Effect of heat treatment on stress corrosion cracking, fracture toughness and strength of 7085 aluminum alloy

The influences of heat treatment on stress corrosion cracking （SCC）, fracture toughness and strength of 7085 aluminum alloy were investigated by slow strain rate testing, Kahn tear testing combined with scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. The results show that the fracture toughness of T74 overaging is increased by 22.9% at the expense of 13.6% strength, and retrogression and reaging （RRA） enhances fracture toughness 14.2% without reducing the strength compared with T6 temper. The fracture toughness of dual-retrogression and reaging （DRRA） is equivalent to that of T74 with an increased strength of 14.6%. The SCC resistance increases in the order： T6〈RRA〈DRRA≈T74. The differences of fracture toughness and SCC were explained on the basis of the role of matrix precipitates and grain boundary orecioitates.

Microstructural evolution of 2026 aluminum alloy during hot compression and subsequent heat treatment

2026 aluminum alloy was compressed in a temperature range of 300-450 ℃ and strain rate range of 0.01-10 s^-1. The correlation between compression conditions and microstructural evolution after solution and aging heat treatment was investigated. It is found that the recrystallization and precipitation behavior after heat treatment are associated with the temperature compensated strain rate Z value during hot deformation. Under low Z parameter condition, a small quantity of free recrystallized grains are formed, and the well formed subgrains with clean high-angle boundaries and coarse precipitates seem to be remained during heat treatment. Under high Z parameter condition, a large number of fine equiaxed recrystallized grains are produced, and a high dislocation density with poorly developed cellularity and considerable fine dynamic precipitates are replaced by the well formed subgrains and relatively coarse precipitates after heat treatment. The average recrystallized grain size after heat treatment decreases with increasing Z value and a quantitative relation between the average grain size and the Z value is obtained.

Effect of welding heat input and post-welded heat treatment on hardness of stir zone for friction stir-welded 2024-T3 aluminum alloy

The microstructure and hardness of the stir zone （SZ） with different welding heat inputs were investigated for friction stir-welded 2024-T3 aluminum by transmission electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimeter and Vickers micro-hardness test. The results show that welding heat input has a significant effect on the hardness of the SZ. Under high welding heat input condition, a higher welding speed is beneficial for improving the hardness of the SZ. However, when the welding heat input is low, the hardness of the SZ elevates with increasing the rotation speed. The hardness of the SZ decreases after post-welded heat treatment due to overaging. The joints welded at 500 r/min and 100 mm/min show a high resistance to overaging. The reduction of hardness in the SZ is only 3.8%, while in other joints, the reduction is more than 10%. The morphology of strengthening precipitates plays important roles for the improvement of hardness.

Effect of alloy composition and heat treatment on mechanical performance of 6xxx aluminum alloys

The effect of alloy composition and heat treatment, including natural ageing and pre-ageing, on the mechanical performance of eight 6xxx alloys designed with systematically varying Si, Mg and Cu contents was studied. The results show that not only the alloy composition and heat treatment before forming influence the formability, but also they have an effect on the paint bake response of the alloys. Increasing the alloy Si content, decreasing Mg/Si ratio and adding 0.3% Cu （mass fraction） were generally found to improve the tensile ductility and formability of the alloys studied, while pre-ageing was found to decrease these properties. A full property profile of these alloys in terms of strength, tensile ductility, work hardening, strain rate sensitivity, forming limit and paint bake response was presented.

Effect of post-weld heat treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties of welded joints of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy

6061 aluminum alloy T-joints were welded by double-pulsed MIG welding process. Then, the post-weld heat treatment was performed on the welded T-joints. The weld microstructure under different aging temperature and time was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties were examined by hardness test and tensile test. The results showed that the micro-hardness was sensitive to heat treatment temperature and time. Increasing temperature was beneficial to the shortening of peak aging time. There were a large number of dislocations and few precipitates in the welded joints. With the increase of post-weld heat treatment temperature and time, the density of dislocation decreased. Meanwhile, the strengthening phase precipitated and grew up gradually. When the post-weld heat treatment temperature increased up to 200℃, large Q' phases were observed. And they were responsible for the peak value of the micro-hardness in the welded joints.

