CONTROL OF THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF LASER WELDED JOINTS OF THE ALUMINUM ALLOY V-1461 AFTER HEAT TREATMENT

The paper presents the investigations of the influence of the thermal post-processing on the mechanical characteristics and microstructure of the welded aluminum alloy V-1461 of the system Al-Cu-Li. The temperature and time characteristics of the quenching and artificial ageing processes of the laser welded connections have been optimized in order to have the ultimate tensile stress, yield stress, and relative elongation, as well as the microstructures close to the respective characteristics of the basic alloy. At the optimal modes of the thermal processing, the tensile stress, yield stress and relative elongation of welded samples are 0.92; 0.91 and 0.88, respectively, in respect to the basic alloy values.