TWI736399B - Aluminum plate and fabricating method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An aluminum plate and a fabricating method thereof are described. The fabricating method includes steps of: providing a raw material composition, wherein the raw material composition conforms to a composition ratio of an AA6XXX series aluminum alloy; performing an aluminum embryo forming step of forming an aluminum embryo by melt-casting the raw material composition; performing a hot-rolling step of hot-rolling the aluminum embryo to form a semi-processed aluminum plate with a thickness of 20 to 200 mm; performing a solid-solution and water quenching step of heating the semi-processed aluminum plate to 575~585°C for 3~6 hours and of performing water quenching treatment on the semi-processed aluminum plate; performing a leveling step to flatten the semi-treated aluminum plate after the solid-solution and water quenching step; and performing an aging step to heat the flattened aluminum plate to 150 to 200℃ for 3 to 20 hours to obtain the aluminum plate.

Description

Aluminum plate and its manufacturing method

The invention relates to the field of aluminum alloys, in particular to an aluminum plate and a manufacturing method thereof.

Products with a thickness greater than or equal to 6 mm are called aluminum plates; products with a thickness less than 6 mm are called aluminum sheets or aluminum coils. Aluminum plates are mainly products formed from aluminum billets through a rolling process. Generally speaking, when aluminum billet is melted and cast, the difference in the cooling rate between the surface and the center will cause the difference in microstructure of aluminum billet, and since the cut of aluminum sheet in the thickness direction is smaller than that of aluminum sheet or aluminum coil, various heat treatments are carried out even after rolling , There will still be precipitates with uneven size and uneven distribution density in the metallography of the aluminum plate. The influence of these precipitates is that in the subsequent anode treatment, selective corrosion will promote the difference between the surface/center microstructure of the aluminum plate to be more obvious, thus forming anode chromatic aberration stripes, resulting in uneven appearance of the product.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the existing treatment method is to insert a homogenization treatment in the melting and casting step and the rolling step. However, this approach not only increases the time required for the manufacturing process, but also has limited effects on the above technical problems.

Therefore, it is necessary to provide an aluminum plate and a manufacturing method thereof to solve the problems existing in the conventional technology.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an aluminum plate and a method of manufacturing the same, which uses specific parameters (for example, solution treatment at 575 to 585°C for 3 to 6 hours) to reduce the size of precipitates and reduce the size of the precipitates. The precipitation position is more even.

In order to achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an aluminum plate, which includes the steps of: providing a composition of raw materials, wherein the composition of the raw materials meets the composition ratio of the AA6XXX series aluminum alloy; Embryo; hot rolling step, the aluminum The blank is hot-rolled to form a semi-processed aluminum plate with a thickness of 20 to 200 mm; the solution and water quenching steps are performed, the semi-processed aluminum plate is heated to 575-585°C for 3 to 6 hours, and the heated half The processed aluminum plate is subjected to water quenching treatment; the leveling step is performed to planarize the semi-treated aluminum plate after the solid solution and water quenching steps; and the aging step is performed to heat the leveled semi-processed aluminum plate to 150 to 200°C. 3 to 20 hours to obtain the aluminum plate.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the total weight of the raw material composition is 100% by weight, and the raw material composition includes: 95.85 to 98.56% by weight of aluminum; 0.8 to 1.2% by weight of magnesium; 0.4 to 0.8% by weight of silicon; And less than or equal to 0.7wt% of iron; 0.15 to 0.4wt% of copper; 0.04 to 0.35wt% of chromium; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.7wt% of zinc; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.25wt% of titanium; and greater than zero And less than or equal to 0.15wt% of manganese.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the melting temperature of the aluminum blank forming step is between 700 to 800°C.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the thickness of the aluminum blank is between 400 and 600 mm.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the hot rolling temperature of the hot rolling step is between 450 and 500°C, and the finishing temperature of the hot rolling step is between 300 and 350°C.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the leveling step is to clamp the head end and the tail end of the semi-processed aluminum plate with clamps and apply tension in opposite directions to level the semi-processed aluminum plate.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the homogenization step is not included between the aluminum blank forming step and the hot rolling step.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the temperature of the homogenization step is between 530 and 580° C., and the time of the homogenization step is between 8 and 20 hours.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the precipitate composition of the aluminum plate includes a Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitate phase and a Mg ₂ Si precipitate phase, wherein the average size of the precipitate composition is between 1.0 and 1.4 microns.

