KR101869006B1 - Method for manufacturing Al alloy materials and Al alloy materials - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of aluminum (Al) alloy materials having high hardness, and aluminum alloy materials manufactured by the same. The manufacturing method of aluminum alloy materials manufactures 6xxx aluminum alloy materials using aluminum as a main material and comprising prescribed wt% of silicon (Si) and prescribed wt% of magnesium (Mg), and comprises: a step of manufacturing the aluminum alloy into an extrusion material by an extrusion process; a step of performing solution heat treatment on the extrusion material in a set temperature condition for set time to perform a first heat treatment process; and a step of aging the extrusion material on which the first heat treatment is performed in different temperature conditions for set time in multiple steps to perform a second heat treatment process. The aluminum alloy materials are manufactured by the manufacturing method.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material and an aluminum alloy material produced by the manufacturing method,

The present invention relates to a process for producing an aluminum alloy material and an aluminum alloy material produced by the process. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for producing an aluminum alloy material by a multi-stage aging process, And particularly to an aluminum alloy material having high hardness and an aluminum alloy material produced by the manufacturing method.

The recent changes in the environment surrounding transportation equipment industry are responding to the global pollution prevention laws and various demands of consumers and securing competitiveness in the global export market.

Especially, in the automobile industry, not only automobile companies but also material companies are paying attention to reduction of fuel consumption by energy conservation and pollution prevention measures.

The most effective way to improve the fuel efficiency is to improve the efficiency of the engine, reduce the driving resistance, and reduce the weight of the vehicle. Among these, the most efficient method is to lighten the vehicle body, thereby achieving the fuel efficiency improvement effect .

As a result, an aluminum alloy material which is lightweight and has high strength and hardness has been developed as a vehicle body of a transportation means such as an automobile, and has been used in various fields.

However, aluminum alloy materials have limitations in many mechanical properties such as low strength, hardness and toughness, and vibration damping ability of the material itself. Therefore, in order to solve fundamental problems, aluminum alloy materials having high mechanical strength and high strength Process technology of alloy materials is required.

In order to manufacture an aluminum alloy material having such high strength and high hardness, it is necessary to improve the heat treatment method, which is one of the most important techniques for controlling the mechanical properties of the aluminum alloy material, in addition to controlling the element content of the alloy material. A method for improving the strength and hardness of the aluminum alloy material is required.

Korean Registered Patent No. 10-0460873 (Dec. 1, 2004) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-1554521 (2015.09.15.)

The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-mentioned needs, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material, in which, after solution treatment, And an aluminum alloy material produced by the manufacturing method.

The above objects and various advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments of the present invention by those skilled in the art.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material including aluminum (Al) as a main material, silicon (Si) having a predetermined weight percentage and magnesium ), Comprising the steps of: preparing the aluminum alloy as an extruded material by an extrusion process; Subjecting the extruded material to a solution treatment for a preset time at a set temperature condition to perform a first heat treatment step; And a step of subjecting the first heat-treated extruded material to a secondary heat treatment process by aging the heat-treated extruded material in various stages during a set time in a state where the temperature conditions are different from each other.

In this case, the primary heat treatment step may be a treatment treatment at a temperature of 540 캜 to 560 캜 for a predetermined time.

Further, the secondary heat treatment step may be one which is aged at three different temperatures under different temperature conditions.

In this case, the second heat treatment step may include: a first aging step of performing a heat treatment for a set time at a temperature lower by 30 to 40 ° C than the reference temperature condition; A second aging step of performing heat treatment for the set time at the reference temperature; And a third aging step for performing a heat treatment at a temperature 30 to 40 ° C higher than the reference temperature for a preset time.

Here, the set time in the first aging step to the third aging step may be the same time, and the set time may be 70 minutes to 90 minutes.

In addition, the reference temperature may be 165-175 캜.

Meanwhile, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the aluminum alloy material includes aluminum (Al) as a main material, silicon (Si) of a certain weight percentage and magnesium (Mg) It may be a material having high hardness by the secondary heat treatment step and the secondary heat treatment step.

As described above, according to the method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to an embodiment of the present invention and the aluminum alloy material produced by the manufacturing method, it is possible to provide a multi-stage aging treatment An effect of producing an aluminum alloy material having mechanical properties, particularly high hardness, can be provided.

