PROCESSING OF ALUMINUM ALLOYS BY EQUAL CHANNEL ANGULAR DRAWING AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

摘要

Equal Channel Angular Drawing (ECAD) is a plastic deformation method for structure and texture formation in metalworking based on simple shear. The most common method is ECAE, whose main aim is developing stable ultrafine-grained microstructures. In order to obtain these microstructures, materials are deformed to a very high strain, through multiple extrusion passes, with minimal changes in their dimensions. Microstructures having submicrometer grain sizes improve the mechanical properties of different alloys. As a consequence, enhanced properties are obtained in relation to its formability. In both processes the die consists of two channels intersecting at an angle commonly between 90° and 135°. In this work a special deformation technique, Equal Channel Angular Drawing (ECAD), is presented. It is similar to ECAE, but the ECAD process allows a better industrial application than the former. This paper shows the results obtained when the 1370 aluminum alloy is processed by ECAD, at room temperature, with N=5 (N, number of passes), through two different routes. The subsequent analysis of thermal treatment, grain size, mechanical properties and microhardness is also described.