Investigation extrusion ratio effect on mechanical behaviour of extruded alloy AA-6063

This article describes effect of extrusion ratio (ER) in direct extrusion process on mechanical behaviours of the alloy 6063 prepared in two different textures as homogenised and rapid quenched (HRQ) and unhomogenised and slow cooled (UHSC) conditions. In the study, AA-6063 alloy was directly extruded as rod by using three different single hole flat type dies with diameters 10, 30 and 50 mm. Forward speed of the main ram of 1600 t extrusion press was kept to be constant when performing of the tests. For suitable pre-heating of the billets, several pre-tests have been performed to keep exit temperatures of the profiles as constant. Six billets from the alloy AA-6063 were prepared as-cast UHSC condition. Another six billets were applied homogenisation and than cooled fast. Billets with two different textures were tested by extruding different ERs and different exit temperatures 510 and 460 degreesC, respectively. Then the samples from two different textures of the extrusions from the alloy AA-6063 were exposed to both T-I and T-6 treatments. Consequently, organising various comparable graphics by data from mechanical tests, effects of ER versus to ultimate tensile strength, hardness and elongation percent have been examined. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.