Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1480–1483

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

The effects of aging on machinability of 6061 aluminium alloy

Halil Demir a,1, Süleyman Gündüz b,*
a
Karabük University, Technical Education Faculty, Department of Mechanical Education, 78050 Karabük, Turkey
b
Karabük University, Technical Education Faculty, Department of Metal Education, 78050 Karabük, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the effect of artificial aging on the machinability of 6061 Al-alloy was investigated for the
Received 4 July 2008 as-received, solution heat treated (SHT) and solution heat treated and then aged (SHTA) conditions. The
Accepted 5 August 2008 experimental work has revealed that different aging times at 180 °C and the cutting speed significantly
Available online 12 August 2008
affected the machined surface roughness values. However, cutting forces were not influenced signifi-
cantly by aging and cutting speed except for SHT workpieces having the lowest hardness.
Keywords: Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Non-ferros metals and alloys (A)
Heat treatment (C)
Machinability (E)

1. Introduction aging’’, ‘‘age hardening’’ or just ‘‘aging’’ and is generally carried

out at temperatures up to approximately 200 °C (for 6000-alloys
In recent years, aluminum alloys have attracted attention of generally between 160 and 200 °C) [8–12].
many researchers, engineers and designers as promising structural Work to date has shown that little or no work has been carried
materials for automotive industry or aerospace applications. Espe- on machining of aluminum alloys aged at different temperatures or
cially, 6xxx aluminum alloys have been studied extensively be- times. Machining is one of the most important manufacturing pro-
cause of their benefits such as medium strength, formability, cesses and parts manufactured by casting, forming and various
weldability, corrosion resistance, and low cost, comparing to other other shaping processes often require a further machining opera-
aluminum alloys [1,2]. The 6061 Al-alloy has been used in the tion before the product is ready for use [13]. These operations
automotive industry for the fabrication of several types of automo- are generally necessary and often the most expensive part of the
bile parts, such as wheels, panels and even in the vehicle structure manufacture. Machinability, by definition, is a system property
[3–6]. It is expected that substitution of such aluminum alloys for that indicates how easily a material can be machined at low cost.
steels will result in great improvements in energy economy, recy- It may be described in terms of tool life, ease of metal removal
clability and life-cycle cost. However, it is necessary to improve the (i.e. cutting force and moment), and workpiece quality (i.e. heat
strength and the formability of aluminium alloys for further appli- build-up and surface finish) [14].
cations to the industries [7]. It is assumed that the solution heat treated Al-alloys possess
The properties of various aluminium alloys can be altered by different mechanical properties that contribute to different
specific designated heat treatment. Some aluminium alloys can machinability properties. This study investigated the effect of dif-
be solution treated to increase their strength and hardness. The ferent aging times at 180 °C on the cutting forces and surface
heat treatment process can be classified into two processes, includ- roughness when turning six 6061 Al-alloy workpieces under
ing solution heat treatment and artificial aging. This consists of as-received, solution heat treated (SHT), solution heat treated
heating the alloy to a temperature between 460 and 530 °C at and aged (SHTA) conditions.
which all the alloying elements are in solution. By heating the solu-
tion heat-treated material to a temperature above room tempera-
ture and holding it there, the precipitation accelerates and the 2. Materials and experimental procedure
strength is further increased compared to natural aging and
accompanied by a clear drop in ductility. This is called ‘‘artificial The as-received 6061 Al-alloy used in this study was supplied in
the form of 50 mm diameter and 1200 mm length billets. Its chem-
ical composition in weight percentage is 1.08 Si, 0.070 Mg,
0.018 Mn, 0.015 Cu, 0.25 Fe, 0.01 Zn, 0.08 Cr, 0.01 Ti. Initially,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 370 4338200; fax: +90 370 4338204.
E-mail addresses: halil.demir@yahoo.com (H. Demir), sgunduz1@gmail.com
6061 Al-alloy was cut into 150 mm length and 6 workpieces were
(S. Gündüz). obtained. In order to preserve the super saturated solid solution at
1
Tel.: +90 370 4338200; fax: +90 370 4338204. room temperature, all the 6061 Al-alloy workpieces except those

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2008.08.007
 H. Demir, S. Gündüz / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1480–1483 1481

in the as-received condition were solution heat treated at 530 °C 110

4
for 4 h followed by quenching in water at room temperature. After
solution heat treatment, all the 6061 Al-alloy workpieces were 100
3
kept in a freezer. This is very important to avoid the natural aging
5
of the alloy at room temperature.

