COPPER ALLOY AND COPPER ALLOY WIRE

摘要

A copper alloy which combines high strength and high conductivity and a copper alloy wire are provided. This copper alloy comprises 50 to 95mass% of Cu and 5 to 50mass% of Fe, the balance being deoxidizing elements and unavoidable impurities. The copper alloy has a texture which, when a section of the copper alloy is subjected to X-ray diffraction, exhibits large diffraction peaks assignable to the <111> planes of Cu and the <110> planes of Fe. The Icu(111) of the texture is 0.70 to 1.0 and the IFe(110) thereof is 0.90 to 1.0, wherein Icu(111) refers to a ratio of the diffraction peak intensity assignable to the <111> planes of Cu to the total diffraction intensity of Cu, while IFe(110) refers to a ratio of the diffraction peak intensity assignable to the <110> planes of Fe to the total diffraction intensity of Fe. The copper alloy has a grain orientation which is controlled so as to form a specific texture described above, thus combining high strength and a high conductivity of 50%IACS or higher.