Abstract
The change of thermal expansion and mechanical behaviors by cold working has been investigated in Fe-29%Ni-17%Co low thermal expansion Kovar alloy. Fe-29%Ni-17%Co alloy was cold rolled gradually and prepared to plates having reduction ratio of 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%. Annealing effect on the properties was also studied. Thermal expansion was measured from $25^{\circ}C$ to $600^{\circ}C$ with a heating rate of $5^{\circ}C$/min by using vacuum differential dilatometer. It was found that thermal expansion coefficient ($\alpha_{30{\sim}400}$) slightly decreased (reduction ration of 20%) and then remarkably increased (above reduction ration of 40%) with increasing reduction ratio of cold rolling. Thermal expansion coefficient ($\alpha_{30{\sim}400}$) was sharply decreased after annealing heat-treatment. Yield and tensile strengths were continuously increased and elongation was decreased by cold roiling. Microstructural observation and X-ray diffraction analysis results showed that the $\alpha$ phase significantly increased as the reduction ratio increased. The slight decrease of thermal expansion coefficient bellow reduction ration of 20% could be explained by the destroying short-range ordering and the decreasing of grain size. The significant increase of thermal expansion coefficient with cold rolling mainly attributed to the appearance of $\alpha$ phase. The correlation between the microstructural cause and invar phenomena for the low thermal expansion behavior was also discussed.