Innovative heat-treatment for manufacturing structural parts from high strength aluminum alloys – POSTER

Kumar Manoj - EBNER Industrieofenbau GmbH (Austria)

The production of structural parts for the automotive and aerospace industries faces significant challenges, including risks of thinning and cracking, uneven cooling, and limited suitability for certain heat-treatable aluminum alloys. Process instability, high production costs, and the need for multi-step forming requirements further complicate industrial application.

A novel spiking heat-treatment process is applied to automotive aluminum sheets made of AA6016 and AA7075 alloys. Controlled temperatures between 150°C and 250°C for less than 120 seconds improve formability and toughness. Additionally, a 25-minute paint baking heat treatment at 185°C further enhances the material properties. These processes improve deep-drawing characteristics and increase part strength and its variability over the whole part, while remaining compatible with cold forming tools.

For aerospace aluminum sheet made of AA2024, the spiking heat-treatment process is optimized at temperatures between 175°C and 250°C for less than 300 seconds. Pre-aging at 90°C to 130°C for up to 5 hours improves sheet stabilization, enhancing toughness and stretch formability by increasing the Rm/Rp0.2 ratio. The easy integration of the spiking heat-treatment process into a CASH line enables continuous production of sheets with consistent quality for fuselage applications.