Study of deformability during the rolling of aluminum alloy 1580 doped with small additions of erbium and ytterbium

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the deformability of aluminum alloy 1580 during rolling, where scandium is partially replaced with small additions of erbium (Er) and ytterbium (Yb). The samples were ingots with a cross-section of 60 × 200 mm, obtained through casting in a semicontinuous casting installation. This work included the computer modeling of the hot and cold rolling processes of ingots in the Deform-3D program, which showed that the Cockcroft–Latham criterion could be used to predict correctly the amount of total reduction leading to the emergence of cracks during the hot and cold rolling of alloy 1580 doped with small additions of Er and Yb, as confirmed by the results of a physical experiment. The subsequent hot rolling of the ingots on a double-high mill 330 and then cold rolling on the MDM ARIETE LS 400 × 240 mill confirmed the plasticity of the alloy, determined by a virtual experiment, both during hot and cold rolling. Moreover, the mechanical properties of alloy 1580 with small additions of Er and Yb after annealing in the temperature range 250–400 °C practically corresponded to the properties of alloy 1580 of the grade composition. Therefore, its scandium content can be reduced over time by replacing it with Er and Yb.