In order to achieve the above objective, the present invention provides an aluminum plate, which is produced by the aluminum plate manufacturing method described in any of the above embodiments.

10: method

11~16: Steps

21~27: marking

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method of manufacturing an aluminum plate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2A is a schematic diagram of the microscopic analysis of Example 1 after the aluminum blank is formed.

Figures 2B and 2C are enlarged views of the various locations marked in Figure 2A.

Figures 3A to 3D are respectively the schematic diagrams of the micro-measurement at 0 L, L/8, L/4 and L/2 of Example 1.

Figures 4A to 4D are schematic diagrams of the micro-measurement at 0 L, L/8, L/4, and L/2 of Comparative Example 1, respectively.

Figures 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams of photographs of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1 after anodization.

In order to make the above and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable, the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Furthermore, the directional terms mentioned in the present invention, such as up, down, top, bottom, front, back, left, right, inside, outside, side, surrounding, center, horizontal, horizontal, vertical, vertical, axial, The radial direction, the uppermost layer or the lowermost layer, etc., are only the direction of reference to the attached drawings. Therefore, the directional terms used are used to describe and understand the present invention, rather than to limit the present invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, an embodiment of the present invention proposes a method 10 for manufacturing an aluminum plate, including steps 11 to 16: providing raw material composition, wherein the raw material composition meets the composition ratio of the AA6XXX series aluminum alloy (step 11); performing the aluminum embryo forming step , The raw material composition is melted and casted to form an aluminum blank (step 12); a hot rolling step is performed, and the aluminum blank is hot rolled to form a semi-treated aluminum plate with a thickness of 20 to 200 mm (step 13); And the water quenching step, heating the semi-processed aluminum plate to 575~585°C for 3 to 6 hours, and subjecting the heated semi-processed aluminum plate to water quenching (step 14); performing a leveling step to perform the solid solution and The semi-treated aluminum plate after the water quenching step is flattened (step 15); and an aging step is performed to heat the flattened semi-treated aluminum plate to 150 to 200° C. for 3 to 20 hours to obtain the aluminum plate (step 16). In the present invention, the implementation details and principles of the above steps of the embodiments will be described in detail below one by one.

The manufacturing method 10 of an aluminum plate according to an embodiment of the present invention first includes step 11: providing a raw material composition, wherein the raw material composition meets the composition ratio of the AA6XXX series aluminum alloy (step 11). In this step 11, the manufacturing method 10 of the aluminum plate of the present invention is mainly aimed at AA6XXX series aluminum alloys, such as AA6061 series aluminum alloys, but not limited to this. In one embodiment, taking the total weight of the raw material composition as 100 wt%, the raw material composition includes: 95.85 to 98.56 wt% of aluminum; 0.8 to 1.2 wt% of magnesium; 0.4 to 0.8wt% of silicon; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.7wt% of iron; 0.15 to 0.4wt% of copper; 0.04 to 0.35wt% of chromium; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.7wt% of zinc; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.25 wt% titanium; and greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.15 wt% manganese. In an example, the raw material composition may also include 0 to 0.05 wt% of unavoidable impurities.

The manufacturing method 10 of an aluminum plate according to an embodiment of the present invention is followed by step 12: performing an aluminum blank forming step, and forming an aluminum blank by melting and casting the raw material composition. In this step 12, any known melting and casting method can be used to form the aluminum blank. In one embodiment, the melting temperature of the aluminum blank forming step is between 700 and 800°C, such as 710°C, 720°C, 730°C, 740°C, 750°C, 760°C, 770°C, 780°C or 790°C. ℃. In another embodiment, the shape of the formed aluminum blank can be determined according to the needs of the mold and/or the user. For example, the aluminum blank is substantially in the shape of a block, and the thickness of the aluminum blank is, for example, between 400 and 600 mm ( For example, 410 mm, 420 mm, 430 mm, 450 mm, 470 mm, 500 mm, 520 mm, 530 mm, 540 mm, 550 mm, 570 mm or 590 mm).

