High strength extrusion alloy
AssigneeAlcoa USA Corp.
InventorsXinyan YAN, Francis CARON, Guy LALIBERTE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This disclosure provides an aging process or a method for aging aluminum alloys. For example, the aging process can be performed on 6xxx Al—Si—Mg—Cu aluminum alloys to result in production of such alloys with improved intergranular corrosion (IGC) resistance. The disclosed aging process includes subjecting a solution heat treated and quenched 6xxx aluminum alloy to a temperature above an aging hardening temperature of said alloy but below the solution heat treatment temperature for a short period of time, and then subjecting said alloy to an aging heat treatment at an aging hardening temperature.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- subjecting an alloy to a first temperature for a first time duration,
- wherein the first temperature is greater than an aging hardening temperature of the alloy and below a solution heat treatment temperature;
- and
- subjecting the alloy to a second temperature for a second time duration.
A method comprising:
- subjecting an aluminum alloy to a first temperature for a first time duration;
- and
- subjecting the aluminum alloy to a second temperature for a second time duration,
- wherein the first temperature is higher than the second temperature,
- wherein the first time duration is from 5 minutes to 20 minutes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.