Influence of casting speed on the structure and mechanical properties of continuous cast DHP copper tube

DHP Copper tubes are frequently used in industrial applications with their unique characteristics such as high corrosion or excellent erosion resistance. Due to the requirement of good quality production, an excellent global factor is needed for the purpose of obtaining high mechanical properties. A mechanical properties has correlation with grain size and a high mechanical properties is achieved by small grain structure. There are three ways in which grain size can be altered: by thermal means, chemical means and by mechanical means. This paper looks at the first case, thermal means, which has very substantial cost benefits over the other two types of grain refinement in that it does not require large pieces of equipment that vibrate or mix and does not use any exotic metals as feed stock. Instead what thermal methods require is a change in parameters like: casting speed, liquid metal temperature or cooling water temperature. In this work, characterization of the influence of casting speed on the structure and mechanical properties of continuous cast DHP copper tube has been carried out by drift expanding test and grain size reading. A significant different based on grain structure has been investigated and it was also found that the casting speed could improve the elongation of samples from 29 % expanding to 36 % expanding.