EFFECT OF HEAT TREATMENT ON THE PROPERTIES OF ALUMINUM ALLOY AGS 6101 AFTER WIRE DRAWING

In this study, the evolution of some properties of the wire drawn alloy AGS 6101 will be followed and the effect of a heat treatment at high temperature will be analyzed. OM (optical microscopy) and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) observations showed an homogeneous fibrous microstructure in the longitudinal cross-section. However, the EBSD (electron backscatter diffraction) analysis showed that the distribution of the two main crystallographic fibers <111> and <001> was not homogeneous through the cross-section of the wire. And as the deformation increases, it has been found that the fiber <111> tended to intensify at the wire core and the fiber <001> was distributed at its periphery. In our similar studies on wire drawn copper and steel, similarities in certain behaviors like hardening, recrystallization, have been found, but this phenomenon has not been observed yet. We have also found that the center of the wire stored less energy than the periphery during drawing. A heat treatment at high temperature (400 degrees C during various holding times) for this alloy, which leads to recrystallization, never modified the texture established by drawing and the two fibers <111> and <001> remain predominant. More importantly, treatments beyond 20 minutes led to heterogeneity in recrystallized grain size between the core and the periphery of the wires due to the initial difference in terms of stored energy through the wire section.