Microstructure and mechanical properties of BFe10 cupronickel alloy tubes fabricated by a horizontal continuous casting with heating-cooling combined mold technology

A new horizontal continuous casting method with heating-cooling combined mold (HCCM) technology was explored for fabricating high-quality thin-wall cupronickel alloy tubes used for heat exchange pipes. The microstructure and mechanical properties of BFe10 cupronickel alloy tubes fabricated by HCCM and traditional continuous casting (cooling mold casting) were comparatively investigated. The results show that the tube fabricated by HCCM has smooth internal and external surfaces without any defects, and its internal and external surface roughnesses are 0.64 μm and 0.85 μm, respectively. The tube could be used for subsequent cold processing without other treatments such as surface planning, milling and acid-washing. This indicates that HCCM can effectively reduce the process flow and improve the production efficiency of a BFe10 cupronickel alloy tube. The tube has columnar grains along its axial direction with a major casting texture of 012 <621>. Compared with cooling mold casting (δ=36.5%), HCCM can improve elongation (δ=46.3%) by 10% with a slight loss of strength, which indicates that HCCM remarkably improves the cold extension performance of a BFe10 cupronickel alloy tube.