Abstract

The aging effects on the characteristics of the melt spun Cu based shape memory alloys have been investigated by the microhardness test, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. After aged for specific times, hardness of the ribbons began to increase and shape memory capacity diminished. At the initial stage of aging the austenitic transformation temperatures increased gradually, but at last became nearly constant: That is, the aging deteriorated the thermal stability. The increase in hardness was due to the formation of the gamma_2 precipitates. The loss in the shape memory capacity was due to the decrement of solute atoms in the matrix by the formation of the gamma_2 precipitates. In this study, it was confirmed that Mn is an effective element for Improving the thermal stability.