The formulation of the Hall-Petch relationship in the early 1950s has raised immense interest in studying the influence of the grain size of solid materials on their properties. Grain refinement can be achieved through extreme deformation. In the presented study, Equal-Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) was successfully applied to produce an ultrafine-grained microstructure in a pure commercial Cu of 99.9 wt%. Samples were processed by ECAP at 21 °C for six passes via route A. A new equation of equilibrium that allows the exact determination of the number of extrusions and other technological parameters required to achieve the desired final grain size has been developed. The presented research also deals, in a relatively detailed and comparative way, with the use of ultrasound. In this context, a very close correlation between the process functions of extrusion and the speed of longitudinal ultrasonic waves was confirmed.

Department of Electrical Engineering Automation and Informatics Faculty of Engineering Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra Tr A Hlinku 2 949 76 Nitra Slovakia

Department of Machine Design Faculty of Engineering Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra Tr A Hlinku 2 949 76 Nitra Slovakia

Department of Manufacturing Engineering Machine Building Faculty Technical University of Cluj Napoca B dul Muncii no 103 105 400641 Cluj Napoca Romania

Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Technology Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice Okružní 10 370 01 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Department of Numerical Methods and Computational Modeling Faculty of Industrial Technologies in Púchov Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín Ivana Krasku 491 30 020 01 Púchov Slovakia

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