Effect of asymmetric rolling on the texture and mechanical properties of AA6111-aluminum sheet

Aluminum-alloy sheets are considered to be one of the high-potential substitutes for steel sheets, when considering the weight reduction of automobiles. However, aluminum-alloy sheets have inferior formability, mainly due to their lower plastic-strain ratios. The plastic-strain ratios of aluminum-alloy sheets can be increased with the formation of shear-deformation texture through the sheet thickness. Asymmetric rolling, in which the circumferential velocities of working rolls are different, is a favorable process for imposing shear-deformation texture through the sheet thickness. In this study, commercial AA6111-alloy sheets were used to compare the effects of conventional symmetric rolling and asymmetric rolling in controlling the shear textures and grain refinement, as well as the mechanical properties of the tensile and plastic-strain ratio.