The graph shown.
2 is a graph showing a phase change state of an aluminum alloy with aging treatment time.
3 is a process flow diagram for manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed process of the second heat treatment process step in FIG. 3; FIG.
5 is a graph showing a heat treatment process of T6 by an aluminum alloy according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a graph showing the hardness distribution of the specimen subjected to the aging treatment according to the method for producing an aluminum alloy material according to the embodiment of the present invention, with respect to the second heat treatment process condition.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention, and the manner of achieving them, will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

Thus, in some embodiments, well known process steps, well-known structures, and well-known techniques are not specifically described to avoid an undue interpretation of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of illustrating embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. It should be understood that the terms comprising and / or comprising the terms used in the specification do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps and / or operations other than the stated components, steps and / . And "and / or" include each and any combination of one or more of the mentioned items.

Further, the embodiments described herein will be described with reference to the perspective view, cross-sectional view, side view, and / or schematic views, which are ideal illustrations of the present invention. Thus, the shape of the illustrations may be modified by manufacturing techniques and / or tolerances. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the specific forms shown, but also include changes in the forms generated according to the manufacturing process. In addition, in the respective drawings shown in the embodiments of the present invention, the respective constituent elements may be somewhat enlarged or reduced in view of convenience of description.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to the present invention and a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material produced by the method will be described in detail.

First, the aluminum alloy material according to the embodiment of the present invention includes aluminum (Al) as a main material, silicon (Si) and magnesium (Mg) in a certain weight percentage, and other impurities in a small amount Series aluminum alloy will be described as an example.

As described above, the aluminum alloy having 6xxx series in which silicon (Si) and magnesium (Mg) are contained in a predetermined weight percentage and aluminum and other impurities are added in minor amounts is used as the main material, Has been widely applied to vehicle bodies or various parts of transportation means such as an aircraft or an automobile due to its mechanical properties.

Such an aluminum alloy exhibits different yield strengths depending on the heat treatment method.

Referring to Table 1 below, the aluminum alloy can be classified according to the heat treatment method.

T1 At room temperature aged material under fairly stable conditions T2 Loose material (casting only) T3 After the immersion treatment, the material that has been cured at room temperature T4 Material that has been aged at room temperature after immersion T5 Materials that have been subjected to tempering treatment but not immersion treatment T6 Material tempered after immersion T7 Material that has undergone stabilization treatment after immersion treatment T8 After the immersion treatment, the tempered material after the room temperature work hardening T9 After immersion treatment, tempering treatment followed by room temperature work hardening material T10 Material that has been tempered after omitting immersion treatment and subjected to room temperature processing hardening

Among the aluminum alloys classified according to the heat treatment method, the aluminum alloy produced by the heat treatment method using T6 after tempering treatment has the greatest yield strength.

Here, the heat treatment step with T6 includes a primary heat treatment step by solution treatment of the extruded material of the extruded aluminum alloy and a secondary heat treatment step by aging treatment.

1 is a graph showing a general T6 heat treatment process of a 6xxx series aluminum alloy.

Referring to FIG. 1, the heat treatment process of T6 by the aluminum alloy is performed at a temperature of about 540 to 560 DEG C (preferably 550 DEG C) for a predetermined time, for example, 50 minutes to 70 minutes, preferably 1 hour (Preferably 8 hours) at a temperature of about 165-175 DEG C (preferably 170 DEG C) and a second heat treatment process step of an aging treatment step .

The solution treatment refers to a process in which an alloy element is heated to a temperature at which it is dissolved in a solid solution and then maintained for a sufficient period of time and quenched to form an unstable supersaturated solid solution to support precipitation of the alloy element.

Aging treatment refers to a process of raising the hardness of a material by causing a finely dispersed precipitate phase to be generated by maintaining an unstable supersaturated solid solution made by solution treatment at a specific temperature.

At this time, maintaining the unstable supersaturated solid solution made by solution treatment at room temperature is called natural aging, and maintaining at a specific temperature is called artificial aging.

On the other hand, when the aging time is prolonged, the precipitates are transformed into a stable phase, and in this case, the hardness is lowered.

2 is a graph showing a phase change state of the aluminum alloy with aging treatment time.

Referring to FIG. 2, in the state of forming an unstable supersaturated solid solution by the solution treatment process, the aging treatment section up to a certain time forms a GP section, and an initial precipitate is generated in this GP section.

