Copper-iron alloy has excellent electrical and thermal conductivity

excellent toughness and soft magnetic properties

and is an excellent electrical contact and electromagnetic shielding material

which has broad application prospects in electronic communication electrical contact devices and electromagnetic shielding equipment of aerospace

national defense and military industry. In this paper

copper-iron alloys with different copper mass fraction were prepared by double-wire arc additive manufacturing technology

and their microstructure

hardness

dynamic surface contact resistance and wear of carbon rods were tested by metallurgical microscope

Vickers hardness tester and currentcarrying friction and wear tester. The results demonstrate that as the copper mass fraction increases from 0 to 100%

the microstructure of the copper-iron alloy evolves from a continuous interlaced ferrite phase to a discrete spherical and dendritic distribution

ultimately forming a pure copper phase. At 60% copper mass fraction

the Cu-rich and Fe-rich phases exhibit the most uniform distribution. The hardness of the alloy initially increases and subsequently decreases with however

an excessive amount of copper leads to a decrease in hardness due to the increased presence of softer phases. The surface contact resistance progressively decreases with increasing copper content due to copper’s superior electrical conductivity. The wear of the carbon rod is influenced by the hardness of copper-iron alloys and the friction coefficient between the contact pairs

exhibiting a trend of first increasing and then decreasing: at low copper content

high hardness and friction coefficient exacerbate wear

while at high copper content

improved lubrication and heat dissipation performance mitigate wear.