2024 aluminum alloy ultrahigh-strength sheet due to two-level nanostructuring under cryorolling and heat treatment

The effect of rolling to a total effective strain of 2 at the liquid nitrogen temperature and subsequent natural and artificial aging on the structure and service properties of the pre-quenched hot-pressed 2024 aluminum alloy was investigated.Using optical and electron microscopy,and X-ray analysis,it was found that the cryorolling did not qualitatively change the type of the initial coarse-fibered microstructure,but produced a well-developed nanocell substructure inside fibers.Further aging led to decomposition of the preliminary supersaturated and work-hardened aluminum solid solution and precipitation of strengthening phases in the statically recovered and/or recrystallized matrix.As a result,the rolled and naturally aged alloy demonstrated the yield and ultimate tensile strengths(YS=590 MPa,UTS=640 MPа)much higher than those in the pressed andТ6-heat treated alloy at equal elongation to failure(El^6%).Artificial aging at a temperature less than conventional T6 route could provide the extra alloy strengthening and the unique balance of mechanical properties,involving enhanced strength(YS=610 MPa,UTS=665 MPа)and ductility(El^10%),and good static crack resistance(the specific works for crack formation and growth were 42 and 18 k J/m^2,respectively)and corrosion resistance(the intensity and depth of intercrystalline corrosion were 23%and 50μm,respectively).

Influence of heat treatment conditions on bending characteristics of 6063 aluminum alloy sheets

Bending deformation behaviors of solution treated(ST),natural aged(NA)and T6tempered6063aluminum alloy sheetswere studied by three-point bending tests.The changes of bending force,interior angle,bending radius and sheet thickness in thefillet region were analyzed by experimental measurements and numerical simulations.The results showed that the bendingcharacteristics were strongly dependent on the heat treatment conditions.The T6alloy sheets were bent more sharply and localplastic deformation occurred severely in the fillet region.However,the ST and NA alloy sheets exhibited relatively uniform bendingdeformation and large bending radius.The bending force of T6alloy was the highest,followed by the NA alloy and that of the STalloy was minimum.After unloading,as compared with the ST and NA alloys,the springback of T6alloys was markedly larger.Theaging time showed a positive sensitivity on the springback and non-uniform bending deformability.The bending characteristics areattributed to the combined effects of yield strength,yield ratio and coefficient of neutral layer.

Effect of heat treatment on mechanical properties of thixoformed 7A09 aluminum alloy

The effects of solution-ageing treatment on the mechanical properties of semi-solid metal(SSM)products were studied by the method of orthogonal experiment.The microstructure and tensile properties at different treatment conditions were analyzed.The results show that the effects of solution-ageing treatment were obviously influenced by the original microstructure of the SSM billet. Higher temperature is favorable for the sufficient solution of alloy elements,but the grains will grow up when treated at a higher temperature or soaked for a longer time.There is a contradiction between the maximum tensile strength and elongation percentage. Under the condition of solution treatment at 475℃for 12 h and at 133℃for 20-22 h ageing,better properties including about 540 MPa of tensile strength and more than 6.3%of elongation can be obtained in general.The surplus phases not melted in the substrate and the solution precipitated supersaturated elements are the main factors influencing the properties of the alloys.

Strengthening-toughening of 7xxx series high strength aluminum alloys by heat treatment

The effects of stepped solution heat treatments on the dissolution of soluble remnant constituents and mechanical properties of 7055 aluminum alloy were investigated. It was shown that a suitable pretreatment at lower temperature can enable complete dissolution of the constituent particles in 7055 alloy without overheating by subsequent high temperature solution treatment. This in turn increased the tensile strength and fracture toughness of 7055 alloy to 805 MPa and 41.5 MPa·m 1/2 respectively, with approximately 9% tensile elongation. The near solvus pre precipitation following after high temperature solution treatment was also studied on 7055 aluminum alloy. The effect of the pre precipitation on the microstructure, age hardening and stress corrosion cracking of 7055 alloy was investigated. The optical and transimission electron microscopy observation show that the near solvus pre precipitation can be limited to grain boundary and enhance the discontinuity of grain boundary precipitates in the subsequent ageing. The stress corrosion cracking resistance of aged 7055 alloy can be improved via the pre precipitation with non deteriorated strength and plasticity.

Optimization of heat treatment of gravity cast Sr-modified B356 aluminum alloy

In recent years,certain foundry processes have made it possible to obtain products with very thin parts,below the4mmthreshold of the permanent mold casting technology.The safety margins of these castings have been reduced,so the T6heattreatment conditions adopted for the Al?7Si?Mg alloys need to be investigated to identify the best combination of strength andductility.Furthermore,the cost and the production time associated with T6heat treatment have to be optimized.In the present work,an experimental study was carried out to optimize the solution treatment and artificial aging conditions in gravity cast thin bars ofB356aluminum alloy modified with Sr.Two solution temperatures were selected,530°C and550°C,respectively,with solutiontime ranging from2to8h,followed by water quenching and artificial aging at165°C with aging time from2to32h.The results ofhardness and tensile tests were correlated with differential scanning calorimetry(DSC)analysis.The best combination of mechanicalproperties and heat treatment duration was obtained with2h solutionizing at550°C and8h aging at165°C.DSC analysis showedthat the alloy’s mechanical properties reach the maximum value when theβ''phase is completely developed during the artificialaging.

