The effect of solution treatment and rolling mode on the mechanical properties of 2090 Al-Li alloy

Two similar processing methods were used to determine the effect of aging on cold rolled samples for each of the three rolling modes, longitudinal, 45 degrees and transverse. The first method consisted of cold rolling the 2090-T3 Al-Li plates to 84% reduction in thickness. The process continued with an aging treatment at 149 degrees C. The second processing method was similar but included a precipitation hardening treatment prior to cold rolling. One set of the precipitation hardened samples received an aging treatment at 149 degrees C and the other at 260 degrees C. The results indicated that the supersaturation level was the controlling factor in hardening this alloy system. The correlation between mechanical properties, supersaturation level and the microstructure is discussed.