Evolution of Microstructure and Hardness of Aluminium Alloy 6060 Processed by Cyclic Extrusion and Compression

Cyclic Extrusion and Compression (CEC) process is one of the techniques of Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) to obtain grain refinement in metals and alloys. The CEC process makes the materials to deform randomly large strains without changing the initial dimensions of sample. In this study Microstructure and Hardness of Aluminium Alloy 6060 Processed by Cyclic Extrusion and Compression were investigated. The results show that the grain structure was effectively refined after each cycle of CEC process and there is a significant improvement in the hardness of CEC processed samples compared base alloy. The micro Vickers hardness of Aluminium alloy 6060 has increased from 93 HV to 120 HV at the end of 3rd cycle of CEC process.