Air cushion furnace technology for heat treatment of high quality aluminum alloy auto body sheet

The process characteristics of heat treatment of aluminum alloy auto body sheet and the working principle of air cushion furnace were introduced.The process position and irreplaceable role of air cushion furnace in the aluminum alloy auto body sheet production was pointed out after the difficulty and key points in the whole production process of auto body sheet were studied.Then the development process of air cushion furnace line of aluminum alloy sheet was reviewed,summarized and divided to two stages.Based on the research of air cushion furnace,the key technology of it was analyzed,then the key points on process,equipment and control models of air cushion furnace for aluminum alloy auto body sheet in future were put forward.With the rapid development of automotive industry,there will be certainly a new upsurge of research and application of air cushion furnace for heat treatment of aluminum alloy auto body sheet.

Effects of cooling rate on solution heat treatment of as-cast A356 alloy

The effect of cooling rate of the solidification process on the following solution heat treatment of A356 alloy was investigated,where the cooling rates of 96 K/s and 3 K/s were obtained by the step-like metal mold.Then the eutectic silicon morphology evolution and tensile properties of the alloy samples were observed and analyzed after solution heat treatment at 540 °C for different time.The results show that the high cooling rate of the solidification process can not only reduce the solid solution heat treatment time to rapidly modify the eutectic silicon morphology,but also improve the alloy tensile properties.Specially,it is found that the disintegration,the spheroidization and coarsening of eutectic silicon of A356 alloy are completed during solution heat treatment through two stages,i.e.,at first,the disintegration and spheroidization of the eutectic silicon mainly takes place,then the eutectic silicon will coarsen.

Direct preparation of semi-solid billets by the semi-solid isothermal heat treatment for commercial cold-rolled ZL104 aluminum alloy

Semi-solid isothermal heat treatment was proposed to directly process cold-rolled ZL104 aluminum alloys and obtain semi-solid bil-lets.The effects of two process parameters,namely,temperature and processing time,on the microstructure and hardness of the resulting bil-lets were also experimentally examined.Average grain size(AGS)increased and the shape factor(SF)of the grain improved as the process temperature increased.The SF of the grain also increased with increasing processing time,and the AGS was augmented when the processing time was prolonged from 5 to 20 min at 570℃.The hardness of the aluminum alloy decreased because of the increase in AGS with increasing temperature and processing time.The optimal temperature and time for the preparation of semi-solid ZL104 aluminum alloys were 570℃and 5 min,respectively.Under optimal process parameters,the AGS,SF,and hardness of the resulting alloy were 35.88μm,0.81,and 55.24 MPa,respectively.The Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner relationship was analyzed to determine the coarsening rate constant at 570℃,and a rate constant of 1357.2μm3/s was obtained.

Microstructure characterization on Mg-2Nd-4Zn-1Zr alloy duringheat treatment

The microstructures of Mg-2Nd-4Zn-1Zr alloy in the as-cast state and after heat treatment were investigated. Several kinds of secondary phases were found and characterized by transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and X-ray diffraction （XRD）. In the as-cast alloy, the existing eutectic compounds are Mg-Nd-Zn ternary phases： T phases and W phases. After the heat treatment, with increasing the temperature or time, it was found that T phase almost dissolved into the α-Mg matrix, while a large amount of W phase remained in the matrix. On the other hand, with prolonging the time, the morphology of the phase changed from continuous network to the spherical shape along the grain boundary. The density of the W phase gradually decreased and finally it was coarsened and stabilized in the treatment process.

Si phase morphology and mechanical properties of ZL107 Al alloy improved by La modification and heat treatment

The phase morphology evolution during the solid solution treatment and then artificial aging of the La-modified ZL107 Al alloy was studied. The results show that when the solid solution was held at 560 ℃ for 6 h, only partial Si phase dissolved into the matrix; however, the precipitation also occurred during the artificial aging process. The precipitation process in Al-Si alloys with or without La-modification was compared. After modification and heat treatment, the mechanical properties of the alloy were greatly enhanced, due to the modification and uniform distribution of Si phase.

