The effect of die design on the production and seam weld quality of extruded aluminum profiles

An extensive investigation of the correlation between die design and the extrusion process of AA6082 aluminum alloy is presented. A profile with a central seam weld line suitable for mechanical testing is extruded under different processing conditions, by varying the dimensions of the die feeder, the length of the welding chamber, the billet preheating temperature and the process speed. For each condition the workability area was defined by detecting tearing defects in the production stage. Tension tests were then carried out on the extruded profiles, to evaluate the effect of the geometrical features of the die, so that an interpretation could be made of the influence of each parameter in a wide spectrum of operating conditions. In particular, tensile strength and equivalent fracture strain were evaluated on the final product to assess the effectiveness of welding. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.