Hisao Shishido

Effects of Cu or Li Addition and Multi-Step Aging Conditions on the Bake-Hardenability of an Al-Mg-Si Alloy

In recent years, automobiles with lower fuel consumption are required because the exhaust fume is severely regulated. The weight-saving is quite effective to realize such low fuel consumption, and therefore aluminum alloy becomes attractive as an alternative material of steels due to its high specific strength. 6XXX series Al-Mg-Si alloys exhibit good bake-hardenability during paint-bake treatment in the automobile manufacturing process, but to reduce further environmental impact, the paint-baking temperature is supposed to be lowered than the present temperature of about 443K. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the attained hardness after paint-bake treatment at various temperatures of 408-443K for an Al-0.55wt%Mg-0.90wt%Si alloy with/without microalloying elements of Cu and Li. The effects of multi-step aging conditions; e.g. pre-aging, natural aging and paint-bake treatments, were also investigated through Vickers hardness test, TEM observation and DSC analysis. From the obtained experimental results, it was clarified that the addition of Cu or Li to the Al-Mg-Si alloy increases the attained hardness even at a paint-baking temperature of 408K due to the increased volume fraction of precipitates. Furthermore, pre-aging treatment at 373K for 18ks was also effective in suppressing the increase in hardness during natural aging, resulting in the highest attained hardness among the investigated multi-step aging conditions; i.e. HV100 in the Li-added alloy paint-baked at 408K.

Effects of Sn Addition on Clustering and Age-Hardening Behavior in a Pre-Aged Al-Mg-Si Alloy

The effects of Sn addition on clustering and age-hardening behavior in an Al-0.6Mg-1.0Si (mass %) alloy were investigated. Addition of Sn delayed the age-hardening in single aging at 170 ̊C. On the other hand, Sn promoted the age-hardening response in 3-step aging process which comprises a pre-aging (PA) at 90 ̊C for 18ks followed by natural aging (NA) for 604.8ks and artificial aging (AA) at 170 ̊C. The characteristics of clusters formed during PA and NA were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis and atom probe tomography (APT). The DSC results show that the endothermic peak at around 160 ̊C to 200 ̊C was observed in the Sn-free alloy. On the other hand, in the Sn-added alloy, endothermic peak was not observed. It is suggested that Sn addition suppresses the formation of the clusters formed during NA. The APT results show that the Sn addition decreases the number density of clusters, especially smaller clusters. No Sn precipitates were found in Mg-Si precipitates formed during AA at 170 ̊C for 3.6ks. It is speculated that suppression of smaller cluster formation by addition of Sn promotes the age-hardening response

A Combined TEM and Atom Probe Approach to Analyse the Early Stages of Age Hardening in AA 6016

In this study we aim at combining the results from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) to study the early stages of phase decomposition in the age hardening alloy AA 6016. Samples are subjected to different periods of natural ageing or artificial pre-ageing at elevated temperature in order to produce different types of clusters and early stages of precipitation before age hardening commences. APT is utilized to detect clusters and identify their compositions, whereas TEM is applied to analyse and quantify number density and sizes of the particles during artificial ageing at 185°C. It is shown that the two techniques, TEM and APT, are complementary and a combined approach yields more detailed insight into the early stages of phase decomposition in age hardening 6xxx series alloys than possible by the sole use of either technique individually.