Copper generally exhibits high electrical conductivity but has poor mechanical properties. Although alloying can improve the latter characteristic, it usually leads to a decrease in electrical conductivity. To address this issue, a promising approach is to enhance the performance of copper while maintaining high electrical conductivity through optimized deformation processing, which refines the structure and increases mechanical properties. This paper focuses on assessing the effects of rotary swaging, a form of deformation processing, on microstructures and substructures of electroconductive copper bars. This analysis is complemented by experimental measurements of electrical conductivity. The results demonstrate that gradual swaging, i.e., applying different swaging ratios, influences the structure-forming processes and consequently affects the electrical conductivity. The increased electrical conductivity was found to be associated with the elongation of the grains in the direction of the electron movement.

Department of Physics of Materials Charles University Prague Ke Karlovu 5 12116 Prague Czech Republic

FZU Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences Na Slovance 2 18200 Prague Czech Republic

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Structural Phenomena Introduced by Rotary Swaging: A Review