Effects of Pre-Ageing on Thermomechanical Treatment Process of 2A12 Aluminum Alloy

The thermomechanical treatment of a 2A12 aluminum alloy was researched and the influence of pre-ageing on microstructure and hardness was analyzed emphatically. The results reveal that the hardness of specimen increases when they are pre-aged, the hardness value rises at first and then decreases, reaching the maxmum value when pre-aged at 180°C×30min . After plastically deformed at 450°C, the hardness keeps on increasing, and the grains are equiaxed polygon structure. After all the workpieces are aged in the end, the small particles of the second phase precipitates completely and disperses within the original phase matrix, the particles interact with dislocations in upper state that formed during plastic deformation and lead to a great increase in hardness compared with as-received. the best pre-aging parameter is 180°C×30min.