The effects of artificial aging on wear properties of AA 6063 alloy

Wear behaviour of age-hardened 6063 aluminium alloy was evaluated under dry sliding conditions. A certain part of the aluminium samples was solution treated at 510degreesC for 2, 4, 6 and 8 h, water-quenched then aged at 180degreesC for 4 h, and the other part was solution treated at 510degreesC for 6 h, water-quenched then aged at 180degreesC for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 h in a muffle furnace. The as-cast and the aged samples were fully characterised before and after the wear testing using hardness, profilometer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy dispersive detector (EDS). The wear tests using on a pin-on-disc machine showed that the aging treatments improved the wear behaviour of AA 6063 alloy compared to as-cast samples. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.