Hardness (HV 0.5)

90
Following the solution heat treatment, the workpieces were
artificially age hardened at 180 °C for a period of 1, 5, 11 and 1-Solution HeatTreaed(SHT)
80 2-SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 1h.
24 h in a furnace and subsequently cooled in air. Finally, the 3-SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 5h.
machining tests were performed by single point continuous turn- 4-SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 11h.
5-SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 24h.
ing of the as-received, solution heat treated (SHT) and solution 70 2

heat treated and aged (SHTA) workpieces in cylindrical form on a

Johnford TC35 CNC turning centre, with a variable spindle speed 60
of up to 4000 rpm and a power rating of 10 kW. The workpieces 1
were 150 mm long and 50 mm diameter. 50
The turning tests were carried out using triple layer coated ce-
mented carbide cutting tool. The cutting tool used was commercial Fig. 1. Hardness values of the SHT and SHTA test pieces.
grade CVD multi-layer coated cemented carbide inserts produced
by Kennametal with the geometry of CCGT120404. These inserts
are recommended for machining nonferrous materials by Kenna- The strengthening effect of 6061 Al-alloy could also be ex-
metal and had KC 313 Kennametal designations. These inserts plained as a result of interference with the motion of dislocation
were clamped mechanically on a rigid tool holder. As far as possi- due to the presence of foreign particle of any other phase. Further
ble, the tests were carried out in accordance with ISO 3685. Cutting increase in the aging time to 24 h at 180 °C decreases the hardness
speeds used were ranged from 200 to 500 m/min. The cutting of the alloy. This could be due to coalescence of the precipitates
speed was increased in steps of 75 m/min. Feed rate and depth of into larger particles which will cause fewer obstacles to the move-
cut were kept fixed, 0.1 mm/rev and 1 mm, respectively. ment of dislocation, and also due to annealing out of the defects. In
Surface roughness measurement was carried out on the ma- the case of the ternary Al–Mg–Si alloys without excess of Si, previ-
chined surfaces using a Mitutoyo Surftest 211 instrument. Three ous TEM works [17,18] showed that the precipitation sequence is
measurements were made on the each surface. Cutting force was rather well established and can be described as follows: supersat-
measured with a Kistler 9257A three component piezoelectric urated solid solution ? GP zones ? needle shaped precipitates
dynamometer and associated 5019 B130 charge amplifiers con- aligned along [1 0 0] directions of the matrix and coherent with
nected to a PC employing Kistler Dynoware force measurement the matrix along their major axes (b00 phase) ? rod-shaped
software. Measurements were made during machining of 25 mm precipitates semi-coherent with the matrix (b0 phase) ? plate-
length on the 50 mm diameter workpiece specimen. shaped equilibrium precipitates (b phase of Mg2Si composition).
Microhardness measurements tests were also carried out to 6061 Al-alloy used in this investigation contains 0.070 Mg and
investigate the mechanisms responsible for artificial aging. The 0.015 Cu in weight percentage. Therefore, the increase in hardness
aged samples were ground with SiC paper and hardness measure- after aging at 18 °C for 5 or 11 h could be cooperative precipitation
ments were carried out using a Micro Vickers Hardness (HMV) of Al2Cu and Mg2Si phase particles. Tash et al. [14] investigated the
instrument with 500 g load and a dwell time of 15 s. Four hardness effect of metallurgical parameters on the drilling performance of
readings were performed per sample and they were averaged. heat treated Al-alloys containing Mg and Cu in different propor-
tions. They showed that aging at 180 °C for 2 h resulted in an in-
3. Results and discussion crease in hardness due to the coherency of CuAl2 (h0 ) plates and
Mg2Si (b0 ) needles; at 220 °C, however, there was incoherent equi-
3.1. Effect of metallurgical parameters librium of b (Mg2Si) and CuAl2 (h) phases, and thus the hardness
was reduced.
Heat treatment is one of the most important controlling factors Turning tests were carried out on the as-received, SHT and
used to enhance the mechanical properties and machinability of SHTA workpieces with different hardness values resulted from dif-
cast Al–Si alloys, through optimization of both the solution and ferent aging procedures after solution heat treatment. Primary cut-
aging heat treatments given to such alloys. Hardness is one of ting force components developed during machining tests were
the most important metallurgical parameters that can control the recorded and workpiece surface roughness values were deter-
alloy machinability. In fact, aluminum alloys differ from many mined after the tests. Cutting forces and surface roughness are
other metals in that the machinability of aluminum generally im- among the most important machinability criteria.
proves as the hardness increases [15].
Fig. 1 shows the hardness as a function of artificial aging time 3.2. Cutting forces
for SHT and SHTA workpieces. The hardness of the 6061 Al-alloy,
immediately after solutionizing is as low as 56 HMV but a contin- The influence of aging time of 6061 Al-alloy workpieces and of
uous and pronounced increase in hardness with the increase in cutting speeds on cutting forces was determined by machinability
aging time at 180 °C is observed as seen in Fig. 1. The alloy achieves tests through single point turning method. The cutting force values
its maximum hardness at 180 °C when aged for 11 h. An increase in obtained from these tests are shown in Fig. 2. From the obtained
hardness could be explained by diffusion assisted mechanism, and cutting force values, it is seen that the cutting forces drop generally
also by hindrance of dislocation by impurity atoms, i.e. foreign par- with increasing cutting speed for all the workpieces. These drops in
ticle of second phase, since the material after quenching from the forces are partly caused by a decrease in tool-chip contact area
530 °C (solution heat treatment) will have excessive vacancy con- and partly by a drop in shear strength in the flow-zone as the tem-
centration. Rafiq et al. [16] showed that as the aging time and tem- perature rises with increasing cutting speed [19]. The drops in the
perature increases, the density of GP zones will also increase. cutting forces with increasing cutting speed up to 350 m/min are
Hence, the degree of irregularity in the lattices will cause an in- relatively much. However, the rate of drops decreases when the
crease in the mechanical properties of the Al-alloy. cutting speed is further increased beyond 350 m/min.
1482 H. Demir, S. Gündüz / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1480–1483

