Enhancement of Ductility in Aluminum Alloys by the Control of Transition-Metal Solutes during Thermo-Mechanical Processing

Predictions of chromium additions to aluminum alloys to stabilize the deformation debris products were examined. Additions of 0.22 wt. % Cr to AA6063 extrusion alloys manifested enhanced formability under bending and precision-strain-rate-sensitivity tensile testing indicated that the stacking fault energy was reduced. The debris products were more resistant to dynamic recovery resulting in enhanced ductility at 27 °C and the solute-drag effect of Mg was dramatically manifested in the Haasen plot.