Improving Precipitation in Cryogenic Rolling 6016 Aluminum Alloys during Aging Treatment

This study systematically investigated the performance and microstructure characterization of cryogenic rolling (CR) and room-temperature rolling (RTR) Al–Mg–Si alloys. The result showed that the hardness of the CR alloys decreased at the early aging stage, but that the hardness of the RTR alloys increased at the early aging stage. Retrogression phenomena were apparent in the CR alloys at the early aging stage. Despite undergoing the same solid solution treatment, a few substructures were still observed in the CR alloys, and the degree of recrystallization in the CR alloys was significantly inferior to that in the RTR alloys. After aging for 50 h, the strength and precipitates’ density in the CR 75 alloy were higher than that in the other alloys; this indicated that the substructures were beneficial to precipitation and precipitate growth. A precipitation strength model was employed to illustrate the precipitation contribution at different aging stages. The results showed that the CR 75 alloy obtained the strongest precipitation strengthening.