Gradual solution heat treatment of AlSiCuMg cast alloys

The microstructure characteristics of AlSiCuMg cast alloys were studied withdifferent Cu content and the gradual solution treatment by DSC, SEM, TEM and mechanical method. Themelting point of alpha (Al) + Si decreases and polynary eutectic phases with low melting point formwith increase of Cu content. Gradual solution treatment includes two steps: solution treating nearthe melting point of polynary eutectic phase to take it dissolve first, and then increasing solutiontemperature to take the remainder copper intermetallics dissolved into alpha (Al). Grain boundariesmelting can be avoided by gradual solution treatment, even the maximum solution temperature isabove final solidification point, and the age hardening response increases correspondingly

Preparation of high-strength Al-Mg-Si-Cu-Fe alloy via heat treatment and rolling

An Al-Mg-Si-Cu-Fe alloy was solid-solution treated at 560℃ for 3 h and then cooled by water quenching or furnace cooling. The alloy samples which underwent cooling by these two methods were rolled at different temperatures. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the rolled alloys were investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and tensile testing. For the water-quenched alloys, the peak tensile strength and elongation occurred at a rolling temperature of 180℃. For the furnace-cooled alloys, the tensile strength decreased initially, until the rolling temperature of 420℃, and then increased;the elongation increased consistently with increasing rolling temperature. The effects of grain boundary hardening and dislocation hardening on the mechanical properties of these rolled alloys decreased with increases in rolling temperature. The mechanical properties of the 180℃ rolling water-quenched alloy were also improved by the presence ofβ″phase. Above 420℃, the effect of solid-solution hardening on the mechanical properties of the rolled alloys increased with increases in rolling temperature.

Semi-solid near-net shape rheocasting of heat treatable wrought aluminum alloys

Flexibility of the CSIR-RCS, induction stirring with simultaneous air cooling process, in combination with high pressure die casting is successfully demonstrated by semi-solid rheocasting of plates performed on commercial 2024, 6082 and 7075 wrought aluminum alloys. Tensile properties were measured for the above mentioned rheocast wrought aluminum alloys in the T6 condition. The results showed that tensile properties were close to or even in some cases exceeded the minimum specifications. The yield strength and elongation of rheocast 2024-T6 exceeded the minimum requirements of the wrought alloy in the T6 condition but the ultimate tensile strength achieved only 90% of the specification because the Mg content of the starting alloy was below the commercial alloy specification. The strengths of rheocast 6082-T6 exceeded all of the wrought alloy T6 strength targets but the elongation only managed 36% of the required minimum due to porosity, caused by incipient melting during solution heat treatment, and the presence of fine intermetallie needles in the eutectic. The yield strength of rheocast 7075 exceeded the required one and the ultimate tensile strength also managed 97% of the specification; while the elongation only reached 46% of the minimum requirement also due to incipient melting porosity caused during the solution heat treatment process.

Effects of Sb and heat treatment on the microstructure of Al-15.5wt%Mg_2Si alloy

The modification effects of alloying element Sb and heat treatment on Al-15.5wt%Mg2Si alloy were investigated by Olympus microscopy （OM）, scanning electron microscopy and energy disperse spectroscopy （SEM-EDS）, and X-ray diffraction （XRD）. It is found that Sb plays a significant role in shaping primary Mg2Si phase and eutectic Mg2Si phase in Al-15.5wt%MgzSi alloy. The Sb addition of about 1.0wt% makes the resultant alloy show the finest primary Mg2Si phase and the eutectic Mg2Si phase with well distribution. But further increasing the Sb content decreases the amount of primary Mg2Si phase, and some segregated phases appear at regions between the grains. In addition, heat treatment can modify the microstructural feature of Sb-modified Al-15.5wt%Mg2Si alloy in terms of obviously shortening the nodulizing time of primary Mg2Si phase and eutectic Mg2Si phase.

Microstructure and properties of A2017 alloy strips processed by a novel process by combining semisolid rolling,deep rolling,and heat treatment

A novel short process for producing A2017 alloy strips with notable features of near net shape, saving energy, low cost, and high product performance was developed by combining semisolid rolling, deep rolling, and heat treatment. The microstructure and properties of the A2017 alloy strips were investigated by metallographic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, tensile testing, and hardness measurement. The cross-sectional microstructure of the A2017 alloy strips is mainly composed of near-spherical primary grains. Many eutectic phases CuA12 formed along primary grain boundaries during semisolid rolling are crushed and broken into small particles. After solution treatment at 495℃ for 2 h the eutectic phases at grain boundaries have almost dissolved into the matrix. When the solution treatment time exceeds 2 h, grain coarsening happens. More and more grain interior phases precipitate with the aging time prolonging to 8 h. The precipitated particles are very small and distribute homogenously, and the tensile strength reaches its peak value. When the aging time is prolonged to 12 h, there is no obvious variation in the amount of precipitated phases, but the size and spacing of precipitated phases increase. The tensile strength of the A2017 alloy strips produced by the present method can reach 362.78 MPa, which is higher than that of the strips in the national standard of China.