Subsequently, as the aging time elapses, the main strengthening phase and the second strengthening phase change occur in the interval of β "and β ', and the aging time continues over the β' interval, and the equilibrium precipitate Resulting in safety and lowering of strength.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to an embodiment of the present invention through a multi-stage aging treatment process will be described in more detail.

FIG. 3 is a process flow chart for manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a detailed process of a second heat treatment process step in FIG.

5 is a graph showing a heat treatment process of T6 by an aluminum alloy according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 and 4, an aluminum alloy material according to an embodiment of the present invention is a 6xxx aluminum alloy material containing aluminum as a main raw material, a predetermined weight percent silicon, and a certain amount of magnesium, A step (S20) of forming an aluminum alloy, a step (S20) of extruding the aluminum alloy thus formed, a primary heat treatment step (S30) by solution treatment for the extruded extruded material, and a secondary heat treatment step May be manufactured by a heat treatment process step (S40).

At this time, the secondary heat treatment process step S40 may include a first aging step S41, a second aging step S42, and a third aging step S43.

Referring to FIG. 5, a method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a step of performing a solution treatment step at a temperature of about 550 ° C. for a predetermined time, eg, 50 minutes to 70 minutes, A first heat treatment process step and a second heat treatment process step for aging treatment at a temperature of about 170 캜 for about 4 hours.

Here, the second heat treatment process step includes a first aging step of aging for a set time at a temperature lower than the reference temperature of 170 캜 by a set temperature, a second aging step for aging for a preset time at a reference temperature of 170 캜 , And a third aging step of aging for a set time to a temperature higher than the reference temperature of 170 deg. C by the set temperature.

Here, the first aging step to the third aging step may be set to the same time.

That is, if the first aging step to the third aging step are all set to 4 hours, the set time may be divided into the first aging step 80 minutes, the second aging step 80 minutes, and the third aging step 80 minutes.

For reference, the reference temperature of 170 ° C can be adjusted to 165-175 ° C depending on the heat treatment environment.

On the other hand, in the aging heat treatment as the second heat treatment step, the temperature in the first aging step may be 130 to 140 ° C, and the temperature in the third aging step may be 200 to 210 ° C.

Table 2 shows a comparison table in which the aging treatment process, which is the second heat treatment process step, in the method of manufacturing an aluminum alloy material according to the embodiment of the present invention is different.

division Solution treatment Aging treatment standard

550 ° C for 1 hour 170 ℃ -8 hours Example 1 (140 DEG C-80 min) + (170 DEG C-80 min) + (200 DEG C-80 min) Example 2 (130 DEG C-80 min) + (170 DEG C-80 min) + (210 DEG C-80 min) Comparative Example 1 190 ℃ -4 hours Comparative Example 2 210 ℃ -4 hours

First, 6061 aluminum alloy material was extruded and five specimens of? 10 * 15 mm were prepared. After the heat treatment process as shown in Table 2 was performed, the hardness of each specimen was measured.

That is, each of the specimens was subjected to a solution treatment at 550 ° C for a predetermined time of about 50 minutes to 70 minutes (preferably 1 hour), and the results were compared with those of Example 1, Example 2, Comparative Example 1, The aging treatment was carried out under different conditions.

Here, after the solution treatment, the first specimen was subjected to aging treatment at 170 DEG C for 8 hours, and the second specimen was subjected to solution treatment at 140 DEG C for 80 minutes, at 170 DEG C for 80 minutes, at 200 DEG C for 80 minutes . The third specimen was aged for 4 hours at 130 ° C for 80 minutes, 170 ° C for 80 minutes, and 210 to 80 minutes after the solution treatment.

After the solution treatment, the fourth specimen was aged at 190 ° C for 4 hours, and the fifth specimen was aged at 210 ° C for 4 hours after the solution treatment.

Thus, the first to fifth specimens were subjected to aging treatment under different conditions, and then the hardness was measured ten times from the center to the surface portion with respect to the cross-sectional area of each specimen.

In this case, among the hardness values measured for the respective specimens, the average values of the measured values excluding the maximum value and the minimum value are shown in Table 3 below.

division standard Example 1 Example 2 Comparative Example 1 Comparative Example 2 Hardness (HRA) 36.6 36.6 37 36.2 35.2

Referring to Table 3, it can be seen that the hardness of the third specimen subjected to the heat treatment according to Example 2 is the highest.

