Examination of Formability Properties of 6063 Alloy Extruded Profiles for the Automotive Industry

Abstract

Bendability is a crucial property of automotive parts, which describes the ability of extruded profiles to be formed to shape, without the appearance of discontinuities that will have an adverse effect on the mechanical properties and their energy absorption capacity (crashworthiness). Anisotropic behavior exhibited by Al alloy extrusions has been documented due to the nature of the hot working process. In the present article an attempt is made in order to determine the main factors influencing bending properties in longitudinal and transverse to extrusion direction, which are also related with anisotropic behavior. Mechanical testing, microscopic examination and finite element analysis were applied in the frame of the current investigation. The findings were indicative that grain morphology and orientation (texture), especially on the surface zone of the extruded profiles, as well as morphology and distribution of the constituent particles are strongly related with formability.

Failure Mechanisms in Alloys

“…More specifically, the broad category of static overload includes more generic subjects also from the field of manufacturing-related topics, where the effect of deformation and fracture was studied as an important and undetached ingredient of the fabrication process per se (e.g., hot and cold working, machining). Therefore, the mostly "intense area" (Overload/Static) comprises studies concerning general deformation and fracture phenomena, as the result of instant loading/testing conditions [4,9,10,14,15,19] and studies related to manufacturing and production processes [6,7,12,13,16,20,22,25,26]. Testing and modeling procedures addressing the evolution of deformation and fracture during forming [7,13,26], the impact toughness, [4] and certain production process characteristics [25] are also included.…”

“…Therefore, the mostly "intense area" (Overload/Static) comprises studies concerning general deformation and fracture phenomena, as the result of instant loading/testing conditions [4,9,10,14,15,19] and studies related to manufacturing and production processes [6,7,12,13,16,20,22,25,26]. Testing and modeling procedures addressing the evolution of deformation and fracture during forming [7,13,26], the impact toughness, [4] and certain production process characteristics [25] are also included. Nevertheless, shear fracture processes that emerged in machining and chip formation are also part of this broader group of studies, relevant to manufacturing topics (see [12,16,20]).…”

“…(i) Casting and Metal Forming [6,7,11,13,15,19,[24][25][26] (ii) Machining [12,16,20] (iii) Chemical/Petrochemical [3,17,21,23] (iv) Heat Treatment [22] (v) General Plant Machinery [1,9,18,24] b. Fatigue and Cyclic Loading [8,9,18]; c. Corrosion and Environmentally Assisted Cracking [3,5,11,21]; d. Wear and Surface Degradation [1,24,27].…”

“…(i) Casting and Metal Forming [6,7,11,13,15,19,[24][25][26] (ii) Machining [12,16,20] (iii) Chemical/Petrochemical [3,17,21,23] (iv) Heat Treatment [22] (v) General Plant Machinery [1,9,18,24] The metal component manufacturing industry (casting, metal forming, and machining) seems to be highly involved, as one of the primary industrial component production sectors, in highlighting the efforts in understanding material behavior and taking actions for failure prediction and prevention.…”

Failure Mechanisms in Alloys

“…Combined (experimental, analytical, numerical model, etc.) [3,[6][7][8][12][13][14][15][16][18][19][20]22,25,26] As can be readily observed, the experimental and empirical approach is the dominant methodology of failure investigation. In addition, the emergence of numerical simulation, using finite element modeling (FEM), tends to be very popular in the prediction of material behavior and potential failure prevention.…”