Effect of Heat Treatment Temperatures on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Continuous Casting and Rolling Al-Mg Alloy

Abstract

In order to improve the plasticity of the Al–Mg alloy, which fabricated by continuous casting and rolling, the alloy was heat treated at 370 °C, 400 °C, 430 °C and 460 °C for 2 hours and cooled with the furnace. The microstructure and mechanical properties of heat-treated Al–Mg alloy under different heat treatment temperatures were analyzed. The results show that the columnar grains begin to disappear at heat treatment temperature of 460 °C. The size of equiaxed grains begins to increase as the heat treatment temperature increases. The tensile strength of the alloy decreases with the increase of heat treatment temperature and the Brinell hardness increases when the heat treatment temperature is between 370-430 °C. At heat treatment of 430 °C, the elongation and the Brinell hardness of the alloy reached to 42.91% and 70.5 HB, respectively.