Heat Treatment of Ultrafine Grained High-Strength Aluminum Alloy

Abstract

Aluminum is one of the nonferrous metals with very wide applications. It has unique properties such as light weight and it is ductile has additionally, lower melting point compared to iron. Equal Channel Angular Consolidation (ECAC) is manufacturing method to produce alloys with high strength by consolidation at elevated temperatures. ECAC method can produce a fine grain and combined with oxide inclusion from particle surfaces, high strength. This research will examine the applicability of Equal Channel Angular Consolidation to incorporate aluminum Al 7075 series powder at a temperature of 400OC under pressure of 400 MPa. The effects of heat treatment regimes on grain size of the ECAC samples are observed. The results show hardness of 7075 Aluminum series after ECAC process reaching 120 HV10 and decreases down to 110 HV10 after T6 heat treatment. Hardness further decreases after annealing process, down to 104 HV10. Decline in hardness is accompanied with the increased grain size, which accompanies increased ductility.