The Heat Treatment Route Impact on 6063 Al-Mg-Si Alloy: Implications for Mechanical Properties.
Heat Treatment Route Impact on 6063 Al-Mg-Si Alloy: Implications for Mechanical Properties.
Abstract
The Industrial 6063 Al-Mg-Si alloy was subjected to solutionizing, quenching, and ageing at different heat treatment routes, including natural ageing (NA) at room temperature, pre-ageing (PA) at elevated temperatures of 80-120 °C, and artificial ageing (AA) at 180 °C. The study aimed to understand the behaviour of clusters and precipitates during ageing and their impact on the alloy's mechanical properties. The results showed that the PA temperature plays a crucial role in the formation of clusters and AA in the formation of hardening precipitates (β’’). PA at ≤ 100 °C resulted in clusters similar to those from NA, while PA at 120 °C produced more stable clusters (β’’ nuclei). PA followed by AA at 180 °C for 6 hours increased hardness and tensile to values similar to AA without prior PA for PA ≤ 100 °C. AA after PA at 120 °C resulted in higher values of hardness and tensile. A good correlation was found between Vickers hardness with yield strength and tensile strength which agrees with the literature.
Key words
Natural ageing, pre-ageing, artificial ageing, Al-Mg-Si alloys, mechanical properties
