Processing of aluminium alloys by equal channel angular drawing at room temperature

The equal channel angular drawing (ECAD) process is an innovative method that allows continuous processing of alloys. The material is drawn through two intersecting channels at an angle commonly between 90 and 135°. The equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) process—in which the material is extruded instead of drawn—has been extensively studied in the literature in contrast with the ECAD process because of its novelty. In this work, the effect of different processing ways through the ECAD process and the heat treatment are analysed. This work shows the results obtained when the 1370 aluminium alloy is processed, at room temperature, with N=5 (N, number of passes), through two different routes. The experimental results confirm the refinement in final grain sizes in relation to the starting material.