The manufacturing method 10 of an aluminum plate according to an embodiment of the present invention is followed by step 13: performing a hot rolling step, and hot rolling the aluminum blank to form a semi-processed aluminum plate with a thickness of 20 to 200 mm. In this step 13, the thickness of the aluminum blank is mainly reduced by hot rolling treatment to have the required thickness. Generally speaking, the thickness required here can be substantially equal to or approximate to the final thickness of the aluminum plate. In one embodiment, the hot rolling temperature of the hot rolling step 13 is between 450 and 500°C, and the finishing temperature of the hot rolling step 13 is between 300 and 350°C.

The manufacturing method 10 of an aluminum plate according to an embodiment of the present invention is followed by step 14: performing solid solution and water quenching steps, heating the semi-treated aluminum plate to 575~585°C for 3 to 6 hours, and performing the heated semi-treated aluminum plate Water quenching treatment. _{In this step 14, the precipitation phase (Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitation phase and Mg 2} Si precipitation phase) in the semi-treated aluminum plate is mainly recovered through a higher solid solution temperature (575~585°C). Dissolve into the aluminum alloy substrate. Specifically, in the conventional aluminum plate manufacturing method, in order to reduce the size of the above-mentioned precipitated phases or make the distribution of the precipitated phases uniform, a homogenization treatment is usually adopted (a homogenization treatment is inserted in the melting and casting step and the hot rolling step, wherein the homogenization step is The temperature is between 530 and 580℃, and the time of the homogenization step is between 8 and 20 hours), and a lower solid solution temperature (500~560) is used in the solution and water quenching steps. ℃ up to 3 to 6 hours). However, the effect of the conventional method is still very limited (the specific experimental comparison will be described in the following paragraphs), and it takes a long time to process. It should be mentioned that at least one feature of the aluminum plate manufacturing method of the present invention is that a higher solid solution temperature is used to re-dissolve the precipitated phases (Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitated phase and Mg ₂ Si precipitated phase) into aluminum. In the alloy base, the size of the above-mentioned precipitated phase is further reduced and/or the distribution of the precipitated phase is made uniform. Furthermore, the manufacturing method 10 of the present invention can eliminate the conventional homogenization step (between the aluminum blank forming step and the hot rolling step), so the time required in the manufacturing process can also be saved. In another embodiment, for the water quenching treatment, for example, room temperature water (for example, between about 20 to 30° C.) may be used to cool the semi-treated aluminum plate after the hot rolling treatment.

The manufacturing method 10 of an aluminum plate according to an embodiment of the present invention is followed by step 15: performing a leveling step, and leveling the semi-treated aluminum plate after the solid solution and water quenching steps. In this step 15, since the semi-processed aluminum plate after the solid solution and water quenching steps is affected by thermal stress and bends, a leveling step is required to return the semi-processed aluminum plate to a flat state. In an embodiment, the leveling step may be clamped by clamps at the head end and the tail end of the semi-processed aluminum plate respectively, and pulling force is applied in opposite directions, so as to flatten the semi-processed aluminum plate.

The final step of the aluminum plate manufacturing method 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is step 16: performing an aging step, heating the flattened semi-processed aluminum plate to 150 to 200° C. for 3 to 20 hours to obtain the aluminum plate. In this step 16, for example, the temperature is maintained at 150°C for 16 to 20 hours; or the temperature is maintained at 200°C for 3 to 7 hours.

In addition, it should be mentioned that at least one feature of the aluminum plate manufacturing method 10 of an embodiment of the present invention is to use a specific step process and match specific parameters to manufacture the aluminum plate. Because the size of the precipitates in the aluminum plate is small, the size distribution is uniform, and the position distribution is uniform, the aluminum plate will not form anode chromatic aberration stripes in the subsequent anode treatment, so it can improve the problem of uneven appearance of the product in the prior art. .

In addition, at least one feature of the aluminum plate manufacturing method 10 of an embodiment of the present invention is to eliminate the use of the long-term homogenization process in the prior art. In other words, the present invention only increases the treatment temperature in the solution treatment, which can omit the long-term homogenization treatment in the prior art, so that the time required for making the aluminum plate can be saved.

In addition, it should be mentioned that an embodiment of the present invention proposes an aluminum plate, which can be manufactured by the aluminum plate manufacturing method of any of the above embodiments.

