aluminium 6063 heat treatment

8/10/2019 Aluminium 6063 Heat treatment

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I nvestigation on the mechanical properties of Heat

treated Aluminium 6063 Alloy

Manojkumar.ASMBS, VIT University Chennai Campus,

Chennai, India.

Email:[email protected]

Prof. Radha.RSMBS, VIT University Chennai Campus,

Chennai, India.

Email:[email protected]

AbstractHeat treatment process has become common technique

for enhancing the mechanical properties of the metals. In this

research paper, various heat treatment processes had been

carried out and compared on Aluminium 6063 Alloy. The effects

of Tensile Strength and Hardness of Annealed, Normalized,

Quenched and tempered Aluminium 6063 Alloy were

investigated and found that, the Quenched specimen holds better

Tensile strength and Hardness characteristics.

KeywordsAluminium 6063: Annealing; Normalizing;

Quenching; Tempering; Tensil eStrength;Hardness.

I. INTRODUCTION

Aluminium is known for its high corrosion resistance and light

weight. Alloy of Aluminium have a major composition of

Aluminium followed by Magnesium, Silicon, Manganese,

Copper, Iron, Chromium, Zinc, and Titanium. The mechanical

properties of aluminum Alloy are affected by working

temperature[1]

. Solid solution strengthening has been used to

improve the strength of these Alloy series at temperatures

above 100 to 3000C

[2].The initial strength of 6xxx series Alloy

is enhanced through alloying with element such as copper,

magnesium, zinc, and silicon[3]

. Because, these alloying

elements in various combinations show increasing solid

solubility in aluminum with increasing temperature, it is

possible to subject them to heat treatments, which will

improve strength. Such treatments include Annealing,

Normalizing, Quenching, and Tempering. Aluminium Alloy

are majorly classified as casting Alloy and wrought Alloy

which can also be sub-divided into heat-treatable and non-heat-treatable metals.

II. MATERIALS

Aluminium 6063 Alloy (Al Si Mg) are commonly used

materials for aerospace industries, because of its high tensile

strength and lighter weight. The major composition metals of

Aluminium 6063 Alloy are Aluminium, Magnesium, and

Silicon. It has good mechanical properties which can also be

heat treatable and weldable. Density of the Aluminium 6063

Alloy is 2.68g/cm3.

Metals Composition (%)Silicon 0.20.6

Iron 00.35

Copper 00.10

Manganese 00.10

Magnesium 0.450.9

Chromium 00.10

Zinc 00.10

Titanium 00.10

Others 0.050.15

Aluminium 97.599.93

Table 1. Compositions of Al 6063 alloy

Depends on solution treatment process, the tensile strengthand hardness varies. Un-heat treated Aluminium 6063 Alloy

has tensile strength of 131 Mpa.

III. HEAT TREATEMENT PROCESS

The heat treatment process carried out in this research paper

are annealing, normalizing, quenching and tempering. TheAluminium 6063 alloy was procured in the form of bar. It was

later machined to the required dimension. According to the

ASTM standard, the dimension of the specimen for tensile test

is 100 x 25 x 6mm.

Fig 1. Machined specimen
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Annealing is the process of heating the metals near its re-

crystallization temperature and cooling at very low thermal

rate. In this paper, Aluminium 6063 alloy was heated at 2500C

for one hour and cooled in furnace.

Normalizing is the process of heating the metals near its re-

crystallization temperature and cooling at room temperature.

In this paper, Aluminium 6063 alloy was heated at 2500C for

one hour and cooled in Atmospheric condition.

Quenching is the process of heating the metals near its re-

crystallization temperature and cooling rapidly using

quenchants. In this paper, Aluminium 6063 alloy was heated

at 2500C for one hour and quenched in water.

Tempering is the process of re-heating the quenched specimen

at low temperature over a period of time and cooling under

atmospheric condition. In this research paper, the quenched

Aluminium 6063 specimen was re-heated at 1000C for one

hour and cooled under atmospheric condition.

IV. TESTING

After completing the heat treatment process the specimens

were tested, to find out the tensile strength and hardness.

Tensile testing was carried out in Shimadzu AGX-S plus

Universal Testing Machine with cross head speed of

20mm/min.Hardness of the heat treated Aluminium 6063 alloy

were tested using Rockwell hardness testing machine.

V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A.

Tensile StrengthTensile strength of Aluminium 6063 Alloy was tested and the

results are evaluated using Shimadzu AGX-S.The

photographic view of the machine as follows.

Fig 2.Universal Testing Machine

B.Hardness

The hardness of the Aluminium 6063 Alloy were tested in

Rockwell Hardness tester. The B scale had been chosen for theAluminium where the size of the intender was 1/16. Five

trials had been taken at different locations of the specimen and

the average value was calculated.

VI.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

After interpretations of results, the comparison of various

physical parameters had been carried out. This provokes for

determining the better material and options were provided to

choose depends on the working condition. The results are

mentioned below

Annealing Normalizing Quenching Tempering

Tensilestrength

(MPa)

101.266 111.310 130.019 124.733

Hardness(RHB)

55 50 62 49

Table 2. Mechanical properties of heat treated Al 6063 alloy

Chart 1. Comparison of Tensile strength of Heat treated Al 6063Alloy

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120

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HEAT TREATMENT PROCESS

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TENSILE STRENGTH


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Chart 2. Comparison of Hardness of Heat treated Al 6063 Alloy

Quenched specimen has the highest Tensile

strength and Annealed specimen has the lowestTensile strength.

Quenched specimen has the highest Hardnessvalue and Tempered specimen has the lowestHardness value.

VII. CONCLUSIONS

1. Tempered specimen has good Tensile strength andpoor hardness value.

2. Normalized specimen has average Tensile strengthand Hardness value.

3. Annealed specimen has poor tensile strength andgood Hardness value.

4. Quenched specimen has better Tensile strengthand Hardness value.

Thus the Heat treatment process was carried out onAluminium 6063 Alloy and its mechanical properties wereinvestigated.

VIII. REFERENCES

1. D.E.Esezobor, S. O. Adeosun: Improvement On The Strength Of

6063 Aluminum Alloy By Means Of Solution Heat Treatment.

Materials Science and Technology (MS&T) 2006.

2. M. Zehetbauer, W. Pfeiler, and J.Schrank (1983): Microhardness

and Yield stress of Cold Rolled Pure Aluminum up To very HighDeformation. ScriptaMetallurgica, Vol.17, pp 221-226, 1983.

3. C .A. Mitchell and A. M. Davidson (2000): Effectof Al203particulates as 651 reinforcement in age hardenable aluminum

alloy composites. Materials Science andTechnology, 2000, 16

(07) 873876.

4. W.S. Lee, W. C. Sue, C.F. Lin and C. J. WU (1999): Effectof

aging on high strain rate and high temperature of 7075 aluminumalloy. Materials Science andTechnology, 1999, 151 (12) 1379 -

1386.

5. McDowell, D. L. (2000). Modeling and experiments in

plastering. Solids andstructures 371 (1 -2), Pg. 293 -309.

6. Ming Dao and Ming Lie (2001): Amicromechanics study on

strain-localization induced fracture initiation in bending using

crystal plasticity models. PhilosophicalMagazine A, 2001,Vol.81, NO.8, 1997-2020.

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aluminium 6063 heat treatment

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