Electropulsing induced evolution of grain-boundary precipitates without loss of strength in the 7075 Al alloy

• Electropulsing accelerated the dissolution of the precipitates in 7075 Al alloy.
• The un-continuous grain-boundary precipitates were obtained after electropulsing.
• Re-aging (RA) made the grain-boundary precipitates coarse and still un-continuous.
• The RA sample has the changed distribution of GBP without loss of strength.

The influence of electropulsing on the peak-aged (T6) microstructures in the 7075 Al alloy was investigated in this study. The results show that parts of the intragranular precipitates dissolve in the matrix during electropulsing, and the electropulsing treated sample exhibits discontinuous dissolution of the grain-boundary precipitates (GBP). After re-aging, the mechanical properties of the re-aged (RA) sample are nearly the same as that of T6 temper, meanwhile, the grown discontinuous GBP were obtained. Hence it is a promising method to change the distribution of GBP without loss the strength in the 7075 Al alloy.

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