ABSTRACT
Aluminium and its alloys are used in many fields, whether in daily life or industrially. Applying combination of different metallurgical processing techniques, which include plastic deformation, could change the precipitation behaviour of aluminium alloys. These processing techniques include the control of solutioning time and temperature, aging time and temperature and the amount of deformation, all of which regulate the grain structure of the alloy. This research studied the influence of artificial aging time and solution heat treatment on the hardness and tensile strength of AA 6061 aluminium alloy.
The composition of the material was determined by spark optical spectroscopy. Samples were collected and prepared into standard specimens.The prepared specimens were heated for 2 hours at 530ºC and then water-quenched. The procedures for artificial aging were performed for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hours at 180ºC before being slowly cooled in air. Several mechanical properties including tensile strength, hardness, and ductility were investigated and microstructure characterization studies also carried out on the treated specimens using optical microscopy (OP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
From the results, at the peak aging condition (3 hours at 180oC), the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and hardness properties of the alloy were improved by 42.73%, 30.21% and 36.49% respectively. For all the cold rolled conditions in comparison with the as-received (Control) sample, the hardness values increased. This processing route showed remarkable potentials for improving properties of the studied alloy, and could also reduce complexity in industrial production methods of 6061 aluminium alloys.
