Effect of Width-to-thickness Ratio of Product on the Welding Quality of 6063 Aluminum Alloy During Continuous Extrusion with Double Billets

During continuous extrusion, the combination of extrusion and weld formation of two billets is suitable for the extrusion of aluminum alloy pa-nels. However, the weld is formed at the confluence of two billets during parallel extrusion. In this study, the influences of the width-to-thickness ratio on the welding parameters and the welding properties of the product were investigated through microstructure observation, tensile test, SEM and finite element simulation analysis. The evaluation model for predicting the welding quality of product of continuous extrusion was established. The results show that with the ratio of width-to-thickness increases from 10 to 40, the deformation of the metal increases gradually, the weld seam gradually becomes fine, and the welding quality of the product is improved. Based on the results of numerical simulation, the variation rules of J welding parameters on the effective welding path excluding dead metal zone are analyzed. It is concluded that J values of characteristic points have two peaks at the starting point of welding path and die port, which are caused by the maximum welding pressure and the maximum equivalent strain rate respectively. With the increase of width-to-thickness ratio, J value shows a trend of rapidly increasing first and then slowly increasing, which is in agreement with the results of tensile test. So it can predict the welding quality of continuous extrusion with double billets accurately. © 2020, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.