Processing of high strength EN AW 6082 forgings without a solution heat treatment

Light weight EN AW 6082 alloy forgings are used extensively in automotive suspension components. The conventional production cycle involves a solution heat treatment that is responsible not only for coarse surface grains, potentially degrading for fatigue properties, but also for microstructural features that reduce the impact toughness. The separate solution treatment may be omitted if hot forging operation is fine tuned to solutionize sufficient Mg and Si during forging to offer adequate age hardening during the subsequent artificial ageing cycle. Uniform structures with a predominantly fine fibrous core thus obtained, ensure better fatigue and impact properties and a longer service life. The proposed process not only improves the quality of the automotive suspension components but also offers significant cost savings. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.