As it is known, beryllium bronze, an important copper alloy, is widely used in the field of aerospace. Since the performance of domestic and imported beryllium bronze alloys have obvious differences, domestic beryllium bronze QBe2.0 and imported C17200 alloy were adopted, and the hardness and tensile properties of imported and domestic beryllium bronze alloys in the peak aging state were compared and analyzed. In addition, the microstructure morphologies of the C17200 alloy and QBe2.0 alloy were analyzed by SEM, EBSD, and TEM. This study adopted a data-driven exploration approach to elaborate the differences between C17200 and QBe2.0 alloy. After aging at 300 °C for 2 h (peak aging), the tensile strengths of the C17200 alloy and QBe2.0 alloy were 1357 MPa and 1309 MPa, the yield strengths were 1195 MPa and 1188 MPa, and the elongations were 5.5% and 4.0%, respectively. In the peak-aged state, the grain size, uniformity, small angle grain boundary, and twin density of the C17200 alloy were much better than those of the QBe2.0 alloy, which led to more significant grain refinement and twin strengthening effects. A large amount of γ' phase, γ phase, and β phase were precipitated in both alloys, but the precipitation density of the γ' strengthening phase in the C17200 alloy was much greater than that of the QBe2.0 alloy. The C17200 alloy exhibited better mechanical properties under the combined effects of the various strengthening mechanisms, which provided a guideline for the subsequent improvement of domestic alloys and laid a solid foundation for the development of new copper alloys.
Keywords: beryllium bronze; microstructure; strengthening mechanisms; tensile strength.