Increasing strength, ductility and impact toughness of ultrafine-grained 6063 aluminium alloy by combining ECAP and a high-temperature short-time aging

Abstract

Since fully-dense ultrafine or nanocrystalline bulk materials can be processed, there has been an increasing scientific interest in several plastic deformation (SPD) procedures, particularly in the last decade. Especially the equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) has widely been investigated due to its ability of producing billets sufficiently large for industrial applications in functional or structural components. The significant strength increase based on grain refinement is typically accompanied by a significant decrease in ductility and toughness. Within this work, a new methodology was applied for combining ECAP with a subsequent high-temperature short-time aging for the 6063 aluminium alloy. An increase in strength, ductility as well as impact toughness regarding its coarse grained counterparts was reached. More precisely, ultimate tensile strength, elongation to failure and impact toughness were increased by 46%, 21% and 40% respectively. This was observed after only one run of ECAP at room temperature in a solid-solution treated condition and an aging at 170° C for 18 minutes. The regular aging time for maximum strength at 170° C is around 6 hours. Longer exposure times lead to recrystallisation and, as for regular aging, it leads to overaging, both causing a decrease of properties. The work demonstrates a strategy for an efficient processing of commercial Al-Mg-Si alloys with outstanding mechanical properties.