High-formability Al alloy sheet produced by asymmetric rolling of strip-cast sheet

Abstract

The feasibility of producing high-strength/high-formability Al alloy sheets using a technique that combines twin-roll strip casting and asymmetric rolling is reported. An Al alloy sheet with the nominal composition of Al-1.0Si-0.6Mg (in wt%) produced in this study exhibited an excellent formability ((r) over bar = 1.20, and Delta r = 0.17) and mechanical properties (sigma(TS)similar to 265 MPa, epsilon similar to 35%), which cannot be feasibly obtained via the conventional technique based on direct-chill (DC) casting and repetitive rolling. The structural origin of the enhanced formability was explored by examining the evolution of textures associated with the strip casting and subsequent thermo-mechanical treatments and interpreted using the viscoplastic self-consistent (VPSC) model. (c) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.