ABSTRACT

In this paper, the effect of special heat treatment (pre ageing, post ageing) of the recently developed Hot Forming and in-die Quenching (HFQ) process is used to compensate the Heat affected zone (HAZ) softening. Investigation was performed on 1 mm AA6082-T6 sheet by a Gleeble 3500 physical simulator with specifically selected peak temperatures using Rykalin-2D model (thin plate) and with two linear heat input (100 J/mm and 200 J/mm). Then the most critical subzone (Tpeak = 440°C) was selected for further investigations. Three different heat-treating routes were programmed on the simulator: HAZ cycle + post ageing; solution annealing + HAZ cycle +post ageing; solution annealing + pre ageing + HAZ cycle +post ageing). Finally, the properties of the investigated HAZ subzone were examined by optical microscope and microhardness test.