Control of texture and earing in aluminium alloy AA 3105 sheet for packaging applications

The development of crystallographic texture upon the thermo-mechanical processing of aluminium sheet may result in the formation of pronounced plastic anisotropy and, especially, give rise to the known earing phenomenon. In the present paper two industrial process routes for controlling the texture and, therewith, reduce earing in Al strip for packaging products are compared. High-strength material with low earing properties is obtained by heavy cold rolling of hot strip with a pronounced cube texture (H19 route). Medium strength sheet with very low earing is achieved by the addition of an intermediate annealing before a light final rolling pass (H16 route). The set-up of a comprehensive through-process model of the evolution of microstructure, texture and resulting earing properties during the thermo-mechanical processing of Al sheet requires the combination of suitable models for simulating the evolution of microstructure and texture during the various process steps involved. With the help of these coupled models the most important effects regarding texture and texture-related properties can be reproduced. This yields valuable information on the evolution of earing as a function of process parameters that can be utilized to understand and eventually improve the quality of aluminium sheet products under minimization of laborious and expensive plant trials. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.