Solution Treatment Behaviors of 6061 Aluminum Alloy Prepared by Powder Thixoforming

A comparison study with traditional permanent mold cast (PMC) 6061 alloy disclosed that PTF alloy showed significantly reduced pore amount with only 0.16% (3.50% for PMC alloy).

During solution treatment, PTF alloy displayed a much quicker solutionization progress than PMC alloy because of coarse eutectic phases and primary dendrites in latter alloy, its peak values of 14.5%, 241 MPa and 195 MPa in elongation, ultimate tensile strength and yield strength were achieved at 560ºC, an enhancement of 81.3%, 33.9% and 97.0%, respectively, compared with as-fabricated alloy. The dissolution of eutectic phases plays a dominative role in the growth of the primary α phases and secondarily primary α phases within 535ºC. However, the coarsening after 535ºC is subject to a mixture model involving atom diffusion along grain boundaries and through the crystal lattice.