However, in the case of the second specimen subjected to the heat treatment according to Example 1, it was found that the hardness was the same as that of the first specimen subjected to the heat treatment according to the standard, but in the case of the heat treatment according to the standard, 8 hours. On the other hand, in the case of the heat treatment process according to Example 1, it can be confirmed that the hardness is very high considering that all the aging treatment is performed for 4 hours.

Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the aging treatment is carried out in various steps with different temperature conditions, it becomes possible to manufacture an aluminum alloy material having high hardness in a short time.

Particularly, in Comparative Example 1 and Comparative Example 2, the aging treatment time was shortened to 4 hours as in the example of the present invention. However, as the aging treatment was carried out at the same temperature, It was found that the hardness was lower than that of the aging treatment at various temperatures under different temperature conditions.

Meanwhile, in order to verify the hardness of the aluminum alloy material according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in Table 2, additional experiments were conducted as shown in Table 4 below.

division Solution treatment Aging treatment Temperature difference time standard




550 ° C -1 hour 170 ℃ -8 hours - 4h Additional Example 1 (150 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (170 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (190 占 폚 -40 minutes) 20 2h Additional Example 2 (150 DEG C-80 min) + (170 DEG C-80 min) + (190 DEG C-80 min) 20 4h Additional Example 3 (150 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (170 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (190 DEG C - 120 minutes) 20 6h Additional Example 4 (140 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (170 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (200 占 폚 -80 minutes) 30 2h Example 1 (140 DEG C-80 min) + (170 DEG C-80 min) + (200 DEG C-80 min) 30 4h Additional Example 5 (140 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (170 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (200 DEG C - 120 minutes) 30 6h Additional Example 6 (130 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (170 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (210 占 폚 -40 minutes) 40 2h Example 2 (130 DEG C-80 min) + (170 DEG C-80 min) + (210 DEG C-80 min) 40 4h Additional Example 7 (130 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (170 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (210 DEG C - 120 minutes) 40 6h Additional Example 8 (110 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (170 占 폚 -40 minutes) + (200 占 폚 -40 minutes) 60 2h Additional Example 9 (110 占 폚 -80 minutes) + (170 占 폚 -80 minutes) + (200 占 폚 -80 minutes) 60 4h Additional Example 10 (110 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (170 DEG C - 120 minutes) + (200 DEG C - 120 minutes) 60 6h Comparative Example 1 190 ℃ -4 hours - 4h Comparative Example 2 190 ℃ -4 hours - 4h

Table 4 above shows the specimens according to the additional examples 1 to 10, in addition to the specimens according to the reference, the first embodiment, the second embodiment, the first comparative example and the second comparative example as shown in Table 2 described above And the aging treatment time and the different temperature conditions according to the aging treatment.

Here, the specimens used in the additional examples 1 to 10 were extruded into a size of? 10 * 15 mm of a 6061 aluminum alloy material.

Thus, the specimens according to the additional examples 1 to 10 were subjected to aging treatment under different conditions, and the hardness was measured ten times from the center to the surface part with respect to the cross-sectional area of each specimen.

In this case, among the hardness values measured for the respective specimens, the average values of the measured values excluding the maximum value and the minimum value are shown in Table 5 below.

division Hardness (HRA) Standards and Differences standard 36.6 0.0 Additional Example 1 34.6 -2.0 Additional Example 2 35.9 -0.7 Additional Example 3 36.9 0.3 Additional Example 4 35.7 -0.9 Example 1 36.6 0.0 Additional Example 5 37.1 0.5 Additional Example 6 35.1 -1.5 Example 2 37.0 0.4 Additional Example 7 35.9 -0.7 Additional Example 8 33.5 -3.1 Additional Example 9 33.0 -3.6 Additional Example 10 30.9 -5.7 Comparative Example 1 36.2 -0.4 Comparative Example 2 35.2 -1.4

Referring to Table 5, when the hardness was higher than the hardness when the aging treatment was performed on the basis of the reference, when the aging treatment was carried out under the conditions of the Example 3, the Example 1, the Example 5, and the Example 2 .

