An alloy 360 discovered by Brush Wellman is nickel strip containing beryllium that provides superior mechanical and physical properties which are in high demand today especially for achieving large consistency in the electrical and electronic equipments, heavy duty controls and other heavy operations.
The nickel alloy 360's properties are utilized for achieving large tensile value approximate 300,000 psi and yield value of 2,45,000 psi, superior formability, stress relaxation lessens by 5% at an temperature of 400º F and fatigue potency of85,000-90,000 psi at 10,00000 cycles.
Generally Nickel strip is purposed for mechanical and electronic equipments that require performing under the large temperatures as well as achieving good spring features spring feature at such temperatures. Few of uses of Nickel strip are in the thermostat, diaphragms, burning joints and sockets and diaphrams.
The combination of beryllium, titanium and nickel offers enhanced mechanical and electrical features. The melting temperature, age hardening is obtained by ordinary heating such as up to 900 - 950° F for one to three hours. Moreover to achieve the certain features, the heat treatment can be made for beyond this limit. Following the restricted environments is not essential though to get the shiny layer, a safe condition or ordinary cleaning can be made.
The Nickel strip is generally offered with copper coated surface to achieve an improved life. However it is essential to remove the copper concentration prior to metal hardening.
If the user requires different property standards in the alloy in the form of mechanical and electrical features then specific age hardening levels are settled to meet the requirements. However the age hardening process increases the strip density by 0.5%, so as reduce the length of strip by 0.2%. The fixture in the alloy may be required during age hardening when the accurate specification in demand. The mechanical features of the mill hardened tempers (MH2 – MH12) are obtained with the help of proprietary heat treatment such as made by Brush Wellman. With the mill hardened substance, the techniques of heat processing and subsequent cleaning do not worth any more. Moreover the shrunken of nickel strip problem is also solved.
With the help of both heat treatment and mill hardening the nickel alloy shows superior formability. It is also easier to obtain annealing temperature. The alloy withstands extreme bending and can also be deep drawn. Since the temperature upgrades from annealing to hardening process the mechanical features are enhanced however the formability is decreased.
To get the benefits of increased properties of Nickel strip and reduce the shrunken of alloy while age hardening the alloy with the large temperature property should be chosen. The die up gradation and the result oriented techniques are used to make the curves are the crucial aspects in strip formability. The stamping and forming aspects are used for the nickel base that can be used for nickel alloy 360. The stress relaxation feature of nickel strip is its outcome resulted with decreased spring potential continually with static strain and under large temperature.