Production of wire via friction extrusion of aluminum alloy machining chips

This paper describes the production of fully consolidated wires from aluminum alloy AA2050 and aluminum alloy AA2195 machining chips via the friction extrusion process. In this work, the extrusion rate was linearly related to the power input/die rotational speed. Hot crack and cold crack defects appeared on wires produced using either too high or too low a power input/die rotational speed. The extruded wire microstructure consisted of fully equiaxed, recrystallized grains. Average grain size in the wires generally increases with the increase oldie rotational speed/extrusion power. Micro-hardness was homogeneous across the wire transverse cross-sections. Positive response to post-extrusion heat treatment was observed with increasing extrusion power indicating increasing temperature and in process solution heat treatment of the wire with sufficient extrusion power. The ductility of defect free wire was demonstrated by the absence of cracking in 5T bend tests. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.