That is, in the case where the aging treatment is carried out in three steps of (150 ° C. -120 minutes) + (170 ° C. -120 minutes) + (190 ° C. -120 minutes) as in Example 3, Similar hardness was measured and when the aging treatment was carried out in three stages of (140 ° C.-80 minutes) + (170 ° C.-80 minutes) + (200 ° C. -80 minutes) as in Example 1, The hardness similar to that of the case where the hardness was measured was measured.

In the case where the aging treatment is carried out in three steps of (140 ° C. -120 minutes) + (170 ° C. -120 minutes) + (200 ° C. -120 minutes) as in the case of the additional example 5, And the hardness was measured to be high. When the aging treatment was performed in three steps of (130 ° C.-80 minutes) + (170 ° C.-80 minutes) + (210 ° C. -80 minutes) as in Example 2, The hardness was measured to be higher than the case where the treatment was performed.

In the case of the additional examples 3 and 5, since the time required for the aging time is 6 hours, the aging time is longer than the case of the example 1 and the example 2. Therefore, It can be confirmed that the efficiency is not high.

It was also found that, in the case of Example 4, which had the same temperature conditions as Example 1 and had a shorter aging time, the hardness was lower than the standard.

On the other hand, when the temperature in the first aging step is 30-40 ° C lower than the temperature in the second aging step, which is the temperature in the reference case, and the temperature in the third aging step is the reference temperature, And the highest hardness was obtained when the temperature was 30 to 40 ° C higher than the temperature.

That is, the first aging step is performed for 80 minutes under the condition of 30-40 ° C. lower than the reference temperature, the second aging step is performed for 80 minutes as the reference temperature, and then 80 ° C. As a result of carrying out the aging treatment for 4 hours in all three steps such as carrying out the third aging step for a minute, it was found that the same or higher It is possible to confirm that it represents hardness.

6 is a graph showing the hardness distribution of the specimen subjected to the aging treatment according to the method of manufacturing the aluminum alloy material according to the embodiment of the present invention, with respect to the second heat treatment process condition.

As a result, FIG. 6 shows a hardness distribution map according to the aging treatment process for 12 experimental results (Examples 1 to 2 and Additional Examples 1 to 10). The temperature difference according to each step at a reference temperature of 170 ° C ΔT (° C), and the time spent in each step is denoted by Δt (min).

Referring to FIG. 6, the portion indicated by red color indicates a portion higher than the reference hardness, and it can be confirmed that high hardness can be obtained by reducing the entire process time by conducting heat treatment under conditions corresponding to the region in the aging treatment there was.

As described above, according to the method of manufacturing the aluminum alloy material according to the embodiment of the present invention, the aluminum alloy material having high hardness can be manufactured by performing the aging treatment step in three stages at different temperature conditions for a relatively short period of time It is possible to manufacture a high quality aluminum alloy material as well as a manufacturing efficiency of a high quality aluminum alloy material is remarkably improved, and the manufacturing time is reduced, so that the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing detailed description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and the equivalents thereof are included in the scope of the present invention Should be interpreted.

Claims (8)

A method of producing a 6xxx aluminum alloy material containing aluminum (Al) as a main raw material and containing silicon (Si) at a certain weight percentage and magnesium (Mg) at a certain weight percentage,
Producing the aluminum alloy as an extruded material by an extrusion process;
Subjecting the extruded material to a first heat treatment process for solution treatment at a temperature of 540 캜 to 560 캜 for a set time;
Performing a secondary heat treatment process of aging the extruded material subjected to the first heat treatment at various stages during a set time in a state where temperature conditions are different from each other;
/ RTI >
The second heat treatment step may include a first aging step of performing aging treatment at three different temperatures under different temperature conditions, a heat treatment for 30 to 40 ° C lower than a reference temperature of 165 to 175 ° C for a set time, And a third aging step of performing a heat treatment for a set time at a temperature 30 to 40 ° C higher than the reference temperature condition,
Wherein the set time in the first aging step, the second aging step and the third aging step is the same time of 70 minutes to 90 minutes.
The method according to claim 1,
In the first heat treatment step,
Wherein the solution treatment is performed at a temperature of 540 캜 to 560 캜 for a predetermined period of time.
delete delete delete delete delete A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising: a primary heat treatment step in which aluminum (Al) is used as a main raw material and silicon (Si) of a certain weight percentage and magnesium (Mg) Aluminum alloy material.

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