The following examples and comparative examples are given to prove the manufacturing method of the aluminum plate of the embodiment of the present invention The aluminum plate made by the method does have the above-mentioned effects.

Example 1

First, provide a raw material composition that meets the composition ratio of the AA6XXX series aluminum alloy. Here, the AA6061 series aluminum alloy is taken as an example (95.85 to 98.56wt% aluminum; 0.8 to 1.2wt% magnesium; 0.4 to 0.8wt% silicon; greater than zero And less than or equal to 0.7wt% of iron; 0.15 to 0.4wt% of copper; 0.04 to 0.35wt% of chromium; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.7wt% of zinc; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.25wt% of titanium; and greater than zero And less than or equal to 0.15wt% of manganese). After that, an aluminum blank forming step is performed at a melting temperature between 700 and 800° C. to form an aluminum blank with a thickness between 400 mm and 600 mm. Then, a hot rolling step is performed to hot-roll the aluminum billet to form a semi-treated aluminum plate with a thickness of 20 to 200 mm (the hot rolling temperature of the hot rolling step is, for example, between 450 to 500°C, and the The finishing temperature of the hot rolling step is, for example, between 300 to 350°C). Then, a solution and water quenching step is performed, the semi-treated aluminum plate is heated to 575-585° C. for 3 to 6 hours, and the heated semi-treated aluminum plate is subjected to water quenching treatment with water at room temperature. Then, a leveling step is performed to clamp the head end and the tail end of the semi-processed aluminum plate with clamps and apply a pulling force in opposite directions to level the semi-processed aluminum plate. Finally, an aging step is performed to heat the flattened semi-treated aluminum plate to 150 to 200° C. for 3 to 20 hours to obtain the aluminum plate.

Comparative example 1

The manufacturing method of Comparative Example 1 is substantially similar to that of Example 1, except that: (1) A homogenization step is also included between the aluminum blank forming step and the hot rolling step (the temperature of the homogenization step is, for example, between 530 and 580°C, and the time of the homogenization step is, for example, between 8 to 20 hours); and (2) in the solution and water quenching steps, heat the semi-treated aluminum plate to 500 to 560°C to 3 to 6 hours.

First, it should be noted that the manufacturing method of the aluminum plate of the present invention is mainly aimed at the Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitation phase and the Mg ₂ Si precipitation phase. Please refer to Figures 2A to 2C, Figure 2A is a schematic analysis diagram of the microscopy of Example 1 after the aluminum blank is formed, Figure 2B is an enlarged view of 21 marked in Figure 2A, and Figure 2C is marked in Figure 2A Enlarged view of 22. It should be mentioned that Comparative Example 1 also has a similar distribution, and only the example of Example 1 is shown here. According to the analysis, during the cooling process of the aluminum embryo, the eutectic structure of α-AlFeSi and β-AlFeSi, which is shaped like a human nerve, is firstly produced by solidification (as shown in Figure 2B, marked 23). As the temperature drops to 480°C, Produce plate-like Al(Fe)Si precipitates (as shown in Figure 2B, marked 24) and point-like Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitates (as shown in Figure 2C, marked 27), where Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) is The number does not change with the cooling rate. When the temperature further drops to 350°C, spot-like Mg ₂ Si precipitates (as shown in Figure 2C, marked 25) and fine needle-like Mg ₂ Si precipitates (as shown in Figure 2C, marked 26) are produced, and the cooling rate becomes slower. , Fine needle-like and dot-like Mg ₂ Si turns into thick needle-like. As mentioned here, Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitates and Mg ₂ Si precipitates are the two types of precipitates that the present invention intends to re-dissolve into the aluminum alloy substrate by high-temperature solid solution.

