On the Role of Al-B Master Alloy and Heat Treatment on Synergistic Improvement in Electrical Conductivity and Hardness of Al-Mg-Si Alloys

Abstract

Optimally higher electrical conductivity and strength are most sought after but difficult to achieve in electrical grade Al alloys. In our study, we have investigated the improvement in both the properties of Al-Mg-Si alloy by introducing Al-8%B and Al-10%B master alloys to reduce the influence of impurity transition metals. Additionally, we conducted a comprehensive analysis to compare the performance of Al-8%B and Al-10%B master alloys, evaluating their respective abilities in boron treatment. Further, the focus was on the improvement of electrical conductivity and hardness of these alloys through heat treatment. We observed that the electrical conductivity and hardness consistently increased to a specific temperature threshold and then decreased. Finally, the study proposes a simple and easy to implement approach to optimize the electrical conductivity and hardness of Al-Mg-Si alloys by performing heat treatment with suitable parameters. This approach is less energy intensive, scalable, and involved with less time consumption in comparison to other practiced approaches.