Wear mechanisms of aluminum 5083/6061/7075 with and without T6 treatment

Abstract

The application of hardened aluminum alloys on the drive elements must be safe and reliable, T6 treatment is often used to improve their mechanical properties and dimensional stability. However, the impact of T6 treatment on operating life is not easy to evaluate. Hence, the effects of T6 treatment on the wear of aluminum 5083/6061/7075 were studied by a steel ball on disk tester. The results showed that T6 treatment tended to reduce the values of the friction coefficient about 9%. Moreover, T6 treatment had no significant effect on the frequency of the change of the friction coefficient of 5083 and 6061, but significantly affected that of 7075. T6 treatment can also reduce the size of wear particles about 16%. Based on the results, the wear mechanisms of aluminum 5083/6061/7075 with and without T6 treatment are described in this paper.