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The 2xxx series Al alloys have been widely used in aerospace industry owing to their high strength, good plasticity and superior formability. To ensure a good control of shape, the quenched alloy sheets require a small pre-deformation before artificial aging. However, this pre-deformation considerably deteriorates the mechanical strength of the Al-3.0Cu-1.8Mg-0.5Si (wt%) alloys due to the formation of unfavorable large-sized precipitates at dislocations. To tackle this issue, we designed a pre-aging process prior to the pre-deformation. The thermal-mechanical treatment, involving pre-aging, pre-deformation and subsequent aging, markedly enhanced the ultimate tensile strength up to 521 MPa compared to that (448 MPa) of the alloy without pre-aging. Microstructure characterization revealed that the fine precipitates (~ 2 nm) with a uniform dispersion were promoted within the Al matrix, which in turn partly suppressed the formation of the unfavorable large-sized precipitate (~ 100 nm). Our findings provide a new clue for designing stronger Al alloys with age-hardenability.

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