Influence of quench rate on multi-stage ageing of AA6014 alloy

The influence of quench rate after solution heat treatment on the microstructure in the as-quenched state and subsequent ageing kinetics of alloy AA6014 was investigated by means of transmission electron microscopy, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy and hardness measurements. Various ageing temperatures and stages were taken into consideration. Consistent with previous studies, we found that solute and vacancy supersaturation decrease during slow quenching due to precipitation and annihilation, respectively. Additionally, we observed cluster formation during cooling below 200 °C. As for the influence on ageing behaviour we observe different behaviour for high and low ageing temperature: Artificial ageing is more affected than pre-ageing and natural secondary ageing. The detrimental effect of natural ageing on paint-bake hardening also depends on the quench rate. Possible interpretations are associated with cluster formation during natural ageing and also during quenching. The influence of pre-ageing at different temperatures on subsequent ageing kinetics is similar for slower industrial-type quenching and for fast quenching, thus allowing to apply the findings from idealised quenching conditions to situations closer to real application