Processing and performance of electromagnetic deformation combined with heat treatment of 2195 Al-Li alloy

In this paper, the electromagnetic deformation combined with heat treatment (ET) process was studied, which was meaningful for the forming of high performance Al-Li alloy sheet metal parts. In the ET process, the annealed sheet was firstly subjected to solution treatment, electromagnetic deformation. and artificial age until it reaches the peak aging state. Compared with the traditional T6 heat treatment, the time efficiency of the ET process is significantly improved, and the mechanical properties of the specimen are enhanced. The ET process only takes 6 hours to reach the peak aging, and the time efficiency of precipitate strengthening is reached up to 4 times compared with the T6 process. At the same time, the mechanical properties of the ET specimen are higher than the T6 one, an increase of 17.6% in Vickers hardness. Moreover, the mechanism of higher time efficiency and mechanical properties of the ET process is revealed. It is found that a high density of cellular dislocations and sub-grain were introduced during the electromagnetic deformation process, which is conducive to the nucleation and growth of the T1 precipitate during artificial aging. The T1 precipitates of the ET specimen are more dispersed and finer.