Research Progress on Precipitation Strengthening and Lubricating Properties of Au-Cu-Ni Alloys

Au-based alloys were used extensively in sliding electrical contact materials like brushes, winding devices and conductive slip rings owing to their advantages of favorable wettability and electrical contact stability.These materials have an increasingly important role in signal transmission systems.However, the conventional binary alloys such as Au-Cu, Au-Mo and Au-Ni have failed to fulfill the requirements of practical applications.Au-Cu-Ni ternary alloys orderly strengthen over the course of aging, exhibit grew generation of sliding electrical contact materials.The research progress of Au-Cu-Ni alloys in precipitated phase strengthening, phase rules and lubrication modification, were discussed, which can provide a reference for the investigation of sliding electrical contact materials.