Solution and precipitation effects on hot workability of 6201 alloy

Hot torsion tests were conducted in the ranges 300–500°C and 0.1–4 s−1 on Al–0.8 Mg–0.7Si after either solution treatment at 500°C or precipitation at 300°C. The dependence of flow stress and ductility on temperature and strain rate were determined and the data fitted to a sinh-Arrhenius equation. Compared to material subjected to overaging precipitation, the solution treated material had a higher initial flow stress below 500°C and a more refined substructure, which resulted in additional shear banding. This behavior is compared to results in other Al–Mg–Si alloys in which solutioned alloys showed very high peak stresses near 300°C, which could be attributed to dynamic precipitation.