Development of ultrafine grained Al–Mg–Si alloy with enhanced strength and ductility

The microstructure and mechanical properties of a precipitation hardenable Al–Mg–Si alloy subjected to cryorolling (CR), short annealing and ageing treatments are reported in this present work. The pre-cryorolled solid solution treatment combined with post-CR short annealing (155 °C for 5 min) and then ageing treatment (125 °C for 12 h) has been found to be the optimum processing condition to obtain the ultrafine grained microstructure with substantial improvement of tensile strength (286 MPa) and good tensile ductility (14%) in the Al–Mg–Si alloy. The significant improvement of the mechanical properties of the cryorolled and peak aged 6063 Al alloys have been observed as compared to its bulk alloys in the peak-aged condition (T6).