Author(s)

Ignacio Rojas-Rodríguez¹, Alberto Lara-Guevara², Mauricio Salazar-Sicacha³, Julio Cesar Mosquera-Mosquera³, Minerva Robles-Agudo^1,4, Cristian Ramirez-Gutierrez⁵, Mario Rodríguez-García⁶

¹División Industrial, Universidad Tecnológica de Querétaro, Querétaro, México.
²División de Posgrado, Facultad de Informática, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Querétaro, México.
³Programa de Física, Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia.
⁴Catedras Conacyt, Universidad Tecnológica de Querétaro, Querétaro, México.
⁵Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de Materiales, Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México, Campus Juriquilla, Querétaro, México.
⁶Departamento de Nanotecnología, Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla, Querétaro, México.

Metals obtain optimum conditions of metallurgical and physical properties through a heat treatment. Brass is one of the copper alloys which has many applications in everyday life and in the industry. Brass is one of the copper alloys which has many applications in everyday life and the industry. In this work, the influence of the precipitation heat treatment temperature on the metallurgical microstructure, structure, thermal properties, and microhardness of an alpha brass is analyzed. Samples were heat treated by precipitation for 2 h at 300°C, 400°C, 500°C, 600°C, and 700°C. The best mechanical properties were found at 500°C of precipitation heat treatment temperature. Specimens were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Vickers microhardness, photothermal radiometry, and photoacoustic to study the thermal diffusivity and conductivity, as well as the heat capacity. The inverse of the full width at the half maximum analysis showed that the crystallinity decreased as the precipitation heat treatment temperature increased. Metallurgical microstructure and microhardness were correlated to the precipitation heat treatment temperatures to determine the effect on the metallurgical and mechanical properties, as well as the effect on the thermal properties of alpha brass.

Alpha Brass, Kunial Brass, Crystallinity, Photoacoustic, Precipitation Heat Treatment, X Ray Diffraction

Rojas-Rodríguez, I. , Lara-Guevara, A. , Salazar-Sicacha, M. , Mosquera-Mosquera, J. , Robles-Agudo, M. , Ramirez-Gutierrez, C. and Rodríguez-García, M. (2018) The Influence of the Precipitation Heat Treatment Temperature on the Metallurgical, Microstructure, Thermal Properties, and Microhardness of an Alpha Brass. Materials Sciences and Applications, 9, 440-454. doi: 10.4236/msa.2018.94030.