Next, perform microscopic analysis on Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, and quantify the density and average size of the precipitates in a quantitative manner, while observing whether the precipitates are uniformly distributed. Specifically, the microscopic analysis is performed on the different proportions of the aluminum plate from the center to the edge, for example, starting from the center point of the aluminum plate (later called L/2, others and so on), move along the length direction and perform microscopy Measure until the edge of the aluminum plate (hereinafter referred to as 0 L, and so on). Please refer to Figures 3A to 3D and Figures 4A to 4D, which are the schematic diagrams of micro-measurement at 0 L, L/8, L/4, and L/2 of Example 1, and Comparative Example 1 Schematic diagram of the micro-measurement at 0 L, L/8, L/4 and L/2. Observing figures 3A to 4D, the analysis results of Table 1 below can be calculated quantitatively, where the micron-level precipitate density refers to the number of micron-level precipitates per unit area, and the sub-micron-level precipitate density refers to It is the number of submicron precipitates per unit area. The range of micron and sub-micron levels can refer to the definitions of related fields. For example, the micron level generally refers to the range of 1 to 10 microns, and may be slightly larger than 10 microns, while the sub-micron level generally refers to the range of 0.1 to 1 micron. It may be slightly smaller than 0.1 microns. In principle, the magnitude between the micron level and the sub-micron level as described herein refers to a difference of about 10 times.

It can be seen from Table 1 that the average size at each position of Example 1 is smaller than that of Comparative Example 1, and the density of precipitates at each position of Example 1 is also less than that of Comparative Example 1. . In addition, it can be seen from Figs. 3A to 4D that the distribution of the precipitates at each position of Example 1 is also clearly more uniform than that of Comparative Example 1.

In addition, Example 1 and Comparative Example 1 were further subjected to anodizing, and whether the aluminum plate produced anodic color difference stripes was observed in a macroscopic manner. As shown in Figures 5A and 5B, Example 1 did not produce anodic chromatic aberration fringes, while Comparative Example 1 clearly produced anodic chromatic aberration fringes. It is worth mentioning that the anode treatment can adopt the known anodizing method for aluminum plate, so it will not be repeated.

According to the above analysis, it can be known that the manufacturing method of the aluminum plate and the aluminum plate manufactured by the embodiment of the present invention do have the above-mentioned effects, and the manufacturing time of the conventional technology can also be saved.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone familiar with the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention The scope of protection shall be subject to the scope of the attached patent application.

10: method

11~16: Steps

Claims (9)

A method for manufacturing an aluminum plate includes the steps of: providing a composition of raw materials, wherein the composition of the raw materials meets the composition ratio of the AA6061 series aluminum alloy; performing an aluminum embryo forming step, forming an aluminum embryo by melting and casting the composition of the raw materials; performing a hot rolling step, The aluminum billet is hot-rolled to form a semi-processed aluminum plate with a thickness of 20 to 200 mm; the solution and water quenching steps are performed, the semi-processed aluminum plate is heated to 575-585°C for 3 to 6 hours, and the heated The semi-treated aluminum plate is subjected to water quenching treatment; the leveling step is performed to planarize the semi-treated aluminum plate after the solid solution and water quenching steps; and the aging step is performed to heat the planarized semi-treated aluminum plate to 150 to 200°C 3 to 20 hours to obtain the aluminum plate, wherein the precipitate composition of the aluminum plate includes a Mg-Si-(CuTiCrMn) precipitate phase and a Mg ₂ Si precipitate phase, and the average size of the precipitate composition is between 1.0 to 1.4 microns between. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 1, wherein the total weight of the raw material composition is 100 wt%, and the raw material composition includes: 95.85 to 98.56 wt% of aluminum; 0.8 to 1.2 wt% of magnesium; 0.4 to 0.8 wt% Silicon; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.7wt% of iron; 0.15 to 0.4wt% of copper; 0.04 to 0.35wt% of chromium; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.7wt% of zinc; greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.25wt% Titanium; and manganese greater than zero and less than or equal to 0.15wt%. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 1, wherein the melting temperature of the aluminum blank forming step is between 700 and 800°C. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the aluminum blank is between 400 and 600 mm. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 1, wherein the hot rolling temperature of the hot rolling step is between 450 and 500°C, and the finishing temperature of the hot rolling step is between 300 and 350°C. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 1, wherein the flattening step is to clamp the head end and the tail end of the semi-processed aluminum plate with clamps and apply tension in opposite directions to flatten the semi-processed aluminum plate. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 1, wherein the step of homogenizing is not included between the step of forming the aluminum blank and the step of hot rolling. The method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to claim 7, wherein the temperature of the homogenization step is between 530 and 580° C., and the time of the homogenization step is between 8 and 20 hours. An aluminum plate, which is produced by the method for manufacturing an aluminum plate according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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