Precipitation Hardening at Elevated Temperatures above 400 °C and Subsequent Natural Age Hardening of Commercial Al–Si–Cu Alloy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Experimental Procedures
3. Results
3.1. Solution Treatment
3.2. Artificial Aging at Elevated Temperatures above 400 °C
3.3. Natural Age-Hardening
4. Discussion
4.1. Precipitation at Elevated Temperatures
4.2. Natural-Age Hardening at Ambient Temperature
5. Conclusions
- (1)
- A small increase in the hardness of the AC2B alloy was observed at an elevated temperature of 480 °C. No obvious hardening was observed at higher and lower aging temperatures (450 and 500 °C). The small increase in hardness was attributed to the precipitation of metastable phases associated with the α-Al15(Fe, Mn)3Si2 phase containing a large amount of impurity elements (Fe and Mn). At a lower temperature of 400 °C, slight age hardening appeared, followed by a moderate decrease in hardness. This phenomenon was attributed to the precipitation of stable θ-Al2Cu and Q-Al4Cu2Mg8Si6 phases and their coarsening after a longer duration. The precipitation sequence was rationalized by thermodynamic calculations for the Al–Si–Cu–Fe–Mn–Mg system. These results provide the possibility of maintaining sufficient strength of commercial Al–Si–Cu (+Mg) cast alloys by controlling Mn and Fe impurities.
- (2)
- The natural-age hardening behavior significantly varies depending on the prior artificial aging temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 500 °C. The maximum hardness changed from 75 to 105 HV. The hardness enhanced by natural age hardening is strongly dependent on the solute contents of Cu and Si in the α-Al matrix. These results demonstrate an approach to the control of natural-age hardening by changing the types of precipitates with different constituent elements (for controlling the solute alloy contents) via a cooling process at elevated temperatures above 400 °C.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Cu | Si | Mg | Zn | Fe | Mn | Ni | Ti | Pb | Sn | Cr | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominal | 2.0–4.0 | 5.0–7.0 | ≤0.5 | ≤1.0 | ≤1.0 | ≤0.5 | ≤0.35 | ≤0.2 | ≤0.2 | ≤0.1 | ≤0.15 |
ICP analyzed | 2.40 | 6.35 | 0.29 | 0.28 | 0.42 | 0.30 | 0.03 | 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.03 |
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Li, R.; Takata, N.; Suzuki, A.; Kobashi, M.; Okada, Y.; Furukawa, Y. Precipitation Hardening at Elevated Temperatures above 400 °C and Subsequent Natural Age Hardening of Commercial Al–Si–Cu Alloy. Materials 2021, 14, 7155. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14237155
Li R, Takata N, Suzuki A, Kobashi M, Okada Y, Furukawa Y. Precipitation Hardening at Elevated Temperatures above 400 °C and Subsequent Natural Age Hardening of Commercial Al–Si–Cu Alloy. Materials. 2021; 14(23):7155. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14237155
Chicago/Turabian StyleLi, Ruoqi, Naoki Takata, Asuka Suzuki, Makoto Kobashi, Yuji Okada, and Yuichi Furukawa. 2021. "Precipitation Hardening at Elevated Temperatures above 400 °C and Subsequent Natural Age Hardening of Commercial Al–Si–Cu Alloy" Materials 14, no. 23: 7155. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14237155