Deformation characterization of cartridge brass

Cu-30 Zn (wt%) alloy is widely used for cartridge case. As received hot rolled (HR) cartridge brass is rolled about 15%, 30%, 40%, and 50% by plane strain rolling at normal room temperature in laboratory. The quantitative microstructure details such as mean grain size and grain size distribution are characterized by optical microscope equipped with microstructure analysis software. The developments of deformation texture are measured by X-ray texture Goniometer and analysis of texture details is done by LaboTex-Edu texture analysis software. The mean grain size is increased with rolling in rolling direction. The grain size distribution shows higher frequency for larger grains with deformation by rolling. The initial stages of rolling produce hi-modal grain size distribution. Later it shifts to multi-modality. The deformation strengthens Bs, L, R, Goss, Taylor, Cu and S texture components. Though the Cu texture orientation shows an increasing trend, the strength of Cu orientation is much less than that of Bs and S components. The transition of texture for Cu, S and Bs texture components is not found in this study.