A Novel Processing For Manufacturing Of 6201 Aluminum Alloy Overhead Conductor

Al-Mg-Si alloy is a kind of thermo-mechanical treatment aluminum alloy with a compromise between high strength and electrical conductivity, which has been widely used for aluminum alloy overhead conductors. In this paper, aiming at the production status of the unmanageable online solid solution treatment of Al-Mg-Si alloy wire rod during continuous casting and rolling process and combining with the characteristics of horizontal continuous casting and continuous extrusion, a novel manufacturing for 6201 aluminum alloy conductor, which including horizontal continuous casting(HCC), Conform-continuous extrusion forming, drawing and followed by artificial aging, was put forward. The hot compressive deformation behavior of 6201 aluminum alloy rod produced by HCC was studied by Gleeble-1500, and then its optimum hot working parameters were determined. Meanwhile, the organization and mechanical performances of the alloy during the process of production was analyzed by optical microscope(OM), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), tensile test at room temperature, micro-hardness test and resistance performance test methods and so on. The study found that:(1) The flow stress of the HCC-6201 aluminum alloy decreased with the increase of deformation temperature(or the decrease of strain rate) during the hot compressive deformation with the deformation temperature range from 350 oC to 500 oC and the strain rate range from 0.01 s-1 to 10 s-1. The flow stress behavior of the alloy could be described by the Zener-Hollomon parameter Z in the hyperbolic sine equation. And the hot deformation activation energy of the alloy was 188.6k J/mol.(2) According to the dynamic model, the hot process maps were drew for the HCC-6201 aluminum alloy and the optimum deformation temperature and strain rate are 420~480 oC and 3.5-10 s-1, respectively.(3) The grain size ? grain appearance and crystal orientation of HCC-6201 aluminum alloy organization on cross section were different from that on longitudinal section. In addition, Conform-continuous extrusion changed the crystal orientation distribution of the alloy original organization and refine grain(4) Online fully solid solution treatment of Mg2 Si phase in 6201 aluminum alloy was effectively achieved between horizontal continuous casting process and continuous extrusion process.(5) The tensile strength, elongation and conductivity of the 6201 aluminum alloy conductor produced by HCC-Conform Process were 334.7 MPa, 6.0% and 55.7 %IACS, respectively, which could reach or exceed that of the conductor produced by the traditional process.