and refine α phase at the same time.In addition,La-B-Ti changes the number of grain boundaries and the morphology of precipitated phases in the Cu-Zn-Pb-Fe system.When the addition of the composite ad-ditive is 0.25%of the mass of high-Fe scrap copper,the regenerated brass ingot shows the highest hard-ness(181 HV)and relatively high electrical conductivity(11.85%IACS).This study provides a new idea to recover high-Fe scrap copper to regenerate brass ingots.