An integrated study on the effect of pre- and post-extrusion heat treatments and surface treatment on the filiform corrosion properties of an aluminium extrusion alloy

The effect of pre- and post-extrusion heat treatments on the filiform corrosion behaviour of a well-known aluminium extrusion alloy AA6063 is studied by a combination of accelerated filiform corrosion exposure tests and potentiodynamic polarisation measurements for four different surface treatments. It is shown that the post-extrusion heat treatment of this AlMgSi alloy can influence the filiform corrosion properties significantly, in particular for the milder surface treatments. In contrast, the relative effect of the pre-extrusion treatment on the filiform corrosion properties is minimal for all treatments. The alloys are most susceptible to filiform corrosion in the β′ condition. The susceptibility decreases with coarsening of the Mg2Si particle distribution. For the post-extrusion heat and surface treated AA6063 material a clear correlation between the polarisation characteristics and the two principal filiform corrosion characteristics, i.e. the propagation rate and total area of attack after accelerated exposure, is observed. The observed correlation is attributed to a pitting corrosion mechanism with a rate depending on the (coupled) Mg2Si precipitate size and fraction.