[Study on the age-hardenable silver alloy (3 rd report). III. On the ageing process of dental Ag-Pd-Cu-Au alloy (author's transl)].

The precipitation hardening process of a dental silver base alloy, Ag-28 Pd-10 Cu-12 wt % Au, was studied by means of X-ray diffraction, hardness measurement and metallographic observations. After solution treatment at 900 degrees C for 30 min, specimens were subjected to anisothermal annealing at the rate of 1 degrees C/min. PdCu ordered phase and alpha2 solid solution (Ag rich phase) precipitated hetelogeneously at the grain boundaries and then grew up into each grain. Drastic increase in hardness was recognized with the spread of nodular region. Electron microscopic observation of these precipitates showed very fine lamellar structure. It is concluded that the age hardening of this alloy could be attributed to this grain boundary precipitation and the softening at the overaged stage to the second grain boundary reaction which produced very coarse lamellar structure.