Abstract
Replacing steel plate with aluminum alloy as automotive structural parts is a cost-effective way to reduce body weight. The effect of 5% deformation + pre-aging treatment (170 °C, 190 °C, 210 °C for 10 min) on natural aging, subsequent artificial age-hardening of an Al-1.0Mg-0.65Si-0.24Cu alloy were studied by hardness measurement, differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analysis. The formation of clusters induced by natural aging decrease the size and density of β″ phase during subsequent artificial aging, which results in a decline of peak-aging hardness. The immediate pre-treatment after quenching completely suppressed the negative effect of natural aging. In addition, it significantly increased the peak-aging hardness (higher than T6 peak-aging condition) and shortened the time (by 50%) to reach peak hardness of the alloy during subsequent artificial aging. The pre-treatment generated the β″-nuclei to be readily transform into β″ phase during artificial aging. The two types of disordered precipitates formed during the pre-treatment continued to grow with the process of subsequent artificial aging and played an important part in strengthening the alloy.
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