Improvement on the Strength of 6063 Aluminum Alloy by Means of Warm Rolling Operation

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of varying processing variables on the superplastic ductility of Al 6063 alloy. The three variables investigated were total strain, reheating time and strain rate during warm rolling (by varying the reduction per pass). The alloy samples were warm rolled at strain rates varying from 1.0 x 10-5s-1 to 4.1 x 10-1s-1 to a total true strain of 3, at 4.4 – 7.5% reduction per pass for 3 hours reheating time between passes. Tensile test and microstructural analysis were carried out on the samples. The results showed that at lowest strain rate (4.1 x 10-3s-1), greatest ductility, fracture stress and fracture energy were achieved with 4.0% reduction pass. The material warm rolled to a total true strain of 2.9 exhibited much higher ductility. Longer reheating time revealed coarser grains, with peak ductility occurring at slower strain rates.