Recrystallization textures and plastic anisotropy in Al-Mg-Si sheet alloys

Textures, plastic anisotropy and mechanical properties of 1 mm sheets from four different AA6xxx Al-Mg-Si alloys were investigated. The materials were exposed to different thermomechanical treatments in order to vary the state of supersaturation and precipitation prior to the final cold rolling. The textures of the sheets were controlled by the recrystallization mechanisms occurring in the final solution heat treatment. The observed texture components could be interpreted on the basis of a competition between the Cube-oriented grains and grains formed by particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) under consideration of the variation in particle size and distribution due to the different pre-annealing treatments. In particular, the formation of finely dispersed precipitates was found to strongly affect the resulting recrystallization textures. For the recrystallized sheets, the anisotropic properties were measured. The Lankford parameter R could be predicted by the classical Taylor model. The earing behaviour was predicted by Tucker's model for the main recrystallization texture components. The resulting earing profiles could be explained by a superposition of the characteristic earing effects caused by the individual texture components.