Recrystallization and crystallographic texture in AA4006 aluminum alloy sheets produced by twin roll caster and direct chill processes

Abstract

A recrystallization study of cold rolled metallic sheets is very important to evaluate the softening temperature for subsequent annealing. Crystallographic texture evolves during metal rolling and recrystallization. These processing steps can lead to an optimization of the grain orientation distribution in a metal strip and can improve, for instance, the stamping process, hence leading to a product with aggregated value. Softening curves were determined and compared for two sheets of the AA4006 aluminum alloy produced by the twin roll caster-TRC and by the direct chill-DC (under industrial process condition). It has been detected that the recrystallization of the strip produced by TRC process occurs at a higher temperature than the produced by DC process despite the little differences in their softening curves. The precipitation, in the TRC strip sample, occurs mainly before recrystallization and may occur during recrystallization. There is precipitation occurrence before and during recrystallization more expressive in the DC strip sample. Crystallographic texture of the sheet samples was obtained by X-ray diffraction and electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD) techniques. Results indicated the presence of a shear texture at the surface and β-fiber at the center of the cold rolled (70% area reduction) sample for the sheet produced by TRC process. In the strip sample obtained by the DC process, under the same conditions, the cube component and the β-fiber on the surface and at the center were observed. A random oriented grain texture has been detected in the two (TRC and DC) recrystallized (after cold rolling) sheet samples possibly due to the particle stimulated nucleation. The absence of β fiber in the recrystallized samples (TRC and DC) has also been observed.