Effect of Different Variants of Heat Treatment on Mechanical Properties of the AlSi17CuNiMg Alloy

Dispersion hardening, as the main heat treatment of silumins having additions of copper and magnesium, results in considerable increase of tensile strength and hardness, with simultaneous decrease of ductility of the alloy. In the paper is presented an attempt of introduction of heat treatment operation consisting in homogenizing treatment prior operation of the dispersion hardening, to minimize negative effects of the T6 heat treatment on plastic properties of hypereutectoidal AlSi17CuNiMg alloy. Tests of the mechanical properties were performed on a test pieces poured in standardized metal moulds. Parameters of different variants of the heat treatment, i.e. temperature and time of soaking for individual operations were selected basing on the ATD (Thermal Derivation Analysis) diagram and analysis of literature. The homogenizing treatment significantly improves ductility of the alloy, resulting in a threefold increase of the elongation and more than fourfold increase of the impact strength in comparison with initial state of the alloy. Moreover, the hardness and the tensile strength (R_m) of the alloy decrease considerably. On the other hand, combination of the homogenizing and dispersion hardening enables increase of elongation with about 40%, and increase of the impact strength with about 25%, comparing with these values after the T6 treatment, maintaining high hardness and slight increase of the tensile strength, comparing with the alloy after the dispersion hardening.