Improving of the workability of heat treated AlMg5 aluminum alloys subjected to the equal channel angular pressing through inter-pass annealing

In recent years, increasing interest in the improvement of the mechanical properties of aluminum-magnesium alloys has been shown. However, it is known that the addition of magnesium result in a workability decrease. For this reason, it is necessary to find a way to enhance the ductility of aluminum-magnesium alloys before plastic working. The present study shows that the plasticity of the AlMg5 aluminum alloy can be increased through a solution treatment. However, even after heat treatment, only 2 passes were possible to perform. For this reason, the increase of the workability was achieved by application of the inter stage annealing at 350 °C for 30 min. It was found that there is a possibility to obtain a fine grained bimodal structure of the as annealed material through the partial recrystallization and increase in workability of the severe plastic deformed material. It was also found that further plastic deformation results in obtaining a material with greater mechanical properties (hardness and tensile strength) in comparison to a material without inter pass annealing. To characterize the structure evolution of the material at different stages of treatment, light and electron microscopy was used.