Electron beam surface structuring of AA6016 aluminum alloy

In this study, electron beam surface structuring was applied to sheets of AA6016 aluminum alloy with a thickness of 2.5 mm. A design of experiments (DoE) parameter analysis was performed which revealed that the beam current had the largest impact on the surface feature geometry. Based on this evaluation, the process was optimized for a surface structure height of 1.9 mm. In addition, tensile testing and hardness measurements were carried out to compare the samples to the non-structured base material. It was found that the mechanical properties dropped to a lower level due to process related cross-sectional reduction.