105 piece ductility increases BUE formation tendency [20]. BUE formed
As-received
Solution Heat Treaed (SHT) at the cutting tool edge during machining causes a poor surface fin-
100 SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 1h. ish due to its unstable manner [21]. Therefore, when the BUE is
SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 5h.
SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 11h. large and unstable at low cutting speed, surface roughness value
Cutting Force (N)

95 SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 24h. increases and a poor surface is formed. When the cutting speed
is increased, BUE formation tendency decreases due to increasing
90 tool-chip interface temperature and this causes lower workpiece
surface roughness values. Increasing surface roughness with
85 increasing cutting speed beyond 350 m/min can be attributed to
the chipping of the cutting edge at 425 and 500 m/min cutting
80 speeds.
The effect of different aging times at 180 °C on surface rough-
75 ness of the as-received, SHT and SHTA workpieces is seen clearly
175 200 225 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 425 450 475 500
when machining at 200 m/min cutting speed, Fig. 3. The surface
Cutting Speed (m/min) roughness values of workpieces aged at 180 °C for 5 and 11 h
which have relatively higher hardness values are lower than those
Fig. 2. The effect of different conditions and cutting speeds on cutting forces of
6061 Al-alloy.
of lower hardness workpieces.
Generally, similar and lower surface roughness values are ob-
tained when machining workpiece aged at 180 °C for 11 h at all
the cutting speeds, Fig. 3. This can be explained by its highest hard-
2.4
As-received
ness value as the result of aging heat treatment and easy disposal
Solution Heat Treaed (SHT) of the chips during machining. Artificial aging, generates precipi-
2.3 tates that cause considerable hardening in aluminum alloys [22].
SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 1h.
Surface Roughness (µm)

SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 5h. When machining the other workpieces which had lower hardness
2.2
SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 11h. values, the chips formed during machining were seen to be entan-
SHT and Aged at 180ºC for 24h.
2.1
gled around the machined workpiece and cutting tool. These
entangled chips were considered to cause a poor surface finish
2 by scratching the newly machined workpiece surface. Disposal of
the chips during machining of ductile materials which cause long
1.9 chips is one of the main problems encountered. Overaging of work-
piece aged at 180 °C for 24 h resulted in lower hardness value and
1.8
this, in turn, increased its surface roughness value when compared
to workpieces aged at 180 °C for 5 and 11 h, respectively at 200 and
1.7
175 200 225 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 425 450 475 500 275 m/min cutting speeds.
Cutting Speed (m/min)

Fig. 3. The influence of cutting speeds and aging time on the machined test piece 4. Conclusions
surface roughness values.
In this work, the machinability behaviour of solution heat trea-
The variation in the cutting forces depending on the workpiece ted (SHT) and solution heat treated and aged (SHTA) 6061 Al-alloy
aging heat treatment is not very prominent. The most prominent was studied in artificially aged conditions. Turning tests were per-
variation is seen at low cutting speeds in the machining of SHT formed on the as-received, SHT and SHTA workpieces using multi-
workpieces which had the lowest hardness among the others due layer coated cemented carbide tools. The conclusions derived from
to quenching after solution heat treatment. During quenching, this study can be given as follows:
Mg–Si is retained in solution. Therefore, the Al phase would con-
tain Mg–Si in a supersaturated solid solution at room temperature. 1. An increase in hardness of SHT and SHTA 6061 Al-alloy with
Machining of this workpiece resulted in lower cutting forces than increase in aging time at 180 °C can be explained by a diffusion
did the others at lower cutting speeds. These lower forces for this assisted mechanism which causes an increase in the density of
workpiece can be explained by the low cutting speeds and its low GP zones, distortion of lattice planes and hindering of disloca-
hardness. Low cutting speed together with low hardness, which tion movement by the impurity atoms. The strengthening effect
means high ductility, promotes built-up edge (BUE) formation dur- can also be as a result of interference with the motion of dislo-
ing cutting. The presence of BUE at the cutting edge, in turn, re- cation, due to the formation of precipitates. Further increase in
duces the cutting forces as it decreases the contact area on aging time decreases the hardness of the alloy. This could be
cutting tool rake angle [19]. due to coalescence of the precipitates into larger particles
which will cause fewer obstacles to the movement of disloca-
3.3. Surface roughness tion and hence the hardness starts to decrease.
2. The variation in the cutting forces depending on the workpiece
The influence of cutting speeds and aging time on the machined aging heat treatment is not very prominent. The most promi-
workpiece surface roughness values (Ra) is given in Fig. 3. These nent variation is seen at low cutting speeds in the machining
values are the averages of three readings for each cutting condi- of SHT workpieces which had the lowest hardness among the
tion. When the surface roughness curves in Fig. 3 are examined others due to quenching after solution heat treatment. The cut-
generally, it is seen that surface roughness values decrease with ting forces drop generally with increasing cutting speed for all
increasing cutting speed up to 350 m/min beyond which they in- the workpieces. These drops in the forces are partly caused by
crease. Decreasing surface roughness values with increasing cut- a decrease in tool-chip contact area and partly by a drop in
ting speed can be explained by decreasing BUE formation shear strength in the flow-zone as the temperature rises with
tendency with increasing cutting speed. Relatively higher work- increasing cutting speed
 H. Demir, S. Gündüz / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1480–1483 1483

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