Microstructure study of Al 7050 alloy reprocessed by spray forming and hot-extrusion and aged at 121 °C

•We evaluated the influence of the spray forming in the microstructure.•Refined microstructure with low level of segregation was obtained.•The process provided a high value of hardness at the end stage of the processing.•The artificial aging provided a fine nanosized distribution of η′ precipitates.•Spray forming showed to be a promissory route to reprocess 7000 Al alloys.

In this study, machined chips of Al 7050 alloy derived from the aeronautic industry were reprocessed by spray forming technique and hot extrusion. The microstructures and hardness of the deposit and their subsequent development resulting from heat treatment and hot extrusion were investigated. The results show that spray forming contributed to providing a refined and homogeneous microstructure after aging heat treatment at 121 °C for 16 h due to a homogeneous distribution of the hardening η′ metastable phase.