A conventional thermo-mechanical process of Al-Cu-Mg alloy for increasing ductility while maintaining high strength

A conventional thermo-mechanical process is developed to increase strength and provide good ductility for an Al-Cu-Mg alloy. After the aging treatment, the elongation to failure reaches similar to 12%, which is higher by a factor of similar to 2.6 than that of conventional 18 heat-treated alloys, and there is also a notable increase of similar to 40 MPa in the yield strength in comparison to T8 heat-treated alloys. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.