Abstract:
This research aims to study the effects of boron and strontium on grain refinement of silver alloy grade 950 on the improvement of mechanical properties. The boron variation of 1.8 10.7 ppm or/and strontium of 140 570 ppb were used to interpretation for the grain refining improvement. In silver alloy with the addition of Cu, Si, Zn and Sn, an increase of boron to in a range of 1.8 - 10.7 ppm reduced grain sizes from 1.1 mm to 0.62 0.77 mm. The optimum content of boron for grain refinement and white stain protection were 2.9 - 4.2 ppm and provided the reduction of grain size from 1.1 mm to 0.62 0.77 mm. In addition ultimate tensile strength increased from 172.4 to 199 210 MPa. In grain refinement of silver - copper alloy, boron was required to add together with silicon. It was found that many small copper-base particles with 20 nm in diameter were arranged on grain edge of the silver in the interval of 50 100 nm. It is possible that the arrangement of the particles might hinder the grain migration. Addition of boron (2.6 3.9 ppm) with strontium (140 570 ppb) in silver grade 950 reduced grain size from 0.62 0.77 mm to 0.43 0.45 mm with the ultimate tensile strength of 195 216 MPa.