Effect of Forging Temperature on Mechanical Properties of AA-6061 Alloys
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© 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) Effect of Forging Temperature on Mechanical Properties of AA-6061 Alloys B. Ramesh Chandra* * Assistant Professor, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, JNTUH College of Engineering, Hyderabad Abstract Forging is one of the manufacturing process and it produce strongest parts compared to other manufacturing processes. it is not limited to iron and steel forging but to other metals and alloys like Aluminum , Magnesium , Copper and Nickel alloys. The following paper is aimed to study the effect of forging temperature on Aluminum Alloy, namely AA-6061 which has the major alloying constituents as magnesium and silicon. The AA-6061 alloys are forged at 400OC and 430OC. The forged samples are heat treated and the mechanical properties are evaluated. It is observed from the studies that the hardness and tensile properties of the AA-6061 alloys are same which are forged at different temperatures but the microstructure are different. Keywords: Forging, aluminium alloys, mechanical properties, Introduction A precipitation hardening 6061 aluminum alloy, using magnesium and silicon as its major alloying elements, 6061 aluminum has good mechanical properties and has good weldability. It has been extensively used in vehicles, ships, land structures, etc. Forged material is manufactured mainly by hot forging and subsequent T6 tempering. Generally, mechanical properties of hot forged material of heat-treatable aluminum alloy are greatly affected by the substructure formed during hot forging [1-5]. The object of the present paper was to find out the effect of forging temperature on the mechanical properties of the alloy and to improve strength and hardness of forged 6061 aluminum alloy. Experimental Procedure For the experiment, the AA6061 aluminium alloys are used for forging operation. The chemical composition obtained by chemical analysis of AA6061 is given in Table1. Table 1: The Chemical Composition of AA6061 Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Zn Ti Others Al JETIR1810119 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 147 © 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) 0.580 0.163 0.283 0.110 1.03 0.17 0.08 0.034 <0..15 97.51 In figure 1 the forging equipment is shown which is operated at one ton hammer. Two sample are taken and are heated to two forging temperatures in the pit furnace as shown below • Sample 1 : 400˚C Force Cross Increased section Cross section Before upsetting After upsetting • Sample 2 : 430˚C Figure 1 the forging operation of AA6061 alloy The two samples after forging operation are heat treated in Solutionizing furnace at 530˚C for 2 hours. Samples are then quenched in a water bath to retain the structure before the quench delay exceeds 7 seconds. Artificial ageing is carried out in an ageing oven held at 177°C temperature for 8 hours. Following forging and heatreament operation, the macro and micro-structure of the samples was characterized by optical microscopy. The hardness of the forged and heat treated samples was measured as a function of forging operation temperature by a Vickers micro-hardness tester using a 25 g applied load. Finally, the tensile properties were studied by a universal testing machine. Results and discussion Characterization In the present study, a detailed characterization of the forged samples in terms of macro and microstructure, is undertaken and the effect of forging temperatures on it is studied in details to optimize the process parameters for forging operations. JETIR1810119 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 148 © 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) Fig. 2(a,b) shows the macro-structure of the surface is observed. Form the figure 2(a) is is observed that the grains are elongated and there is formation of fine grain structure and from figure 2(b) it is observed that the macrostructure reveals that it contains the both fine and coarse structures. (A) (B) Figure 2: (A) Macro Structure of forged at 400OC and (b) at 430OC Figure 3(a,b) shows the optical microstructure of forged and heat treated samples at different temperatures at 100X magnification are observed. From the figure 3(a) it is observed that the grains are elongated and much coarser grains. From figure 3(b) it shows that the microstructure is fine grains and in some parts it is having coarser grains (A) (B) Figure 3: (A) optical microstructure of forged at 400OC and (b) at 430OC at 100X Mechanical properties of the forged and heat treated samples: Table 2: shows the mechanical properties of samples forged at 400OC and at 430OC. The Brinell’s hardness test is performed on the samples at 300kg load with ball indenter. From the table 2 it shows that the JETIR1810119 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 149 © 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) hardness for the two different temperatures is 124 BHN. The microstructure of forged at 430OC shows fine grains size but there is no improvement in hardness values. From this it is relevant that there is no significant effect of forging temperature. The samples are tested in universal tensile testing machine to find out the tensile properties. From the table 2 it is observed the yield strength for the forged samples at 400OC and at 430OCshows almost equal values. Table 2: Mechanical properties of forged and heat treated AA6061 samples. Samples Forging temperature Brinell’s Hardness Yield strength (oC) Test Sample 1 400OC 124 BHN 302 MPa Sample 2 430OC 124 BHN 305 MPa Summary and Conclusions: In the present investigation forging and heatreating of AA6061 alloys have been undertaken by forging at 400OC and at 430OC and solutionizng ate same temperatures, respectively. From the detailed analysis, the following conclusions may be drawn: 1. The samples forged at 430OC causes a significant refinement of grains. On the other hand, samples forged at 400OC forms elongated grains 2. The micro hardness is same for both samples which are forged at 400OC and at 430OC, inspite of refinement occurred in 430OC forged samples. 3. The mechanical properties of the two samples forged at two different forging temperatures and undergone the same heat treatment cycle are quite similar. References: 1. I.Abbas, Metals Handbook® Ninth Edition,Vol.14 Forming & Forging, ASM International, The Materials Information Society. 2. Gordon M. Baker, Charles E. Bates; ASM Handbook™, Vol.4 Heat Treating. 3. Harry Chandler, Heat Treater’s Guide Practices and Procedures for Non-Ferrous Alloys. 4. Daniel J. Antos, Open Die Forging Technology, Forging Industry Association, Cleveland, Ohio- 44115. 5. https://www.asminternational.org/documents/10192/22533690/06358G_Sample_BuyNow.pdf/503ca 4b8-353d-41e3-98cc-116d1a277cab JETIR1810119 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 150 .