Manufacturing of Al-Zr Thermal-resistant Alloys for Transmission Lines

The present transmission lines of populous cities will have to be changed with an ability to work at higher temperatures without any weight and cross section changes. Innovative thermal-resistant alloy conductors (T-ACSR) operate in the range of about 150-200°C instead of 75°C which is the standard ACSR type conductor service temperature. In this study, the manufacturing procedure of Al-Zr alloy wire, used as high-temperature conductor wires, have been introduced. The Al-Zr alloy has been cast in a permanent mold than being extruded to a diameter of 10 mm at 400°C. After that the extruded rods have been cold drawn to a diameter of 3.02 mm. Elongation and tensile strength values of the cold drawn wire have been achieved by tensile test at elevated temperatures. Also, microstructural analysis and dispersion hardening procedure have been investigated. The results show that tensile strength and thermal-resistant property are improved by the addition of Zr.